Volkswagen Mexico strike deadline nears
Unionized workers at Volkswagen’s Mexico plant restarted salary talks with management on Monday but were still waiting for an offer from the German auto maker three days before a strike deadline.
Union spokesman Miguel Angel Galan told Reuters the workers had lowered their salary demands to a 10 percent increase from 12.5 percent previously.More:
“We are still waiting for an offer from the company which could happen later today (Monday),” Galan said.
The salary talks are taking place in the labor ministry, which is a common conciliation point for labor disputes.
Volkswagen’s plant in the city of Puebla, two hours south east of the capital, is its only factory in North America and is the sole producer of the New Beetle car. It has around 11,800 unionized workers.
A strike deadline has been set for 1100 local (5 p.m. British time) on Thursday. Last year the Puebla plant went on strike for four days before agreeing to a 4.5 percent wage increase, plus 1.6 percent extra in benefits.
More: today.reuters.co.uk
VW Mexico workers may strike Thursday for 12.5 pct pay hike
Volkswagen AG workers at its Puebla plant in Mexico may go on strike on Thursday to support demands for a 12.5 pct pay hike, Financial Times Deutschland reported, citing a trade union spokesman.
The spokesman said while VW has not made an offer yet it has rejected a 'spectacular salary adjustment'.
Workers at the plant last staged a three-day strike one year ago and pushed through a 4.5 pct wake increase.
The Puebla plant makes the New Beetle and Jetta and employs 12,000 workers.
More: forbes.com
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Volkswagen's Mexican unit reached an agreement with union leaders on Wednesday to increase workers' pay and avoid a strike.
More than 11,000 union workers at Volkswagen's plant near the city of Puebla accepted a 4.2 percent pay raise, preventing a walkout scheduled for Thursday, union leader Jose Luis Rodriguez told reporters.
The Puebla plant, about two hours' drive southeast of the capital, is the only Volkswagen operation in North America and is the sole producer of the popular New Beetle car.
The new salary deal includes minor improvements in benefits, the company and union said.
Workers had originally demanded a
Volkswagen plans to build new model at Mexico plant
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Francisco Javier Garcia Sanz, VW's (VOWG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) global head of purchasing, said on Tuesday that Volkswagen had selected Mexico to be the sole producer of the Jetta stationwagon, known in Europe as the Golf stationwagon.
Otto Lindner, chairman of Volkswagen Mexico, said the plans for the new vehicle were part of the company's previously stated $2
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In a conference call with analysts to discuss Grupo Mexico's second-quarter results, chief financial officer Eduardo Gonzalez said he believed a solution to the strike was possible.
Friday's meeting was the first between management and the union since more than 1,500 workers went on strike in Arizona and Texas to protest the company's proposed wage freeze and reductions in health and pension
Mexico's Penoles Workers Postpone Strike Date to Vote Offer
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The strike at the mine in Naica, Chihuahua, was delayed until Jan. 27 at 2 p.m. New York time while the vote is organized, local union leader Sergio Chavira said in the statement. The terms of the Penoles offered weren't disclosed.
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Madrazo was to have resigned Tuesday as the Institutional Revolutionary Party's chief to campaign full time in next year's Mexican presidential election, but he delayed his move after the party's leadership council voted unanimously Tuesday to ask him to stay on until early August.
More: sfgate.com
VW Mexico workers reject 4.2 pct pay rise but union to continue negotiations
Volkswagen AG workers at the Puebla plant rejected overnight the 4.2 pct pay increase proposed by management, but it was agreed that negotiations should continue, union officials said.
The plant's union secretary general Jose Luis Rodriguez said that workers have asked the union to continue negotiating a better deal, adding that talks will be held today.
VW's 12,000 unionised workers had threatened to go on strike tomorrow at 11.00 am.
Rodriguez said that only 5 pct of the workers convened at general meetings yesterday accepted the 4.2 pct
Mexico has stopped producing ozone-depleting chemicals four years before a deadline set by an international agreement, the environment secretary announced Friday.
The last chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs - manmade chemicals used in aerosol sprays, refrigerators and air conditioners - were produced last month in this northern industrial city, Environment Secretary Jose Luis Luege Tamargo said.
Scientists have linked the use of CFCs to destruction of the ozone layer.
"Mexico is a pioneer when it comes to protecting the ozone layer, and in the last 15 years has reduced by 90 percent the use of CFCs," said Luege Tamargo, speaking at chemical plant belonging to
Grupo Mexico Urges Authorities to End 24-Day Copper Mine Strike
Grupo Mexico SA, the worlds seventh-largest copper producer, said it is urging authorities to arrest union members blocking work at a copper mine and concentrator in Mexico after a 24-day strike threatens to leave the company short for May copper deliveries.
Mexico City-based Grupo Mexico is losing daily production of about 1,100 metric tons of copper content in concentrate from what the company calls illegal work stoppages, said Juan Rebolledo, Grupo Mexicos spokesman, in a telephone interview. The company said last week it notified customers it may not make May
Crude Oil Is Little Changed as Hurricane Wilma Nears Mexico
Crude oil was little changed amid forecasts Hurricane Wilma, a storm with winds of up to 150 miles per hour (240 kilometers per hour), would hit Mexico's Yucatan peninsula and then swerve northeast, away from oil and gas rigs.
Forecasts show the storm will reach southern Florida during the weekend, the National Hurricane Center said on its Web site. The path of the storm is moving away from the oil and gas production areas in the Gulf of Mexico, which are recovering from damage caused by earlier Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
