Mexican Cabinet Members Say Labor Law Revisions Progressing
Mexico's cabinet members in charge of implementing labor law changes and managing the USMCA more broadly said they are helping the private sector evaluate whether businesses could be a target of the rapid response mechanism, and they are working on the four-year process of democratizing labor unions in the country. Labor Secretary Luisa Maria Alcalde de Lujan said new laws include eliminating the former arbitration system, which was part of the executive branch, and creating a system of labor judges.
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She said that under the current system, it takes four to 10 years to resolve conflicts. “Workers didn't want to present their legal claims because they knew it would take this long,” she said in Spanish during a Wilson Center webinar Sept. 29. However, workers will be required to try a conciliation process first, which she said she hopes will bring compromises that make both employers and unions feel as if they get wins. “If conciliation doesn’t work, we run the risk of clogging the courts,” she said.
Alcalde said all the union contracts will have to be registered at the federal level. She noted that 86% of the nearly federally registered 1,800 contracts preserve labor rights under the new constitution, but fewer than 10% of the approximately 14,000 registered with states follow the labor law. In the first year of a four-year process, 177 new contracts have been ratified, where workers were able to read the contracts and register their approval in a secret vote.
Protection contracts, where a union leader signs a contract with a business without asking if the workers approve it, are extremely common in Mexico, she said, and those contracts might have been signed many years ago. Each will have to be either legitimized, with at least 30% of workers saying that's the contract they want, or terminated. She said any contract that has not gone through this process by May 1, 2023, will automatically be invalidated.
Economy Secretary Graciela Marquez Colin said that the government is working closely with the private sector to help businesses recognize if they need to change how they operate so that they don't become targets of the facility-based rapid response mechanism. “Labor is at the forefront of the regional trade agenda,” she said in English. “Not because we are expecting a lot of demands, but it’s just because we just need to be prepared and to be ready.”
Marquez was asked when Mexico expects to get its first complaint through the mechanism. She said that while press reports say it could come very soon, she has had no notification, despite talking with the Office of U.S. Trade Representative or Commerce Department daily about auto rules of origin, the labor chapter, trade facilitation or other matters. “When to expect it? I should say never,” she said. “We think we have been working to comply with the commitments.” But if a complaint is launched, Mexico will be ready to act promptly to evaluate if workers' rights are being violated.
Alcalde was asked about Susana Prieto, a lawyer who advocated for workers and is now banned from traveling to Tamaulipas, a state where she advocated for workers who conducted wildcat strikes at export-oriented factories and gained substantial wage increases.
That region is last of the four in the timeline to legitimize contracts.
Alcalde said Mexico does not have federal judges in place yet to take up Prieto's case, but she noted that the president received Prieto in Mexico City and guaranteed the lawyer would not be persecuted for her union activism. Alcalde said that the government is doing all the necessary follow-up to ensure that workers in those factories pick the union they want to represent them.
She acknowledged that every change brings resistance, but said Mexico's administration is convinced “that this reform will better working conditions and increase salaries.” She noted that 18% and 20% minimum wage increases in two years added up to more wage growth than there had been in 35 years. It's an administration priority to strengthen workers' voices and make their lives better. “It’s not just legal, it’s also a cultural change,” she said.