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A festering labor dispute at a Johnson Controls’ plant in Mexico has spread to Milwaukee as representatives seeking to create a union arrived in town last night. They plan to visit the company’s headquarters in Glendale on Friday to present their demands.

The representatives have flown here from Puebla, Mexico, where the company has three auto parts plants. They will be joined by local labor officials, State Sen. Spencer Coggs (D-Milwaukee) and Rep. Pedro Colon (D-Milwaukee) on Friday. Their key demand  is that their plant drop its contract with a union they say is beholden to Johnson Controls’ interests. Johnson Controls plants in Mexico, along with those owned by other manufacturers, have drawn international attention since labor activists say the manufacturers seek out company-backed unions that don’t represent the workers’ interests.

(illustration by Adrian Palomo)

“It’s one of the strongest obstacles for workers in Mexico,” says Steven Coats, executive director of the U.S. Labor Education in the Americas Project, a nonprofit labor group active in Latin America.

About 400 workers at another Johnson Controls plant in Puebla (it has a few dozen in the country) went on strike in late May for three days. The company ended the strike by meeting many of their demands. This was a rare instance when workers were able to rid themselves of the company backed union, activists say, in favor of one that’s more Democratic, the National Union of Mine and Metal Workers (“the Mineros”).

Organizers at the “Finsa” plant in Puebla are pushing for Johnson Controls to sever ties with the “CROM” union it backs in favor of the Mineros.

Their other demands include the reinstatement of several employees allegedly fired for attempting to organize a new union, a meeting between organizers and management in Puebla, safer working conditions, more humane working conditions for pregnant workers and a commitment to paying overtime wages.

According to USLEAP, which is helping to organize the Milwaukee trip, Johnson Controls was refusing on Wednesday to meet with the delegation. “They don’t feel a need to meet with workers  even though these folks are coming all the way from Mexico to present their point of view,” Coats says. Instead, according to USLEAP, the company wants the delegation to meet with management in Mexico.

Doug Curler, secretary-treasurer of Machinist Union Lodge 66, which represents employees at about 40 different companies in Southeastern Wisconsin, plans to attend Friday’s event. “We’re hoping Johnson Controls will decide to sit down and talk to its workers and try to be a good corporate leader,” he says. Curler worked at Johnson Controls plants in Milwaukee, he says, before the production was moved to Mexico.

Mexican labor regulations allow workers to hold elections to choose their union by applying to the country’s Federal Labor Board, but USLEAP doesn’t place much faith in that process. Coats says the workers in Puebla have few ways to get Johnson Controls to recognize a new union because Mexican labor officials are typically sympathetic to employers and the company-sanctioned unions.

Johnson Controls is a multinational Fortune 100 corporation headquartered in Milwaukee that manufactures HVAC controls, auto parts and car batteries. It didn’t respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

According to USLEAP, the delegation is coming from a plant with about 600 workers, most of them women. Pay ranges from $96 to $120 per week. In 2007, the plant instituted a system of four 12-hour shifts a week. It assembles car seats for Chrysler, Ford, Mercedes Benz and Nissan vehicles.

USLEAP says that under the current, company-sanctioned union, “Workers have no ability to elect their leaders, participate in bargaining or otherwise have input. Workers report they do not have a copy of the union-bylaws or collective bargaining agreement.” USLEAP also alleges the union doesn’t consult with the workers, oppose the 12-hour shifts or demand overtime pay.

Representatives from the United Steelworkers, United Autoworkers, Milwaukee Area Labor Council and Voces de le Frontera, the Milwaukee immigrant rights group, are also expected to attend Friday’s event.

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