international employment law firm alliance L&E Global
Mexico

Mexico: Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) wins Mexico’s Presidential elections with 53% of the votes

Mexico (July 1. 2018): On July 1, 2018, Mexico had federal and local elections for several political positions, including the President, State Governors, Majors, among others.

Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), candidate of the National Regeneration Movement (MORENA) won the Presidential election with 53% of the votes.

For the first time in modern history, Mexico will be governed by a leftist President.

Morena, which ideology is based on social equality and egalitarianism, also won the majority of both Chambers of the Congress.

The main points in Morena’s labour and employment agenda are:

  • Young people. – Empower young people by allowing them universal access to education and granting economic scholarships to all students.
  • Minimum wage. – Increasing the minimum daily wage (currently MXP$88.36, approximately USD$4.41). This topic has been addressed during TPP and NAFTA’s negotiations by the governments of the U.S. and Canada.
  • – This topic has been regulated by the Mexican tax and labor authorities during the last years to avoid violations to labor rights and tax fraud, therefore, MORENA has proposed to regulate even more this figure to guarantee labor rights to all employees.
  • Collective Bargaining Agreements. – There has been international pressure to abolish the practice of executing non-active collective bargaining agreements CBAs. MORENA has proposed to ratify Convention 98 of the International Labour Organization (ILO) to guarantee the right to collective bargaining, as well as to apply ILO Convention 87 regarding freedom of association.

During AMLO’s administration it is probable that there will be new Union Confederations, led by Napoleón Gómez Urrutia, leader of the Mining Union and who has been exiled in Canada since 2006 due to the fact that he was accused of stealing 55 million USD to miners. He was appointed as candidate to be a Senator and considering the number of votes obtained by MORENA in the last election, he will become Senator and will have immunity to come back to Mexico.

  • Labor Ministry. – AMLO has announced that Luisa María Alcalde will be appointed as Labor Secretary. She is daughter of Arturo Alcalde Justiniani who has been practicing law for several years, representing independent unions such as the “Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de General Tire, S.A. de C.V.”.
  • Amendment to the Federal Labor Law. – Notwithstanding that the time provided by the Constitutional amendment on Labour Justice has elapsed, the reform to the Federal Labour Law (FLL) is still.

The Reform will include modification to the Labor Justice Administration System by disappearing the Conciliation and Arbitration Boards and creating new Labor Courts, as well as collective matters in order to regulate the process for call for strikes. Considering that MORENA won the majority of the Federal Congress, in charge of the preparation and approval of the MLL Bill, we can anticipate that the reform will include pro employees and unions provisions in order to create a better system.