Mexican union vote halted at GM plant; vote fixing alleged

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico faced its biggest challenge yet Friday to labor-freedom reforms under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement after an old-guard union was caught apparently destroying negative ballots at a General Motors plant in northern Mexico.

Labor Secretary Luisa Maria Alcalde said the vote tampering at the pickup truck and transmission factories in the northern city of Silao were a sign that some union leaders “haven’t gotten the message” that they can no longer operate behind the backs of workers.

“There is resistance; some people haven’t gotten the message. They don’t understand that the rights of workers are going to be respected and they are the ones who are going to decide,” Alcalde said.

The vote was a test of Mexico’s commitment to enforce re-votes on union representation required as part of the trade agreement, known as the USMCA. Under the agreement, Mexico agreed to reform its labor laws to guarantee secret-ballot votes on union representation and contracts.

Previously, such votes had been held by show of hands, or not at all. Workers at many factories in Mexico were unaware they even had a union until they saw dues deducted from their paychecks.

Alcalde acknowledged that in the past there was an “enormous presence of protection contracts,” in which corrupt Mexican unions signed low-wage contracts behind workers’ backs, often before plants were even opened.

Critics say Mexico’s low wages have played a big role in luring manufacturing jobs south, especially in the auto industry.

But what happened Wednesday night on the third day of voting by the 6,494 employees at the Silao GM plants appeared to show that some unions, like the old-guard Confederation of Mexican Workers, or CTM, are still trying to rely on old...