Mexico's Lower House Approves Labor Reform Bill, Sends Draft Back to Senate Ivonne Reyes Campos - The News
go to original November 9, 2012

MEXICO CITY – After fierce debates between National Action Party (PAN) deputies and leftist lawmakers, the lower house approved the labor reform bill on Thursday, sending it back to the Senate for yet another round of committees, discussions, additions and cuts. The bill was passed with 361 votes in favor and 129 against.

Four articles previously modified by the Senate were approved, including articles 364 and 365, which deal with the transparency of union rosters; and 391 and 424, which establish the right to access information on collective labor contracts and union’s internal rules.

President Felipe Calderón’s labor reform bill, which seeks to modernize the country’s aging labor regulations by easing hiring and firing practices and making unions more democratic and transparent, has met resistance from the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and sparked a legislative alliance between the PAN and the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD), usually bitter rivals. The lower house also approved changes to articles 371 and 373 on union democracy and transparency.

PRI, Green Party (PVEM), New Alliance (Panal) and some PAN votes eliminated articles 388 and 390, which would have allowed workers to vote on union representation and collective bargaining rights. PRD Deputy Martí Batres accused the PRI of cheating.

“(Article 388) was never voted on ... because the (PRI) did not want article 388 to be a part of the (Senate’s) draft and it should have been included in the (lower house’s) draft since the (labor committee) never rejected it.”

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