Silencing the age of anger
In April 2022, workers and pensioners affiliated with the Telephone Operators Union of the Mexican Republic (STRM) declared their first strike in 37 years, to demand that state telephone operator, Telmex, comply with the collective agreement for the period 2022-2024. Under the agreement, Telmex is bound to providing fair salary increases and adequate job creation within the company to ensure the delivery of goods and services in the country.
On 22 June 2022, after several extensions of the strike and the intervention of the Ministry of Labour, the STRM reached an agreement with the company on a salary increase, despite the raise being below that demanded by workers. The STRM further agreed to leave the other claims pending. Due to the company’s non-compliance with the agreement, on 21 July, workers went on strike for 27 hours. The collective action was suspended when a Tripartite Technical Board was formed, made up of the General Secretary of the STRM, the General Director of Telmex, and the Ministry of Labour.
In September 2022, the STRM denounced the company’s persistent refusal to engage in good-faith bargaining. Telmex did not deliver a workable proposal to resolve the conflict and further decided to outsource some of the jobs promised to contractor companies, depriving these workers outside of the benefits of the collective agreement.