Industrial Relations in the Oil Industry in Mexico

This working paper examines industrial relations models in the oil and gas industry in Mexico. The paper found that Mexico needs to modernize its oil industry in order to become more competitive in the global market. To meet this goal, social dialogue can play numerous significant roles. Social dialogue includes all types of negotiations, consultations or exchanges of information between representatives of governments, employers and workers, on issues of common interest relating to economic and social policy. Social dialogue is an instrument that fosters mutual understanding, which can lead to better industrial relations. Social dialogue is a very effective means to ease adversarial relationships through collaboration in the course of introducing new technologies. New technologies demand higher skills. The Government of Mexico, PEMEX (Petróleos Mexicanos) and trade unions have a common interest in training and retraining for increasing productivity in the oil industry. This is one of the many good industrial relations examples of social dialogue in the oil and gas industry in Mexico.