Date: 05/03 12:39 PM
From: Robin Alexander, ueintl@igc.apc.org

Dear Union Brothers and Sisters and other activists:

I have received an urgent request from the Mexican pilots union, Asociación Sindical de Pilotos Aviadores (ASPA) (an affiliate of the UNT, and whose lawyer is Arturo Alcalde) for letters of protest. In this e-mail is background on their struggle, a draft letter, and an article which they have provided. I would appreciate it if you would send this letter or draft one of your own, and if you would help to circulate this request.

In Solidarity,

Robin

April, 2000

Preamble

The right to demand a collective agreement must include an agile and democratic procedure for allowing Freedom Of Association for the workers, as established in the Political Constitution of the United Mexican States, its Federal Labor Law, and applicable International Agreements.

Current Situation

• ASPA de México is lawfully requesting to represent, through a collective agreement, the airline pilots employed by AVIACSA/AEROEXO. Appropriate steps to this end have been taken before the Federal Board of Conciliation and Arbitration and the company itself.
• This request is derived from the wish of AVIACSA/AEROEXO pilots to be represented by ASPA de México; in response, such company has fired 15 pilots without just cause.

AVIACSA/AEROEXO Case...

• On 23 February 87 out of 104 pilots working for AVIACSA/AEROEXO signed a document in which they requested to be industrially represented by ASPA.
• From 28 February through 3 March the President of ASPA informed competent federal authorities about such request.
• On 9 March the company issued an internal communiqué to all its employees informing them for the first time ever that it had signed in 1992 a collective agreement with Mexican Republic Workers Union of the Aeronautical Industry, Similar and Related (STIAS).
• On 20 March ASPA de México formally presented the Federal Board of Conciliation and Arbitration a request to negotiate a collective agreement to represent the pilots of AVIACSA/AEROEXO.
• On 8 April the company verbally suspended the agreements of 15 pilots without written notifications- for carrying-out proselytism in favor of ASPA, a union to which they do not belong. AVIACSA/AEROEXO pilots’ rationale to be represented by ASPA
• Professional and industrial stability like the one enjoyed in pilot groups represented by ASPA.
• Representation by an Airline Pilot Association, which is a common practice worldwide; given that such institution is the one with appropriate knowledge on security, maintenance, training and flight operations.
• To end unjustified and illegal actions that can undoubtedly be defined as industrial terrorism.
• To terminate representation by STIAS due to the following:
• Ignorance concerning clauses of the so-called collective agreement currently in place.
• Lack of information about the way their dues are spent.
• Not even one assembly or meeting conducted to discuss their labor conditions.
• Electoral processes have never been organized to vote for their pilot representatives.
• Lack of knowledge regarding the ways and means used by STIAS to defend their labor and professional interests.

Highlights of AVIACSA/AEROEXO

• Alejandro Morales-Mega, who is the main shareholder of the company, fled the country because of judicial problems in México.
• The representative of the main shareholder has expressed that he will never allow a democratic union in the airline.
• Newly hired pilots are requested to sign blank papers as a threat, implying potential dismissal, financial obligations in favor of the company, or any other potential legal purpose.
• Public exposure of any pilot who refuses to fly with mechanical failures that, according to the company, are not of significant importance, replacing him with another pilot.
• Duty time lasting more than 24 hrs.
• Violation of the legal rest requirements related to trips lasting more than 8:30 hrs.
• Preferential labor conditions for a certain group of pilots.

Highlights of STIAS

• Leader/owner: Ramón Gámez.
• President: Rubén Martínez-Romo.
• Independent union, with all the characteristics of a corrupt organization in favor of management.

Ramón Gámez and the Unionism to Protect Management

• Owner of at least 1 federation and 15 unions.
• Through them he holds more than 1,000 collective agreements.
• Unions controlled directly by him and his cronies:
  • Rubén Romo-Martínez
  • José Sergio Guerrero-Villa n Alejandro García-Orozco
  • Antonio Bourge-Ruiz
  • Jorge Trejo-Hernández Industries corrupted by Ramón Gámez
• Aviation
• Food
• Chemical
• Pharmaceutical
• Tourism
• Gastronomical
• Metallurgical
• Plastic
• Glass
• Construction
• Assembly Plants Companies and Other Areas corrupted by Ramón Gámez
• Infraestructura Portuaria
• Ensenada International Terminal
• Altamira Terminal Portuaria
• Show business, services and recreational activities
• Sports and social centers
• Communication and transport workers

Dr. Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de León
Presidente Constitucional de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos Mexico, D.F.

