Given the fact that more than 100 thousand collective bargaining contracts (CCT) were not supported by the workers and the Federal Center for Conciliation and Labor Registration (CFCRL) terminated them, it is urgent that the thousands of employees who were left without labor unionlearn about the options offered by the Labour reform of 2019.
Those who were left without a union because the CCT was of employer protection or because they are looking for other union alternatives, they must know what the Labour reformfundamental instrument for the democracy and justice in the world of work.
This was stated by Inés González, collegiate president of Network of Women Unionistsin an interview, who emphasized that the Open and Distance University of Mexico It offers free online job training.
“All the online courses on the 2019 labor reform are now on the Platform of the Open and Distance University of the SEP. We have more than 3,200 students enrolled in the courses. And we are about to start a door campaign with the Friedrich Ebert Foundation to promote them more.”
It is very important that workers know the changes of the Labor Reform in a way pedagogical and very didactics, easy to see the legal issues. The platform is so noble that it takes anyone who signs up by the hand.
A participant can take a course in the topic that interests them most. There are 10 courses that are online. They are not linked. You can take or make one, two, as many as you like. At the end, a certificate of the Ministry of Public Education (SEP)with curricular value.
These courses are unique, very professionalsmade by very qualified people in Adult Pedagogy in Educationso that any worker, regardless of their academic level, can understand its contents and take advantage of them, he said.
The Labor Reform of 2019 has been fundamental for the democracy and the justice in the world of work, but if workers are not aware of these changes, the laws themselves do not transform reality. We are the people who, taking and appropriating them, can demand their compliance,” said the leader of the Network of Trade Union Women.
Didactic and professional courses
Of course the laws They are the floor of those of us who aspire to regulation! But we need the next step: for those laws to actually make real changes. And these changes are made if the workers know them. That is why the online courses on the Labor Reform are made.
He told El Sol de México: “There are no better courses in that sense, pedagogically speaking and professional in their content. We made them with a lot of commitment and love so that workerseven if they are in the Mexico deep, in the most distant place they can have access to these courses that are completely free, simple.”
Will it be easy to understand the legal elements?
-The online courses on the Labor Reform contain all the legal elements so that all those people who were left without CCT and they have union representation in some cases, they can claim proof of representativeness and go to the signing of a new CCT.
I think that today more than ever the courses are necessary because there is precisely a very large population that was left without CCT.
Or that they were really workers who did have a CCT and that they were unaware of, because many of them were employer protection contracts or contracts that are signed without the opinion of the workers. workers.
In fact, if the CCT was for employer protection, which protected companies and controlled so that workers did not organize freely, I think that this loss is not such. And of course today is a very big opportunity.
Have the legitimized CCTs already passed this test?
-I believe that the unions that legitimized their CCT have already passed one of the first tests, which is the transparency of the existence of the CCT, of the unionsof the leaders and make the content of the contract available to the workers.
Those unions that legitimized Your CCTs have already passed the first test.
Can new unions be organized and established?
-Those who did not legitimize and who today see how they recover them in a way that we cannot imagine how they can do it in collusion with the companiesSooner or later, workers will realize their rights to be consulted and taken into account.
That’s so important and I go back to the online courses on Labour reform. Actually, in these courses they take you by the hand so that you see the importance of the personal, free, direct and secret vote, which is today an instrument that empowers workers against the unions.
Also against the companies who are involved in decisions that are solely the responsibility of unions and workers.
Is it a great opportunity?
-We are facing a very great opportunity for workers to prepare themselves, to know what the Labor Reform consisted of. And there is the pedagogical offer from our part of the Trade Union Women’s Networks, from the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, from the SEP, which supported us a lot to make these courses available on this powerful Platform.
It has a specific form, special for the online student. It is a fundamental tool so that workers who do not have a CCT today can know how to have one, how to build a union, its assembly, etc.
Is knowledge of Labor Reform a powerful tool to recover your CCTs and create your own unions?
-Yes, of course. That’s why I insist there are no online courses on Labor Reform like those offered by the Open University and Online to register and take these courses at the time and day that suits them. They have online tutor.
Everything is prepared in a way so that it is a self-managed course, that the worker studies alone. And when you have doubts, resolve the cases that arise there. Watch the videos, do the exercises.
There is a self appraisal at the end of each course and if they pass it, they will have their constancy. It is really a very hard job that was done to offer these courses at that level. And that the workers learn, because today education is going to be more online, at a distance.
It is no longer a matter of Covid, is a form that many institutions in the world have. But in the case of the workers, No. That is why we believe that the worker who takes these courses discovers a very great potential for training.
Beyond the content, you can take any online course, because online education has been explored in universities, in schools, but not at the level of students. workers.
For us who are unionistswe discovered that there is the possibility of continuing to train many workers anywhere in our country.
Do we have a rough idea of how many people these 100,000 CCTs that were not legitimized would cover?
-We must take into account the people who work in formality. Before the legitimization of the CCT, estimates from various academics said that we had an average of 10 percent unionization rate, said Inés Gonzalez.
On the other hand, and according to official figures, as of December 2023 there were 22,024,386 jobs in the country.
And the Economically Active Population (PEA) was 61 million, according to data from the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) and of INEGI.
Finally, regarding the number of graduates of the Open and Online University Inés González said that there are already 1,184 and 3,226 participants in the courses. “We are going to start a campaign. The courses began in September 2023. We think that the workers are going to be our main promoters.”
And he reiterated: “The Federal Labor Law What we achieved in 2019 is a very powerful law, but it will be effective when workers know it and exercise it. This is what we call positive affirmative action. Or what we call substantive equality, that is, moving from the informal to the real.
We have to ensure that the world of work achieves real equality like those laws issued and, above all, those who have to enforce them are the workers. That is why it is very important to spread our courses and invite all workers to take them.
You’ll like it. The Platform takes them by the hand. Let’s lose the fear of doing these things online!