Electrolux is using starvation tactics against the dismissed workers in Ciudad Juárez who demanded protection against covid-19, write the activist Tony Karlsson who has been in Ciudad Juárez and Edmé Domínguez, associate professor at the University of Gothenburg who investigates the situation of women at Electrolux in Mexico. They demand that the company offer all workers what they are entitled to in severance pay and do not extend the legal process with tricks and dodges.
El periodista mexicano Cayetano (la primera persona a la izquierda) y Tony Karlsson (la tercera persona a la izquierda) juntos con dos trabajadores despedidos afuera Electrolux en Ciudad Juárez el 13 de abril 2021. Foto: Alely
Source: Electrolux, ge de sparkade arbetarna fullt avgångsvederlag, Debate Article in Swedish newspaper Arbetaren, by Edmé Domínguez och Tony Karlsson, Published May 28, 2021. Translated to English by Lars Kjellander and Tony Karlsson.
It has now been over 13 months since Electrolux in Mexico fired around a hundred maquiladora workers in Ciudad Juárez. The workers had protested and sought dialogue with the company with demands for protective measures for covid-19 and that the facility should be shut down completely in accordance with the national health emergency declared on March 30.
On April 13 last year, workers expected a response to their demands. Instead, they were faced with an ultimatum to either sign a voluntary termination and receive an unlawfully low severance pay or just leave empty-handed. The workers were not given any opportunity for reflection nor to with consult someone. Most signed the ”voluntary termination”, knowing that a legal process is both time-consuming and complicated.
One week later, after two workers had died of covid-19, however, Electrolux decided to shut down the plant. At present, at least a dozen workers have died of covid-19 at Electrolux.
The Swedish public radio channel Sveriges Radio drew attention to the case on 6 May last year, after which Electrolux initiated an internal investigation with external investigators in collaboration with the group trade union Unionen.
Electrolux presented the results of the investigation seven months after the workers had been fired. One of the company’s measures was to contact the dismissed workers to offer them financial compensation.
The results of the investigation were welcomed by Unionen as well as its branch at Electrolux in Sweden, which announced that they are continuing the dialogue with Electrolux. The global union IndustriAll emphasized that ”the dismissed workers must be duly compensated”.
In the weeks before Christmas last year, Electrolux began contacting 99 dismissed workers. At present, everyone with whom Electrolux has managed to get in touch should have received an offer of compensation.
Those who already at the time of termination signed a ”voluntary termination” and who also did not start a lawsuit against the company had no choice but to accept what they were offered.
However, the 32 who conducted a lawsuit against the company in the conciliation and arbitration board were faced with the choice of accepting a settlement offer or continuing the legal process with a demand for full severance pay. Faced with the difficult financial situation they have found themselves in, by being fired in the middle of the pandemic, without having received any financial compensation at all and difficulties in finding a new job, even they have one by one made an agreement with the company.
At present, at least eight workers remain who are pursuing legal proceedings against Electrolux. Six of them have worked at the company for about 15 years. They have not received an offer anywhere near the severance pay for unjustified dismissal, which includes three monthly salaries and 20 daily salaries for each year of employment. They are also entitled to payment of wages withheld from the date of termination until a legal decision is made in their favor.
Orlando, one of the plaintiffs, was recently forced to give up.
“Oh no, I too had to accept the little they gave me because I was in an emergency and it seems that the legal process will still take a very long time. Over a year of waiting and waiting. Disgusting of the company to extend the process.”
Orlando, who had worked for almost 12 years at Electrolux, was offered approximately SEK 37,000 when he was fired. He did not accept this. On April 5 this year, however, he signed a ”voluntary termination” and received approximately SEK 57,000.
”They gave me almost only half what I should have been payed. I should have received 268,000 pesos (about 113,000 kronor).”
Emiliano, who is still running a lawsuit against Electrolux and who had worked for the company for almost 15 years, received an even lower bid. He was offered approximately SEK 21,000 when he was fired and approximately SEK 37,000 later during the settlement. This shows that Electrolux does not offer all workers compensation according to the same norm.
Given that Electrolux has carried out a background investigation into the events in April last year, there is no reason to make the legal process difficult. It should be clear that when the workers protested, there were almost no protective measures at all. It was also known that the infection was ongoing in the company. Even though only a few workers were heard in the investigation, their testimonies are important.
Therefore, Electrolux must publish the background investigation of the dismissals and the events leading up to them.
Electrolux has claimed that they had a permit allowing the manufacturing of refrigerators as ”essentials” and thus to be exempt from the closure of all operations during the health emergency. How is that possible? Furthermore, Electrolux also manufactures freezers, dryers and washing machines in Mexico. In any case, Electrolux was not allowed to continue operations when the workers protested. After a shutdown from April 20, Electrolux started running at full speed again on the first of June last year, when the ”new normality” replaced the health emergency. This despite the fact that Ciudad Juárez has been placed under the second highest corona warning – ”level orange” – during certain periods.
In a country like Mexico, the suspicion of corruption cannot be ruled out.
Therefore, Electrolux should present the permit they claim to have in order for their business to be considered essential and explain what the permit includes as well as the motivations for this assessment from the company and the authorities.
An employment law process in Mexico is both a complicated and lengthy story and takes an average of four years. The employers’ tactic is to starve the workers to submission and make them accept a settlement that is lower than what they are entitled to. Unfortunately, Electrolux has chosen to follow that tactic.
The fact that Electrolux admitted wrongdoings at the time of the dismissals and that financial compensations were to be offered, was a union success. The collaboration between social activists in Sweden, Electrolux workers in Mexico and the trade union Unionen and IndustriAll paved the way for that.
But it is both sad and shameful that Electrolux, with its reported high profits and its fine code of conduct available in 24 languages, does not compensate all the dismissed workers for an unfounded dismissal. They have expressed that they intended to ”fully and finally resolve any disputes related to the termination”. Dismissing workers during the health emergency was furthermore a crime in itself.
Therefore, we demand that Electrolux offer all workers what they are entitled to in severance pay and do not extend the legal process with tricks and dodges.
Electrolux in Mexico
A maquiladora is a largely duty- and tariff free factory that assembles imported components into finished products for export.
Approximately 3 million people are employed in the maquiladora industry in Mexico, of which around 300 000 in Ciudad Juarez.
Around 5 000 people work in three shifts around the clock at Electrolux in Ciudad Juarez, with an entry wage of 220 Mexican pesos (around 94 SEK). As with other maquiladoras, a large part of the work force is comprised of women.
Together with the Swedish unions, IndustriAll GU has signed a global frame agreement with Electrolux linked to its Code of Conduct, in order to ensure that workers rights are respected globally.
As for maquiladoras in general, there is no real workers union at Electrolux in Ciudad Juarez. An attempt to found a union at Electrolux in 2008 led to the dismissal of the workers who had been at the forefront of that endeavour.
371karlsson 
2 reaktioner till “Electrolux, give the fired workers full severance pay”