Local employees at Mexican consulates come in U.S criticized that the mass layoffs in the performances, this because the US government will it type A-2 visa.
Despite the fact that the Chancellor [Marcelo Ebrard] recognized the labor injustices to which we are subject consular assistants from Mexico in the United States and days after the end of the year when many of us are on vacation or at home COVID-19, in some consulates they started notifications of dismissal of workers, “the Local Workers Committee said.
Via a letter addressed to the president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, accused local workers that the dismissal cases that occurred are justified for several reasons: the expiration of the A-2 visa within the next three months, due to the non-renewal of the visa, a reduction in the budget and even by decision of the holder in the diplomatic mission.
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“It is clear that there is no general and fair criterion. There is a contradictory discourse between the representations of unprecedented relationships and circumstances. Unfortunately, we verify that there are still authoritarian and illegal practices, that the Fourth transformation it cannot or will not eradicate, ”they said.
In Mexico’s diplomatic missions in the United States, there are just over 1,700 local workers who hold an A-2 visa, which is granted to full-time employees of a foreign government, intended for an embassy or consulate. It is personnel not sent directly from Mexico as it is hired directly at the place of assignment.
In 2015 US State Department announced that Type A-2 visas would no longer be renewed. In the case of personnel who are not legally resident in that country or have no citizenship and work with a type A-2 visa, the document will not be renewed, forcing them to leave the country immediately. The vast majority will end their contracts in August 2021.
A spokesman for this organization told it THE UNIVERSAL that several dozen workers have been laid off in recent days and another 500 are losing their jobs.
Recently, Ebrard stated that the matter is already in talks with State Department authorities.
According to complaints from local workers, five years ago when the United States warned of the non-renewal of the Type A-2 visa, they are even more unprotected as the contracts, which are renewed every year, were reduced to six months .
The only benefit they have is a great health insurance policy, which does not include a member of their family. In addition, they are not entitled to retirement.
“We, the consular employees, are too migrant workers and despite the fact that our job is to look after the interests of our fellow countrymen abroad, we become unprotected when employed by the government itself, ”said the staff committee.
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It has been detailed that there are local workers with more than 10 years and up to 20 years of continuous work, who have been laid off and must return to Mexico, but without any employment protection. “It was five years, two of this government, in which the Mexican government made no statement about the regularization of our labor rights. The efforts of this commission were underestimated and ignored, and with the situation being overtaken by time and the State Department note and the pandemic being taken as a pretext, the lack of will, commitment and loyalty towards a significant part of the class justified. Mexican worker, who proudly holds the name and image of our country in high esteem throughout the United States, ”they said.
He Local Workers Committee He called the attention of President López Obrador and Secretary of State Marcelo Ebrard to find a solution for all those who are unprotected, especially those who have already been fired and are about to lose their jobs.
“As the vulnerability situation is exacerbated by the pandemic, many of us have no place to return to because of the lack of heritagesince we don’t have social security. In these difficult moments of pandemicWe are the only support for our families in Mexico, helping to send money transfers.
Ironically, our own country deported us and threw us into the unemployment statistics, they said.