Mexican workers vote for independent union at border plant

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican workers have voted yet again for an independent union, this time in a city where border assembly plants have been largely dominated by old-guard unions. Government officials said late Friday that employees at the Panasonic Automotive Systems factory in Reynosa, across the border from McAllen, Texas, voted overwhelmingly to be represented by a new union. Employees at the maquiladora, as the plants are known, had long been represented by a union affiliated with the Confederation of Mexican Workers. That federation long kept wages low and signed contracts behind workers’ backs. A similar vote occurred in late February in another border city, Matamoros.