Sugar union broke with corporate vote after 40 years

The Union of Workers of the Sugar Industry and Similar of the Mexican Republic (STIASRM) eliminated the corporate vote from its election processes, and for the first time after four decades, it elected its National Executive Committee through a free, secret and direct vote, in which it was elected as general secretary Lorenzo Pale.

Within the framework of the delivery of the Majority Certificate by the STIASRM Electoral Commission to the green list that was the winner in the electoral process that took place on November 27, Pale Mendoza He stated that “it was quite a challenge” to carry out an election under new rules, “as required by the labor reform.”

Although there was not a high turnout in the voting process, given that abstentionism reached 43%Miguel Flores de León, president of the National Electoral Commission, said that transparency is guaranteed in any electoral process in which three payrolls participated, and stressed that the register was made up of 12,783 active and retired workers from 42 union sections in 16 states from the country.

In this regard, Pale Mendoza explained that “this is a good result, it is the first time that the corporate vote has been left behind and it was the workers who decided for their leader; This election has the support of the workers,” he said.

In addition, in this process, the inertia of the elections by show of hands and without the direct participation of the worker base was broken.

We took a big step, the fact that 56% voted means that the worker was aware of the process. I feel satisfied because the voice of the workers was heard”.

In this sense, the leader presented the challenges that come for the union organization, “one of them is to motivate people to decide who is going to represent them,” Pale Mendoza said at a press conference.

Among the innovations that Pale Mendoza proposes for its management is the creation of a Women’s Action Secretariat, due to the fact that the participation of women in the Union is barely 5%, that is, around 800 collaborators, distributed in the different sugar mills. .

Lorenzo Pale admitted that there are acts of sexual harassment against sugar women, for which he promised to address this problem.

The union leader also spoke about the future challenges of the sector and assured that since the sugar mills are being automated, it will be a challenge to adequately prepare the workers.

“The mills are modernizing and the workforce is moving, and one of the challenges is training. We need to train workers to deal with this situation, ”he considered.

On the other hand, he announced that at the beginning of 2023 the legitimization of the collective labor contract will be carried out in the Bacardí company, in which 115 workers will participate.