Goodyear workers in Mexico approve industrywide union

SAN LUIS POTOSI, Mexico — Workers at Goodyear's tire factory in San luis Potosi voted overwhelmingly recently to be represented by the Independent Union of Goodyear Tire Workers (SITGM), a trade union affiliated with the Mexican Workers' Union League (LSOM, or La Liga).

The election, which took place Aug. 7-8 in central Mexico, came after months of squabbling between company management and the workers, a stolen ballot box, an unfair labor complaint against Goodyear and a favorable decision from the U.S. Department of Labor.

The decision affects 1,144 hourly workers at the 7-year-old San Luis Potosi plant.

About 91 % of the workers voted for the SITGM over another union affiliated with the Confederation of Workers of Mexico (CTM), considered a pro-employer union; 992 workers voted.

"Goodyear is committed to our employees' rights to free association and collective bargaining and respects the results of the vote," a Goodyear spokesperson told Tire Business sister publication Rubber News Aug. 10.

"The company anticipates no impact on the operations of the plant, which is a state-of-the-art facility with strong employee satisfaction and attrition of less than 1%."

Under the new contract, Goodyear workers will receive a 30% wage increase to between $6.86 and $7.72 an hour from about $4.29 per hour, according to Julio Cesar Flores Lopez, a SITGM representative.

Workers also will have a larger retirement fund, an increase in their Christmas bonuses and more vacation time under the new contract.

The wage increases will include retroactive payments to before Jan. 19, 2024, when the new union contract must be applied by Goodyear, since the contract under which they are working now has a lower salary.

The San Luis Potosi workers will be represented under the "Industry-Wide Contract for the Rubber Industry," or "Contrato Ley," which applies "equal wages and working conditions to all workers in the same industry."

The industrywide contract for "factories that transform rubber into products" was never applied to the Goodyear plant, a Pirelli plant in Silao or Michelin plants in Queretaro and Leon, Ben Davis, a representative with the United Steelworkers union (USW), said.

The union vote was made possible under the "Course of Remediation" regulations negotiated between Mexico and the U.S., following an April 20 complaint filed by the LSOM against Goodyear under the U.S. Mexico-Canada Agreement Rapid Response Labor Mechanism, a relatively new system implemented by the Biden administration.

The system allows the U.S. to take enforcement action based on labor situations at an individual factory in Mexico or Canada if a facility fails to comply with domestic freedom of association and collective bargaining laws.

The U.S. Department of Labor and the U.S. Trade Representative ruled for the workers July 19 and gave Goodyear specified mandates for moving forward.

Goodyear said July 20 that it was disappointed in the decision but continues to support labor rights.

The USW said in a statement of support July 19 that the original CTM pact was signed with Goodyear without independent union/worker participation.

After the initial complaint by independent union workers at the plant, the two U.S. agencies requested that the Mexican government review the alleged denial of unionization rights.

And "the Mexican government took a proactive approach," according to DOL officials.

The DOL said "irregularities" in an initial April vote at the plant included the incumbent union CTM allegedly stealing the ballot box, effectively ending the election.

In a second vote May 8, workers overwhelmingly rejected the CTM's collective bargaining agreement, resulting in that pact's termination at the end of May.

The agreement mandates that Goodyear "harmonize current plant rules and conditions with the provisions of current contract law, in consultation with the workers at the federal center."

The Mexico Federal Center for Conciliation and Labor Registration is a government agency established to implement labor law reform

USW International President Thomas Conway said July 19 that the case "established a strong precedent and called on all tire industry employers in Mexico to respect workers' rights."

This is the second time in four years that Goodyear has been accused of poor labor relations at the Mexican plant.

In 2019, four members of the U.S. House of Representatives were refused entry to the plant during a fact-finding trip on labor conditions in Mexico, including allegations from former workers about poor working conditions, low wages, illegal termination and discrimination.

Goodyear's San Luis Potosi facility has capacity for about 6 million passenger car tires per year.

Akron-based Goodyear, the world's No. 3 tire maker in sales, according to Tire Business data, employs about 74,000 people globally and manufactures its products in 57 facilities in 23 countries.