• EXCHANGE: Mexico’s state-owned electric utility (CFE) has formally proposed to bring back more generous retirement terms -including lowering of retirement age- in exchange for the union to be excluded from the company’s board of directors, thus leaving the government with greater control.
• NEGOTIATIONS: Amidst active negotiations with the company’s union to reach a new collective bargaining agreement this year, CFE’s head Manuel Bartlett floated the proposed deal that would lower the retirement age from 65 to 55 years and would require only 25 years of service instead of 30.
• MANAGEMENT: “(CFE) must have a…structure that ensures its technical and management autonomy to obtain the best results. It is exclusively up to its governing bodies to determine such circumstances and not with the intervention of the union representation”, said Bartlett in a letter.
• NUMBERS: If the union’s seat is canceled, CFE’s board of directors would be reduced to 9 members, 5 of which would be under government control. According to the latest data, CFE has 73,574 workers, 58,633 of which are unionized. The current number of retirees is 49,814.
