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MSN is working with Mexican and international stakeholders to tackle widespread systemic barriers to workers' rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining in Mexico and the failure of Mexican government institutions to protect and enforce this fundamental right at the workplace.
One of the biggest obstacles to freedom of association for workers in Mexico is the prevalence of "protection contracts," collective agreements negotiated between employers and "official" unions or corrupt lawyers, which serve to "protect" the employer from the emergence of truly representative and democratic trade unions and genuine negotiations to improve wages and working conditions. Protection contracts are negotiated without the knowledge and/or consent of workers and are often in place in a factory even prior to the hiring of workers. Mexican labour rights experts estimate that the vast majority of collective bargaining agreements in the country are in fact protection contracts.
MSN is a member of the International Campaign Against Protection Contracts. The Campaign includes Mexican academics, NGOs and democratic trade unions such as the Authentic Labour Front (FAT), the National Union of Workers (UNT), and the Mexican Telephone Workers' Union (STRM). It also includes MSN and various international trade union organizations, such as the International Metalworkers' Federation (IMF), the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), United Steelworkers (USW), and the Dutch Trade Union Federation (FNV).
MSN is also working with multi-national companies who source from Mexico to promote a positive climate for freedom of association within factories producing their goods and to eradicate protection contracts from their supply chains. Some of the proactive steps international companies can take include mapping the presence of protection contracts in supplier factories, promoting worker awareness of the presence of protection contracts and their rights at work, improving auditing to find and address obstacles to freedom of association and collective bargaining, and more.
More from MSN about protection contracts, freedom of association in Mexico, and what we are doing to promote this fundamental right:
On January 30, 8,000 workers at the Arneses y Accesorios de México auto parts factory in Cuidad Acuña were informed by their employer that the company had signed a collective bargaining agreement with the Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM), without their prior knowledge or consent.
A tale of worker organizing, vultures, corruption ... and time travel.
Thanks to strong national and international opposition, proposed labour law reforms that would severely erode workers' rights in Mexico have been delayed. The independent trade union movement in Mexico has been denouncing proposed labour law reforms that would, amongst other things, encourage even more precarious work arrangements, uphold the use of "protection contracts" and enable further weakening of unions and denial of legal entitlements through the use of outsourcing, subcontracting, and temporary contracts for young workers.
In recent years the few genuinely independent trade unions seeking to improve the lives of Mexican workers have found themselves increasingly under fire. This February, trade unions in Canada and around the world joined in actions to support the independent trade union movement in Mexico and the right of Mexican workers to be represented by the union of their free choice. MSN has supported the days of action, working with Canadian and international trade unions to draw attention to continuing violations of the right to freedom of association in Mexico.
On December 20, 2010, unidentified robbers broke into the offices of the Worker Support Centre (CAT), a labour rights organization that has been supporting organizing efforts at two Johnson Controls, Inc. (JCI) factories in Puebla, Mexico, and ransacked the office, destroying equipment and causing more than 200,000 pesos (US$ 16,500) in damage.
Part of MSN's work in Freedom of Association has focused on engaging international brands. Our strategy has been to leverage brand pressure on suppliers to achieve greater respect and a more positive climate for freedom of association in their Mexican supply chains.
To this end MSN has developed a Freedom of Association in Mexico Tool Kit, which sets out how brands can strengthen their FOA policies, auditing procedures and corrective action plans, as well as communication with vendors, suppliers and licensees on those policies and expectations.
Since 2007, MSN has been actively involved in an international campaign to push Milwaukee-based auto parts manufacturing company Johnson Controls Inc. (JCI) to respect the rights of workers in their Puebla, Mexico plants.
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