Mexico: oil workers face uncertain future

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The oil workers’ union of Mexico, Sindicato de Trabajadores Petroleros de la República Mexicana (STPRM), has started to pave the way for foreign companies to enter various branches of the state-owned company, Pemex, in line with Mexico’s energy sector reform. The process of moving workers from a range of areas and sites has already begun, the rehiring of temporary workers has been halted and the awarding of permanent contracts to staff on the waiting list has been suspended.

The leadership of the STPRM, headed by Carlos Romero Deschamps,– a fine example of Mexico’s corporate trade unionism, closely tied to the management [editor’s note] – has gone so far as to accept the virtual elimination of whole sectors of employment, such as civil maintenance.

Documents obtained through the Federal Institute of Access to Information as well as the messages the union has sent to the various sites also reveal that Pemex is preparing to start implementing trade union-administrative agreement 10717-2013, established under the terms of the collective bargaining agreement and registered with the Federal Arbitration and Conciliation Board (JFCA), by which the staff will be downsized or cut at all sites, platforms and workplaces, including supervisory, managerial and executive personnel.

Romero Deschamps, who has been leading the union since 1996, having been re-elected several times, signed the agreement with Pemex chief executive Emilio Lozoya, in August 2013 – prior to the approval of the energy sector reform. The agreement establishes the need to clarify the situation of unionised and supervisory or executive staff assigned to non-operational plants, and states that in cases where employees cannot be redeployed under the terms of Clause 20 of the collective agreement, and where retirement is an option, the positions "will be taken advantage of" where required.

This implies job cuts and changes and the retirement or early retirement of workers in various branches of the industry.

According to Silvia Ramos of the national union of petroleum technicians and professionals UNTyPP, the ground is already being prepared for foreign companies and their staff, and despite the union’s removal from the company’s board of directors, Romero Deschamps’ committee is still doing Pemex’s dirty work.

As a result, the renewal of temporary workers’ contracts has been halted at various sites over the last few months, and the union itself has spread the rumour that the energy sector reform means there will be no more jobs for them. Similarly, operations at various sites are being shut down, such as at the Escolín petrochemical plant in Poza Rica, where engineering technicians and professionals have been asked to resign and sign new contracts, because Mexicana de Vinilo, the company set to take over operations at the plant, has indicated that it only requires a third of the staff.

The UNTyPP pointed out that the multinationals’ scramble already started some time ago, but they want them [the sites] clean, that is, practically unstaffed, like Repsol, which retired all the workers with over 20 years’ service and dismissed all those who had not been employed for long when it secured the Burgos basin contract.

Now, Pemex has even suspended the awarding of permanent contracts to employees on the waiting list, most of whom are the sons or daughters of employees who have worked hard for years to secure a permanent position. This applies to all the sites and workplaces. In addition, sites are being left without work to justify the job cuts; whole sectors and related services are grinding to a halt, vanishing.

The future of Pemex workers is uncertain, because the leadership of Romero Deschamps is accepting everything and the reform does not contain a single clause guaranteeing compliance with the collective agreement, which could also vanish in the long run. The most crucial problem is that petroleum workers do not pay contributions to the social security system or the ISSSTE, which means their pensions are at risk. There is no job security for these unionised workers, as the staff cuts are already underway, said the UNTyPP.

On Tuesday, in an interview with La Jornada, the Minister of Labour and Social Welfare (STPS), Alfonso Navarrete Prida, stated that the energy sector reform will imply fundamental changes to the STPRM, which will have to amend its statutes and submit another request for registration, and that the same applies to the electrical workers’ union Sindicato Único de Trabajadores Electricistas de la República Mexicana (SUTERM).

Source: La Jornada

 

This article has been translated from Spanish.