Telmex Workers End Strike to Demand Labor Agreement Compliance

Workers organized a national strike against Telephones of Mexico (Telmex) because of what they argue is the company’s failure to comply with their Collective Working Agreement (CCT). Some of the factors that provoked the strike are the alleged lack of hiring of almost 2,000 people, less beneficial pensions for those who have just joined and the transfer of assets to other Grupo Carso companies such as América Móvil. On the same day that the strike started, an agreement was reached.

Workers of Telmex, a company owned by the richest man in the country, Carlos Slim, left their facilities across the country and covered the empty buildings with red and black flags, colors adopted by the lion’s share of Mexico’s unions. The Union of Telephone Operators of the Mexican Republic (STRM) issued two calls for a strike: one for violations of the CCT, the other for the failure to fill 1,924 vacancies.

The union and the company agreed to create a system to analyze the financial cost and viability to solve the issues, effectively ending the strike on the same day it started. They established a period of 20 business days from starting Monday, July 25, to try and solve the dispute. The negotiations will be held by two technical representatives from the union and two from the company, as well as Telmex’s General Secretary, Francisco Hernández Juárez, and Héctor Slim, Director General, Telmex. "Both parties accept that the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare (STPS) acts as a mediator," the union reported. Nevertheless, an agreement was reached the same day. "The agreement signed today not only lifts the strike, but also aims to find a substantive and lasting solution," reported America Movil, Telmex’s parent company.

The last strike occurred in 1985, when STRM demanded a wage increase of 14 percent. However, for most of the staff this is their first strike. Furthermore, it is the first time for Slim, who acquired the company in 1990 during the six-year term of Carlos Salinas de Gortari when the company went from public to private.

According to the news portal of STRM, active and retired workers demand a salary increase of 7.5 percent to match Mexico’s inflation as opposed to the 4 percent Telmex offered, an increase in benefits of 2.9 percent, the filling of vacancies and the maintaining of clause 149 of the CCT, which involves the pensions of newly hired workers.