New GM union in Mexico seeks 19.2% wage hike in historic talks By Reuters

By Daina Beth Solomon

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – The brand new unbiased labor union at Basic Motors Co (NYSE:)’s largest plant in Mexico is searching for a 19.2% wage enhance, citing surging inflation, and the U.S. carmaker has countered with a proposal of three.5%, the pinnacle of the union SINTTIA instructed Reuters.

GM wouldn’t affirm the share of its counter-offer however mentioned its subsequent assembly with the union is on Thursday, the place it hopes to succeed in a deal for the plant within the central metropolis of Silao, forestalling a Might 31 deadline for employees to strike.

The GM labor negotiations are a high-profile take a look at case for a brand new commerce deal’s aim of decreasing the huge wage hole between U.S. employees and their Mexican counterparts.

SINTTIA’s proposal would increase wages on the plant that makes GM’s worthwhile Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups to as a lot as 135 pesos ($6.62) an hour, primarily based on a duplicate of the newest collective contract seen by Reuters.

That is simply above 1 / 4 of the corporate’s U.S. beginning wage of $17.50 an hour, highlighting the form of disparity that drove U.S. insistence on harder labor guidelines within the United States-Mexico-Canada Settlement (USMCA), the 2020 commerce pact that changed NAFTA.

SINTTIA’s Secretary Basic, Alejandra Morales, referred to as GM’s counter-offer “a slap within the face” at a time when employees are reducing again to deal with rising costs.

The primary main talks held below the brand new commerce deal might usher in related calls for at different firms in Mexico if SINTTIA lands an enormous elevate. U.S. authorities officers who’ve lengthy wished to reduce the wage disparity with Mexico are intently watching.

SINTTIA, the Spanish acronym for the Nationwide Unbiased Union of Automotive Trade Staff, made its 19.2% proposal when talks began final month.

Morales mentioned that on high of galloping inflation, the wage enhance was merited as a consequence of an uptick in manufacturing, years of misplaced buying energy and the peso’s sliding worth whereas GM’s income are in stronger U.S. {dollars}.

A 3.5% enhance could be lower than half of present inflation.

Talks stalled April 12, and Thursday’s session might be mediated by federal labor officers. The USMCA labor provisions had been partially meant to assist Mexican employees elect unions they really feel will greatest struggle for his or her pursuits, breaking the grip of business-friendly teams that operated behind employees’ backs for years as low cost labor lured firms to Mexico. GM is below stress to maintain prices low because it faces off with the primary main unbiased Mexican union to sprout up for the reason that begin of the brand new commerce deal. A victory for the 6,300 employees in Silao might spur greater calls for at its different Mexico websites and throughout the auto trade, consultants say.

“That could possibly be a recreation changer,” mentioned Harley Shaiken, a labor scholar on the College of California at Berkeley. A union dispute on the similar GM plant final yr prompted U.S. officers to lodge the primary USMCA labor grievance, threatening tariffs on GM’s Silao pickups if the corporate didn’t assure employee rights. Staff ended up ousting the large union that had been in energy for 25 years and elected SINTTIA, a fledgling group led by fellow employees and supported by worldwide activists.

($1 = 20.3795 Mexican pesos)

(In fourth paragraph, this story corrects proposed wage to “as a lot as 135 pesos ($6.62) an hour” as an alternative of “77.15 pesos ($3.81) an hour”)