Striking Hermosillo Ford Plant Workers Accept Wage Settlement Carlos Navarro

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3-24-1993 Striking Hermosillo Ford Plant Workers Accept Wage Settlement Carlos Navarro

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Recommended Citation Navarro, Carlos. "Striking Hermosillo Ford Plant Workers Accept Wage Settlement." (1993). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/ sourcemex/2760

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Latin America Digital Beat (LADB) at UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in SourceMex by an authorized administrator of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. LADB Article Id: 057858 ISSN: 1054-8890 Striking Hermosillo Ford Plant Workers Accept Wage Settlement by Carlos Navarro Category/Department: General Published: Wednesday, March 24, 1993

On March 17, union employees at Ford's assembly plant in Hermosillo (Sonora state) accepted a 9.9% salary increase after striking for 17 days. The union had initially demanded a 20% wage hike, but pressure to respect the government-labor Economic Stability and Growth Pact (PECE) led to union flexibility. The workers accepted the 9.9% raise the maximum allowed under PECE at the urging of the federal and Sonora state governments and the Mexican Workers Confederation (Confedercion de Trabjadores de Mexico, CTM). In February, employees at a Ford plant in Chihuahua city had as well settled for a 9.5% salary increase, also at the urging of government and union leaders (see SourceMex 02/24/93). The Hermosillo strike gave workers an opportunity to highlight wage disparities with counterparts in the US. In a protest at the Sonora governor's palace on March 15, strikers carried signs that read, "third class pay for first class work." On average, workers at the Hermosillo plant earn the equivalent of US$5 per hour, compared with an average US$15 per hour in the US. According to a spokesperson at Ford's corporate headquarters in Detroit, the 17-day strike led to a production drop of 9,800 cars. The Hermosillo plant is the only Ford facility that assembles Mercury Tracer subcompacts for sale in the US and Canadian markets. The plant also produces Ford Escort four-door sedans. Meantime, workers at a third Ford plant in Mexico located in Cuautitlan, Mexico state are threatening to strike on April 1 if negotiations on a new contract are not successful. The current two-year contract expires on March 31. (Sources: Journal of Commerce, 03/03/93; Notimex, 03/01/93, 03/04/93, 03/11/93, 03/15/93, 03/17/93; Associated Press, 03/18/93; El Financiero International, 03/22/93)

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