Goodyear workers in Mexico celebrate new contract

SAN LUIS POTOSI, Mexico — Workers at a Goodyear passenger tire plant in central Mexico are now working under the country's Rubber Industry Contract Law, which applies "equal wages and working conditions to all workers in the same industry."

The contract, effective Jan. 19, will significantly increase wages, benefits and job security for the plant's 1,144 workers, who labor leaders in Mexico claimed had been "illegally excluded" from the industrywide law since the plant opened in 2018.

"The Mexican Workers Union League has sealed a historic agreement with the application of the (contract law)," the Independent Union of Goodyear Tire Workers, or SITGM, stated in a Jan. 19 release. "With compliance (by Goodyear) with the benefits of the contract law, workers will access payments that had been illegally denied to them."

Goodyear officials did not return a Jan. 24 request for comment from Rubber News.

SITGM exists under the Mexican Workers' Union League, or La Liga.

A "Course of Remediation," established by the U.S. government July 18, 2023, following an April 2023 complaint filed against Goodyear by La Liga, mandated that Goodyear adopt and comply with the industry-wide Mexican law, or "contrato ley," by Jan. 19.

The United Steelworkers (USW) union, which lobbied on Capitol Hill for the San Luis Potosi workers over the last six years, offered its congratulations Jan. 24 to the Mexican workers.

"Fair contracts and a strong, democratically elected labor movement in Mexico benefit workers across North America," said USW Vice President Emil Ramirez, who leads USW bargaining with Goodyear. "This deal will help close the gap between USW members and their Mexican counterparts, slowing the race to the bottom on wages and working conditions that hurts us all."

Precisely because of the Course of Remediation established between the U.S. and Mexico in July 2023, a vote was conducted in August 2023 at the San Luis Potosi plant, pitting SITGM against the Confederation of Workers of Mexico, or CTM, which generally is considered a pro-employer union.

Workers overwhelmingly approved SITGM, 899-30, in the August 2023 contest.

"We want to express our sincere gratitude to all the organizations that followed our progress and showed solidarity with it," SITGM said. "In particular, we thank the National Union of General Tire Workers of Mexico for their committed support at the beginning of our struggle more than five years ago. Likewise we thank the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center in Mexico for its unconditional support."

Goodyear workers now will receive access to the Social Security Fund, which represents 14.5% of the annualized salaries of unionized personnel.

In addition, workers will receive an increase in vacation premiums of up to 108%, depending on seniority; the payment of 44 days of annual bonus (only 28 days had been paid); a workweek of 40 hours, with possible pay of 56 hours; and payment of 120% on Sundays, among other benefits.

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, Julio Cesar Flores Lopez, a SITGM representative, told Rubber News.

Another 10.5% wage increase has been proposed for 2024, according to SITGM.

Also of particular importance is the configuration of a new salary table (as proposed by La Liga), which establishes new job categories based on the positions of workers "in the labor process in the factory."

As such, new wage levels now are available for union workers with higher qualifications—a basic seniority criterion that exists in the industry-wide contract law.

"In this way, the establishment of wage scales for each area of work specialization, as well as a payment system based on wages determined by work performed ... will imply paying more when the work of a better paying category is carried out," SITGM said Jan. 19.

"In the immediate future, the income of Goodyear workers will experience a considerable improvement thanks to the payment of benefits that will now be covered, in addition to having a real expectation of improvement in the coming years."

Workers also will have a larger retirement fund and an increase in their Christmas bonuses, according to SITGM.

According to SITGM and the USW, the original CTM pact was signed with Goodyear several years ago without "independent union/worker participation."

An initial complaint was filed against Goodyear on April 20, 2023, by La Liga, alleging a denial of labor rights at the passenger tire production facility, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

This complaint was the result of a union vote earlier that month, pitting SITGM against the CTM as the union-of-choice for workers.

The DOL and La Liga panned the April 2023 vote, saying it contained "irregularities." According to SITGM and the USW, the incumbent union CTM allegedly was caught on security cameras stealing the ballot box.

In a second vote on May 8, 2023, San Luis Potosi workers overwhelmingly rejected the CTM's collective bargaining agreement, resulting in that pact's termination at the end of May 2023.

All of this, in turn, led to a third election in August 2023, again pitting SITGM against CTM, with SITGM winning by a landslide.

"The USW thanks the members of Congress who supported Goodyear workers in Mexico over the past six years—and in particular Sen. Sherrod Brown, who worked tirelessly on their behalf," Kevin Johnsen, USW Rubber and Plastics Industry Conference chair, said Jan. 24.

"We also appreciate the Biden administration's hard work on this case, especially the leadership and staff of the United States Department of Labor and the Office of the United States Trade Representative, as well as the actions of Mexican authorities who contributed to a positive outcome."

The initial complaint against Goodyear by La Liga was filed under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Rapid Response Labor Mechanism, the eighth such filing at the time under this 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.

This, in turn, led to the aforementioned July 2023 Course of Remediation.

Goodyear said in August 2023 that it is "committed to our employees' rights to free association and collective bargaining and respects the results of the (August 2023) vote."

"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 percent," a Goodyear spokesperson told Rubber News last August.

The Goodyear plant in San Luis Potosi has capacity for about 6 million passenger car tires per year.