In a Landslide Victory, Mexican GM Workers Vote In an Independent Union by Luis Feliz Leon and Dan DiMaggio Auto workers at a General Motors plant in central Mexico delivered a landslide victory to an independent union in a vote held February 1-2. It's a major breakthrough for workers and labor activists seeking to break the vice grip of the employer-friendly unions that have long dominated Mexico’s labor movement. Turnout among the plant’s 6,300 eligible voters was 88 percent, and the independent union SINTTIA (the National Auto Workers Union) picked up 4,192 votes—78 percent of the vote. SINTTIA, which grew out of the successful campaign which ousted the previous corrupt union last year, promised to raise wages and fight for workers on the shop floor. Workers at the Silao plant voted last August to invalidate the contract held by a well-connected national auto workers union affiliated to the Congress of Mexican Labor (CTM), the country’s largest union federation. Its affiliates have long been criticized for signing employer-friendly “protection contracts,” which lock in low wages and prevent workers from organizing genuine unions. “Today I believe we as workers are more united than ever,” said Alejandra Morales, SINTTIA’s principal officer, who has worked at the plant for 11 years in the paint department. “Not only in Silao, but in all of Mexico.” READ MORE.

VIDEO: Interview with Mexican auto worker and organizer Israel Cervantes In this interview, recorded before the union election took place, The Real News Network Editor-in-Chief Maximillian Alvarez speaks with auto worker and labor organizer Israel Cervantes about this pivotal struggle and what the union election means for workers and the labor movement in Mexico and beyond. WATCH NOW.