Local employees in consulates of Mexico in United States they denounced that the mass layoffs in representations, this causes the American government will not renew the visa type A-2.
“Although the Chancellor [Marcelo Ebrard] recognize the labor injustices in which we are subjected consular employees from Mexico to the United States on days before the end of the year, when many of us are on vacation or at home due to Covid-19, In some consulates they initiated the notifications of dismissal of workers “, denounced the Committee of Local Employees.
Through a letter addressed to the President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Local employees accused that the dismissal cases that have been given have justified them for several reasons: expiration of type A-2 visa within the next three months, for non-renewal of this visa, budget cuts and even by decision of the holder in diplomatic representation.
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“It is clear that there is no general and equitable criterion. There is a contradictory discourse between representations, of proportions and circumstances never seen before. Unfortunately, we are finding that there are still authoritarian practices and outside the law, that the fourth Transformation it can’t or doesn’t want to eradicate, ”they said.
In Mexico’s diplomatic representations in the United States there are just over 1,700 local employees with an A-2 visa, which is granted to full-time workers of a foreign government, Intended for an embassy or consulate. It is personal that was not sent directly from Mexico, as it is hired directly at the place of affiliation.
In 2015, the US Department of State announced that A-2 type visas would no longer be renewed. In the case of staff who are not legally resident in this country or do not have citizenship and work with the A-2 type visa, they face the non-renewal of the document, which forces them to leave the country immediately. The vast majority ends their contract in August 2021.
A spokesman for that organization told THE UNIVERSAL that in recent days several dozen employees have been laid off and that 500 more are looming to lose their jobs.
Recently, Ebrard stated that the issue is already in dialogue with State Department officials.
According to complaints from local employees, five years ago, when the United States was warned about the non-renewal of type A-2 visas, they have become even more unprotected, as the contracts, which are renewed every year, are ‘ ls cut to six months.
The only benefit they have is higher medical expenses insurance, which does not include any members of their families. In addition, they are not entitled to retirement.
“We, the consular employees, are also migrant workers and, although our task is to look after the interests of our compatriots abroad, we are unprotected by the government itself, ”the staff committee said.
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It was detailed that there are local employees over 10 years and up to 20 years of continuous work, who have been laid off and have to return to Mexico, but without job protection. “It was five years, two years of this administration, in which the Mexican government did not comment on the regularization of our labor rights. The efforts of this committee were underestimated and ignored, and now with the situation outdated by time and taking as a pretext the note from the State Department and the pandemic, it justifies the lack of will, commitment and loyalty to an important part of the Mexican working class, which we proudly carry the name and image of our country very high throughout the United States, “they said.
the Local Employees Committee called for the attention of President López Obrador and Chancellor Marcelo Ebrard in order to find a solution for all those who are unprotected, especially for those who have already been fired and are about to lose their jobs.
“Worsening the situation of vulnerability to the pandemic, many of us do not have a place in having to return, due to the lack of heritage, Since we have been deprived of social security. In these difficult times of pandemic, We are the only support for our families in Mexico, thus contributing to the sending of remittances.
“Ironically, our own country is deporting us and throwing us into unemployment statistics,” they pointed out.