So far they have not received orders to stop work: union leaders
Mérida, Yucatán, (April 13, 2021).- Despite the injunctions and suspensions against the Maya Train in various sections of the project, workers, dump trucks, members of the Autonomous Confederation of Workers and Employees of Mexico (CATEM), have not stopped their activities.
So far they have not received orders to stop the work, “They are not working illegally,” according to local and national union leaders. Although, they recognized that this type of legal resources could represent a delay in the work.
“We continue working, as the injunctions are for different issues; if we get a resolution from a judge where they tell us that we cannot move any truck, then yes, it would be a matter for the company and we would have to stop the works”, said Raúl Uribe Soria, secretary of Infrastructure and Transportation of CATEM at the national level.
He specified that as long as they do not receive a notice from the company “they are not going to stop working.” And then he stressed: “We are not out of the law”.
“Yes, we are affected by the injunctions in our daily work, but CATEM’s position is that we are in favor of the Maya Train, legal matters are not our issue; our issue is to ensure the interest of our fellow workers,” acknowledged Carlos Cisneros Dogre, representative of the confederation in Yucatan.
Cisneros Dogre indicated that there are many people who have wanted to demonize the work, saying that only foreigners are employed, “but that is not true, we are local,” he said. There are, according to their estimates, more than 2,500 workers in all sections.
He reported that the works continue on the existing roads; since the protections are exclusively for new works, therefore there is no impediment to carry out these activities.
False expectations
In December 2020, dump trucks who carry out work for the Maya Train Project in various sections of Yucatan and Quintana Roo were on strike in protest against a reduction in their rates that the Autonomous Confederation of Workers and Employees of Mexico (CATEM) intended to apply.
In this regard, Rubén Heredia Marrufo, the group’s legal advisor, indicated that these conflicts have already been resolved. What happened, as he explained, is that many people had “false expectations”, fed by leaders. “Quite high rates, which had never been considered in the contracts … they had erroneous information on how much was to be paid,” he said.
But, he added, they spoke with the leaders of both states and it was shown that the contracts were not “raised”, the fair and real price was being paid through dialogue tables and that is how the work began. However, he did not specify what is the rate that trucks are currently being paid.
Source: La Jornada Maya