Although the law is violated, unions insist on placing posters in works

Jared Laureles and Jessica Xantomila

La Jornada newspaper
Saturday, April 19, 2025, p. 7

Unions continue to place posters and plaques in construction works with which they insist on awarding the control of workers without their consent, although it is a prohibited practice throughout the country in accordance with the Federal Labor Law (LFT).

Among the union organizations that incur this illegality They are, among others, unions affiliated with the Confederations of Workers of Mexico (CTM), revolutionary of workers and peasants (CROC), Independence Union and Confederation Freedom of Workers of Mexico, among others.

An example that illustrates this problem is in Mexico City, where in several colonies and main avenues where housing complexes or departments are built, ads are observed in which “this work is completely controlled by…” determined union.

After the entry into force of the 2019 labor reform, the practice of placing signs of this type is illegalgiven that attentive against the freedom of workers and limits their ability to choose to its union representatives or to belong to an organization, according to the agency.

According to the LFT, any union organization that intends to represent workers in remodeling and construction works of some enclosure, has to count on the constancy of representativeness with which it must prove at least 30 percent of the support of the workers; This will allow you to negotiate a collective contract.

In March 2023, the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare (STPS) launched the campaign against the simulation of unions in the construction industry; With the motto It is prohibited emphasized that they cannot Use unions as private businesses neither extortion in exchange for fees to let work.

However, six years after the labor reform and two of the campaign, the problem persists without the STPS presenting its results.

Dependency information, prepared with IMSS data, says that last March there were a million 747 thousand 962 workers with social security in the construction industry.

The coordinator of the Center for Labor Research and Trade Union Advice, Héctor de la Cueva, said that these trade organizations, instead of unionizing employees, They act as contractors And they affiliate them necessarily and without his consent, as a condition to work on a certain work.