MEXICO CITY, Jan 21, The United Auto Workers UAW union on Friday pressed General Motors and Mexican officials to step up efforts to make sure workers at a pick-up truck plant in central Mexico can vote on a new union next month.
The election will allow some 7,000 workers to choose among four new unions in the city of Silao, in line with the Mexican labor reform aimed at ensuring freedom of association, a key tenet of a new trade deal with the United States and Canada.
A vote last year on the collective contract was marred by irregularities, including destroyed ballots, prompting the U.S. government to demand more scrutiny in a formal complaint from the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement USMCA Workers, which eventually voted to dissolve the contract, opening the door to elect a new union.
For decades, workers at companies in Mexico have been subject to intimidation due to their union votes and efforts to organize.
Curry's remarks were echoed by the U.S. labor federation AFL-CIO, Canadian union Unifor and Italian metalworkers union FIOM in recent days.
AFL-CIO said this week that they were concerned about the lack of protection for workers' rights inside the GM plant.
GM did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
In September, U.S. officials closed the site, https://www.reuters.com. The GM complaint about last year's vote, but the U.S. Department of Labor and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative are still tracking the issue, according to a report this week from a U.S. government labor committee.