Pemex In Mexico Plans ‘Imminent’ Layoff Of 3,000 Workers, Say Unions

Reforma reported on Monday that members of the Petroleum Workers Syndicate of the Mexican Republic (STPRM) and the National Democratic Alliance of Petroleum Workers (ANDTP) – two unions representing employees with Mexico’s state oil giant Pemex – claim to have gotten hold of a leaked memo from the company’s heads informing of a coming layoff of some 3,000 workers. According to Reforma, the memo – which was written by Pemex’s finance department and sent to managers of Pemex’s branch in the state of Hidalgo – rectifies the two-week pay due to employees this past Tuesday, which has not yet arrived. But the site reports that the memo also informs that 3,000 “floor workers from different areas” will soon be seen off.

In response to queries from the site, Isaac Guerrero, head of PR for one branch of the syndicate, said that nothing has yet been confirmed about the possible layoffs. But the leader of the ANDTP, Juan Carlos Chávez, insists that they are imminent, telling Reforma, “There exists an agreement and a memo where the layoff of unionized workers is announced along with the anticipated pensions [to be paid], in accordance with the approved energy reform.” Chávez, whose ANDTP had opposed the recent reform, also accused other unions of neglect in advocating for the rights of their workers. Pemex is one of the world’s largest corporations, with over 150,000 workers on its payroll.

An energy reform which will open Pemex to foreign investment in shared-risk ventures and grant licenses to foreign companies for projects of an as-yet-undetermined nature passed the Mexican Congress in mid-December before being signed into law by President Enrique Pena Nieto on Dec. 20^th. The reform was hotly contested by a minority of lawmakers on the left, who accused members of the conservative PAN and center-left PRI of betraying the interests of the country by opening Pemex, long plagued by corruption and inefficiency, to foreign investment.