Strike breaks out at Canadian company Linamar; they refuse to negotiate CCT

Mexico City. More than a thousand Linamar workers went on strike on Monday because the Canadian company refuses to negotiate a collective agreement (CCT) that would improve their benefits and to recognize the National Miners’ Union, led by Senator Napoleón Gómez Urrutia, as the holder of the agreement.

The workers claimed that their collective bargaining agreement has not been reviewed for six years and instead the company insists on signing one with the employers’ union of the Autonomous Federation of Independent Trade Unions in Mexico (FASIM), so at 7:00 a.m. they placed red and black flags at the entrances to the plant, located in Gómez Palacio, Durango, a Canadian automotive parts manufacturer.

Valentín Vidaurri Zepeda, Secretary of Organization and Propaganda of the National Executive Committee of the miners’ union, said that after various hearings in the labor court and despite having the certificate of representation issued by the Federal Labor Center, Linamar refused to negotiate the collective agreement with this union organization.

In fact, he said in an interview, the request was made to sign the CCT with the National Miners’ Union with the current salary and benefits, and it will be reviewed until January of next year, but the company wanted the employers’ union.

“In order to avoid a strike, we dropped many of the demands we had in the collective agreement. We asked that only the company sign it with what was already being paid and that we review it until January of next year, but they refused,” he said.

“Linamar workers demand that our right to freedom of association be respected in accordance with ILO Conventions 98 and 87,” the workers claim on one of the banners they hung.