Link to article: https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/mexico-border-city-auto-workers-gear-up-union-vote-trade-deal-test-2022-02-16/
A vote is forthcoming at Tridonex, a car part manufacturing plant in Mexico. The vote is to replace the labor union that has been accused of failing to advocate for fair wages, and support the needs of the workers. Next week a vote will be held for the workers themselves to choose the labor union they wish to represent them. This follows a similar situation in the GM Mexican factory in which employees voted out the Confederation of Mexican Workers and overwhelmingly welcomed a new labor union called SINTTIA. Similarly in the Tridonex factory, there is a new independent labor union called SNITIS ready to take over for the current SITPME, which is a branch of the Confederation of Mexican Workers that formerly had a contract with the GM factory. These labor union shifts come as a result of criticism of worker treatment by USMCA participants.
In the USMCA, the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement, complaints arose against Tridonex, persuading Cardone, Tridones’s unofficial parent company, to agree to better union operations. Only after resistance from foreign partners, Cardone said that they respect the choice of employees representation in regards to labor unions and will remediate wrongdoings in the past interference with employees choice. The North American trade deal motivated Tridonex and parent company Cardone to settle claims of denied freedom of association and collective bargaining, creating better worker conditions as they are able to take it to a vote to choose the best union to represent them. As the CTM, Confederation of Mexican workers, had been underserving their contracted companies.
This is evident of the impact that economic agreements between countries have on the wellbeing of workers and citizens. With the cooperation fostered in the US- Mexico- Canada free trade agreement and the NAFTA, The North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement, it created an opportunity to hold participants accountable. It gave these companies like Tridonex, Cardone, and GM in Mexico, incentives to give their workers an opportunity to choose what is best for them by the threat of economic success. The mutual benefit and reciprocity that comes from trade agreements creates cooperation and harmony on the global scale. This opportunity to let workers vote on labor unions will set a precedent for global labor policy.