An independent union at General Motors in Silao, Mexico, has ratified its first contract, with an 8.5 percent wage hike and benefit improvements—outstripping recent wage increases at other Mexican auto plants.
The contract comes after workers voted last year by more than 3 to 1 to be represented by the National Independent Union for Workers in the Automotive Industry (SINTTIA) workers, ousting an employer-friendly union affiliated with the Confederation of Mexican Workers. The CTM has long dominated the Mexican labor movement and signed bad contracts behind workers' backs.
“We obtained good results for our first negotiations,” said SINTTIA President Alejandra Morales.
Silao workers in the central Mexican state of Guanajuato build the highly profitable Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups. Yet their wages and benefits have lagged far behind those achieved by independent unions at the Volkswagen and Nissan plants in Mexico—and even those signed by CTM affiliates at GM’s two other Mexican assembly plants. Before the new contract was signed, the Silao workers earned about $2 an hour on average.
Morales said the new contract brings them close to the level of GM’s San Luis Potosí plant, although wages still lag behind the GM factory in Ramos Arizpe.
“It’s a big step forward, although of course the workers had hoped for more, because the conditions in that plant have been terrible,” said Héctor de la Cueva, coordinator of the Center for Labor Research and Union Advice...
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