Dear President Zedillo:

I am writing to express concern about the difficulties that the pilots of AVIACSA company are experiencing in their effort to obtain legal recognition of the union they wish to have represent them: the Mexican Airline Pilots Association (ASPA).

We have become aware of the existence of a protection contract which was signed by the company with the union Sindicato de Trabajadores de la Industria Aérea, Similares y Conexos (STIAS) without the consent of the workers, a situation that is intolerable in a democratic country, in that the exercise freedom of choice in selecting a union is among the most fundamental of trade union rights.

With all respect we request your kindly intervention so that the will of the pilots is respected and they are able to enjoy representation by union that they freely choose.

Respectfully,

Organization or individual
Country

Trade Union Freedom Sent Packing
By Alberto Aziz Nassif
10 April, 2000-04-18

As long as Mexico does not have interlocutors grouped in democratic organizations, low wages will continue being a competitive advantage for investment and Mexico will increasingly become a polarized country with one of the worst distributions of income.

Fifty years ago, Mexico joined the famous International Labor Organization's Convention 87, which establishes norms for trade union freedom of association. Its main principle is that all individuals have a right to unionize without needing any previous authorization. It also stipulates that organizations are fully entitled to autonomy and that the authorities are obliged to respect them.

Nobody will find it strange to hear that in Mexico trade union freedom was sent packing decades ago and was instead replaced by a corporate control model. The lack of compliance with trade union freedom has thus been systematic. As far as labor relations are concerned, Mexico is still in the Stone Age as can be appreciated by a current example: The AVIACSA case.

Alejandro Morales Mega, owner of this company, with unsettled debts with FOBAPROA - the Government sponsored bank bailout program - (La Jornada, 28/0799), has systematically refused to allow the pilots to join a democratic union, such as the Trade Union Association of Pilots in Mexico (Asociación Sindical de Pilotos Aviadores de México -ASPA). Like many other national and foreign companies, AVOACSA is very much afraid of democratic unionism. This company fears and resists negotiation and having to stop making unilateral decisions regarding the company's labor conditions.

On February 23, 2000, 87 out of the 104 AVIACSA pilots requested that ASPA represent their union interest. From then on, the company launched a strategy to hinder the process. It even produced a protection contract, that did not include the pilots, and after some maneuvering incorporated them without their even knowing.

AVIACSA wants to impose a protection union franchise on its pilots so that they do not join ASPA and has gone so far as to force each pilot to sign it. This logic is all wrong.

Some months ago, TAESA's bankruptcy was precipitated by an accident one of its airplanes suffered. This air company did not belong to ASPA either, which according to their own train of thought, was meant to turn out cheaper in the short term since the union enforces a series of international quality and security norms that benefit the users, but which TAESA did not meet.

In recent years, protection unionism has grown dramatically together with the so-called "new labor culture". It is no longer a question of the old days of corporate control schemes, but rather a kind of franchise sold to the liking of the company owners. A contract is signed and legally validated, but in most cases the workers have no knowledge of the existence of this contract, unless union fees are taken out of their wages.

Because of a lack of union freedom, contracts of this kind have cropped up like mushrooms in the rainy season. It is a structure with at least three different angles: freedom for workers to choose their union is non-existent; the employers choose a union of their liking and establish a unilateral contract; when the workers want to change to a democratic union, stumbling blocks are placed all around using the voting process as an excuse, from violent intervention to laying off leaders in order to make the operation fail.

In the AVIACSA case, the contracts of twelve pilots have already been verbally rescinded, but that is not all. Thanks to this type of corporate or protection unionism, it is possible to manipulate the labor costs unilaterally. In recent decades, the cost of labor in Mexico has systematically dropped.

As long as Mexico dos not have interlocutors grouped in democratic organizations, low wages will continue being a competitive advantage for investment and Mexico will increasingly become a polarized country with one of the worst distributions of income.

In the meantime, an intelligent way out to the AVIACSA conflict would be to carry out a representational election. The authorities would have to stick to the law and guarantee the procedure as stipulated in the Federal Labor Law, article 388, section III. It is the pilots who must decide what organization they wish to be represented by. This way out might keep the conflict from becoming politicized and avoid the burn out of the parties involved. As long as the authorities continue to send trade union freedom packing, Mexico will keep on being subjected to this deception. It is necessary to put an end to this.

Robin Alexander
UE Director of International Labor Affairs One Gateway Center, Suite 1400
420 Fort Duquesne Blvd.
PGH., PA. 15222-1416

412-471-8919
412-471-8999 FAX

Labor and related news from Mexico is reported bi-monthly in Mexican Labor News and Analysis. Check it out on our web site: <HTTP://www.igc.apc.org/unitedelect/>

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