That is the case of the National Food and Commerce Union (SNAC), who is proposing that the industries in which it carries collective bargaining agreements incorporate a chapter denominated “Management of Digital Transformation, Automatization, Robotics, and Artificial Intelligence.” The union has a presence in companies such as Bimbo, Sigma, Pepsico, Alpura, Gamesa and Coronado.
The proposed principles seek to ensure that technological changes are implemented jointly with the union. One of the clauses establishes that the adoption of new technologies, digitalization, automatization, and AI will not be direct causes for dismissal. In the event that certain activities are automated, the company must offer retraining (reskilling/upskilling) programs and job relocation or, otherwise, they must negotiate any adjustment with the union.
It is also noted that the introduction of new technologies is not intended to substitute workers, but rather to improve their performance and efficiency. Nevertheless, if the technological changes involve the elimination of human roles, layoffs may not exceed 10 percent of the work center’s workforce.
“There are 50 new clauses, and the key topics are related to the human supervision behind these technologies and job security. What will happen when they want to dismiss workers? We are setting a 10 percent cap. The objective is to make a transition, that they tell us about those plans in advance and involve us as representatives of the workers. We need to see what we are going to do with that 10 percent, training and relocating them”, Alejandro Martínez, secretary general of the SNAC explained.
Martínez acknowledged that there is resistance from the companies, although Sigma and Pepsico have already agreed to include some of the new provisions. Another section of the clauses provides for technological audits, as there is no clarity in regard to when workers are recorded and how their biometric data is used.
“Even the strokes per minute on a conveyor belt are measured: many companies have information on a worker’s output per second, but no one knows what is done with this information”, he pointed out.
The union leader emphasized that the next two years will be crucial in decision making in regard to technological investments that could leave thousands of people unemployed. The SNAC currently has 25,000 members in 500 work centers.
Negotiations are also taking place in the automotive sector. The General Motors union in San Luis Potosí is seeking to include clauses that protect employment in face of the adoption of AI technology. Carlos Leone, the union’s secretary general, pointed out that a joint commission has been created in order to guarantee job security for personnel.
“We are generating a clause in which both the company and the union commit to seek the best alternatives to guarantee the workers’ permanence in the plant in the event that an algorithm or automatization are implemented”, Leone said.
For his part, Óscar de la Vega, a labor lawyer at De la Vega & Martínez, warned that in developing countries like Mexico, the introduction of AI entails a risk of job displacements.
“For many years Mexico relied on unskilled labor, particularly in the maquila industry, and the first thing that AI will have an impact on is manual labor. Unions are fearful of the effects of technology”, he said.
In the case of the automotive sector, he added, robotization is advancing quickly in countries like China. Although it is not yet a recurring theme in contract negotiations, clauses that provide for severance pay above the legal minimum are beginning to be added in the event of layoffs deriving from new technologies.
