World's Eyes on Atento Mexico as Video Highlights Workers' Struggle

Company's Extreme Anti-Union Tactics Familiar to Puerto Rico CWAers

Click the video link to hear firsthand from workers fighting for justice at Atento Mexico.

A powerful new video is helping intensify global support for embattled telecom workers at Atento Mexico, where managers in the past month have twice derailed opportunities for fair union elections.

On Oct. 31 and Nov. 9, 10,000 Atento workers in Mexico City attempted to replace their company "protection" union — a union in name only that protects employers' interests — with the independent telecom union STRM.

In those elections and a first attempt in July 2010, Atento prevented a fair vote through interference, bullying, threats and other tactics. The Oct. 31 election was set with just a week's notice and the latest election was held with less than 48 hours' notice.

As a UNI Global Union video describes, the company stopped many workers from leaving worksites the day of the vote. Workers who made it to the National Labor Board to attempt to vote were blocked by Atento managers and security guards. After workers fought their way to the front, the Labor Board closed its gates.

The tactics fly in the face of a neutrality agreement that Atento's parent company, Spain's Telefonica, signed, pledging to UNI that it would not interfere with workers attempting to organize unions as the company expanded in Latin America.

The same agreement was in place when CWA Local 3010 attempted to organize 800 Atento workers in Puerto Rico in 2006. CWA's Jorge Rodriguez called it the "most aggressive anti-union campaign" he's seen in his years as an organizer.

Atento fired 19 members of the union organizing committee, harassed and threatened employees, held captive audience meetings, falsely accused union organizers of violence, and warned that the company shut down in Peru after workers voted for a union, among other relentless tactics. For instance, when employees turned on their computers at work, they were met with a "Vote No to Union" screen.

Rodriquez remains stunned by Telefonica's brazen claims that it did nothing to violate its neutrality agreement with UNI. "That's the question I've been asking myself for five years — what is their definition of 'neutrality,'" he said, adding that CWA has never given up on eventually organizing Atento Puerto Rico.

In Mexico, CWA President Larry Cohen was among 150 global labor leaders who marched with 1,500 Atento workers just days before the Oct. 31 election.

Cohen stressed how similar the situation is to CWA's fight for T-Mobile workers in the United States, with both companies owned by European corporations. In Europe, Telefonica and Germany's Deutsche Telekom are subject to strict laws protecting the rights of workers; in the United States and Mexico, weak laws allow the companies to exploit workers.

The video makes clear that Atento Mexico workers aren't giving up. As a worker shown speaking to the rally crowd said, "We won't rest until we win the election and we have an independent, democratic union."

Click here to view and share the video.