Mexico City, October 24.- The extensions to the validity of union organizations' charters are "delaying the democratization process" by postponing the election of their boards, warned labor specialists, who charged that the labor authorities' "failure to pressure" to achieve changes in freedom of association and collective bargaining allows for continued "backward movement and continued support for the worst employer policies we have ever had in Mexico."
In an interview, Óscar Alzaga, legal advisor to the National Miners' Union, stated that "free union elections are absolutely essential for the country's democratization," and therefore changes must be pushed forward "and the dates must not continue to be delayed."
Last week, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador asked the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare ( STPS ) to encourage union democracy, defend workers, and end union corruption.
"We must continue moving forward to ensure union democracy, with representation with dignity, as workers deserve ... We must carry out the processes of union democratization; that's very important. The Ministry of Labor must sponsor these processes," the president stated during his morning press conference.
On October 11, the federal agency granted a sixth extension, until November 2, for unions, federations, and confederations that were due to renew their leadership and process a new charter, to remain unchanged until elections are held.
Sources from the STPS (State Public Prosecutor's Office) specified that these postponements—granted since March 2020 due to the COVID-19 health emergency— "do not prevent the elections from being held, but rather prevent them from being left legally defenseless ." They added that the current extension could even be the last, as the epidemiological traffic light system has advanced to conditions that make it more possible to hold elections safely.
