Volkswagen Mexico union agrees to 10.59% increase

After two months of negotiations, the Independent Union of Workers in the Automotive, Similar and Related Industries of Volkswagen of Mexico (SITIAVW) and the German automaker based in Puebla reached a preliminary agreement consisting of a global increase proposal of 10.59 percent.

The proposal involves a 7 percent direct increase in salary and 3.59 percent in benefits, according to information from the union.

In an interview with La Jornada, Hugo Tlalpan Luna, the new general secretary of SITIAVW, pointed out that the proposal must be submitted to a consultation of more than 7,200 workers in the coming days, so that through a personal, free, direct and secret vote they can decide whether or not to approve the new working conditions.

Regarding the strike scheduled for 11 a.m. tomorrow, Sunday, he pointed out that an extension was requested in order to resolve the consultation within the next 10 days.

“Once the review process is over, an extension is requested to comply with the law. So, there are practically 10 days to carry out the consultation, we have a maximum of 30 days to request an extension, and during that time the consultation is carried out. The worker base will be the one to decide if they agree with this pre-agreement, and if not, we would have to sit down again with the company to renegotiate the agreement,” explained the SITAVW leader.

After negotiations continued until dawn on Saturday at the Federal Center for Conciliation and Labor Registration, where the agreement to modify the collective labor contract (CCT) was signed, Tlalpan Luna highlighted that among the most important points was the salary increase for some technical workers.

The reduction and standardisation of promotion periods was also included, from 12 to nine months, and the savings fund was increased by 0.5 per cent.

Regarding the company’s proposal to modify 40 of the 86 clauses of the CCT, the general secretary of SITAVW indicated that the car manufacturer was seeking to “repeal” some of them and create eight new ones.

However, “we managed to get the company to back down and fortunately (some clauses) were modified, but for the good of the workforce,” he said.

For its part, Volkswagen de México stated that with the agreement that benefits more than 7,000 unionized workers at the plant in Puebla, we not only protect the purchasing power of families and preserve job stability, but we also reaffirm our long history of productive work with the representation of workers; our respect for free association and collective bargaining.”

“This first negotiation exercise with a new representation of Volkswagen de México workers was characterized by respect and dialogue between the parties. We recognize the SITIAVW commission as a professional team of men and women who, together with the company’s multidisciplinary group, successfully conducted these talks,” said Ricardo Guerrero Ayala, Vice President of Human Resources at Volkswagen de México.

The 2024 salary-contractual review at Volkswagen Mexico began on June 18, when its union submitted its petition in which they initially requested a 24 percent increase, divided into 21 percent direct to salary and 3 percent in benefits.

The union later reduced its request to 20 percent, while the automaker offered 6.5 percent.

It should be remembered that in the 2023 salary review, the increase that was approved was 8.6 percent, of which 8.1 percent went to salary and 0.5 percent to the savings fund.

Among the 40 clauses proposed by the company were, for example, reducing the payment of Christmas bonuses by one day, from 58 to 57 days, and eliminating support for the death of a close family member.