An incomplete reform
What survived was the worst of flexibilization of labor with union corporatism
Mexico’s labor laws needed reform, since production and economic systems have changed in the past four decades. During that period, the phenomenon of globalization emerged and transfers of investment capital, among other factors, led to the flexibilization of the labor market. Experience says these policies already negatively impact the labor sector, taking away protections and resources.
However, in Mexico the results are twice as bad for workers. This is because of the incestuous relationship that the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) has with the unions and the will of the National Action Party (PAN) to pass a reform that helps the business sector no matter what, even if it means defending the corrupt practices of Mexican unions.
In short, the intentions of openness and transparency for the labor movement were diluted, reformed and eliminated by the PRI with the PAN’s complicity.
For example, in elections of union leaders, efforts to ensure that voting is “free, direct and secret” were thwarted. The requirement for the unions to be accountable to their members was watered down. And two clauses that would have given workers the opportunity to vote on collective bargaining contracts and choose the union they want to represent them were eliminated outright and postponed for another time.
The labor reform was an opportunity to open up the labor sector. That happened with changes that benefit the sector’s productivity. But it is unacceptable for the PRI and the PAN to deny Mexican workers transparency by leaving them trapped in the clutches of union bosses.
During the legislative process, there were glimpses that the law may turn out to be the worst of two worlds for Mexican workers: flexibilization without union democracy. As a result, the labor insecurity of 21st-century globalization has been paired up with unionism worthy of the Stalinism of the 1950s. This is a victory for Mexican corporatism.
