Jared Laureles
The newspaper La Jornada
Sunday, August 18, 2024, p. 12
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 the union, which considered the agreement as a historic achievement
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In an interview with The DayHugo Tlalpan Luna, the new general secretary of Sitiavw, announced that the offer must be submitted to consultation of more than 7,200 workers in the coming days, so that through a personal, free, direct and secret vote they decide whether or not to approve the new working conditions.
Meanwhile, the strike scheduled for 11 a.m. on Sunday has been extended to September 9, in order to ease the electoral process, according to official sources.
Once the review is over, an extension is requested to comply with the law. So there are practically 10 days to carry out the consultation. 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 a union leader.
After negotiations continued into the early hours of yesterday 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 some technical workers were able to get a salary increase.
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 Sitiavw assured that it was achieved They will be modified (some clauses), but for the good of the worker base
.
For its part, Volkswagen of Mexico explained that with the agreement Not only do we protect the purchasing power of families and preserve job stability, but we also endorse our long history of productive work with the representation of workers; our respect for free association and collective bargaining.
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The 2024 salary-contractual review at Volkswagen Mexico began on June 18, when its employees’ association submitted its petition in which they initially requested a 24 percent increase, divided into 21 percent direct to salary and 3 percent in benefits.
It is worth remembering that in last year’s salary review, the increase approved was 8.6 percent, of which 8.1 percent went to salary and 0.5 percent to the savings fund.
