27 March, 2012The National Miners' and Metalworkers' Union, which represents workers at the plant, says the plant closure is "really an attack on independent and democratic trade unionism".
MEXICO: The multinational Johnson Controls has announced plans to close its plant in Puebla, threatening the jobs of around 400 workers. In response, the National Miners' and Metalworkers' Union, led by Napoleón Gómez Urrutia, announced its opposition to the decision at a press conference on March 21. Workers at the plant joined the union last year, forming branch 308. The union said that the collective agreement is still in force and "the company does not legally have the right to cancel it unilaterally."
The union explained that if the company succeeds in proving in the courts that it needs to close the Puebla plant on the grounds that it is financially unviable to keep it open, even though we believe the operation is in fact viable, the union will agree to negotiate and, as signatory of the collective agreement, it will fight for adequate compensation in accordance with the agreement.
The union has always told the company that it should seek other ways of solving its problems in order to avoid closure of the plant. It said that any agreement to terminate employment contracts would be dependent on the company agreeing to re-employ its current workers if it reopens the plant after closure, in accordance with Federal Labour Code articles 154 and 438 which state that redundant workers must be given priority in such circumstances, and recognise workers to be full members of the union, in accordance with the collective agreement in force.
The union added that the plant has been very profitable during the last year "according to the company's own internal reports, which indicate that sales and profits increased by 15% in 2011, in line with the same increases in sales and profits in the United States auto industry, to which Johnson Controls supplies parts. The company's unilateral intention to dismiss more than 380 of the plant's 440 workers is therefore an arbitrary action and a violation of workers' basic rights."
If the company makes the workers redundant, the union will continue to fight until they are all reinstated with full rights. "We know that Johnson Controls resents the fact that its workers, of their own free will, democratically expressed their wish to join our union as branch 308 because our union never allows workers to be exploited, unlike the previous situation when they were in a yellow union controlled by the company." The union added that "unilateral closure of the Puebla plant by Johnson Controls is really an attack on independent and democratic trade unionism."
The IMF is closely following the situation at Johnson Controls Puebla plant and supports the demands of the National Miners' and Metalworkers' Union.