Smiling PEMEX workers at a petrochemicals plant.

Labour contract for Mexico signed

MEXICO CITY, September 11, 2015 – Mexican state oil company Pemex and the Union of Mexican Petroleum Workers have broken a tense negotiations period and signed a collective labour contract for the next two years, Pemex announced in a Friday statement. Pemex workers will gain a 3.99 percent salary increase as well as a 1.75 percent benefits increase.

Recent political shakeups have changed the oil and gas industry in Mexico. The country’s Energy Reform Act, passed on August 11, 2014, ended Pemex’s monopoly. The government has also slashed Pemex’s 2015 budget by $4 billion. Furthermore, five union seats were removed from the company’s board.

“This accord reflects the commitment of both parties to strengthen the actions under way to transform Pemex to be more efficient and competitive, and together face the challenges of an open market,” Pemex CEO Emilio Lozoya Austin said in a statement.

The statement said that union director general Carlos Romero Deschamps “emphasised the willingness of workers to deal with the change confronting the company and expressed the will of the union to work together with management in respect for workers’ rights.”

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