Mexican Workers Are Rejecting Company Unions
Mexican autoworkers in the city of Emiliano Zapata’s burial just voted to join a new independent union, breaking from the company-friendly unions that dominate the country.
Workers from the Independent Union of Free and Democratic Workers of Saint-Gobain Mexico delivering the petition for union recognition to the company. June 27, 2022. (Sindicato LIBRE E independiente / Facebook)
Workers who produce glass for automakers including Ford, Volkswagen, and Tesla at a big auto glass plant in Mexico are pushing for a new contract, after forming an independent union despite threats of violence from a powerful, employer-friendly union.
The factory, owned by the French multinational Saint-Gobain, employs 1,900 workers. It’s located in Cuautla, Morelos — the city in south-central Mexico where the revolutionary Emiliano Zapata is buried.
Last September, workers there voted to join the new Independent Union of Free and Democratic Workers of Saint-Gobain Mexico and leave a union affiliated with the Confederation of Workers and Peasants (CTC).
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