Labour transformations: SINTTIA’s role in reshaping the landscape of industrial union organising in Mexico

This Theory into Practice article explores the emergence of the National Independent Union of Automotive Industry Workers (SINTTIA) at General Motors Guanajuato, where workers challenged entrenched corporatist union structures through grassroots mobilisation. Drawing on 18 months of fieldwork including interviews, participant observation, and document analysis, the article traces how democratic organising was shaped by labour agency, solidarity networks, and navigation of territorial conflicts. While Mexico’s 2019 labour reform and the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement’s Rapid Response Labor Mechanism opened formal pathways, the case shows that institutional change was insufficient without worker-led action. In a sector marked by low automation and inequality, SINTTIA’s experience offers situated insights into labour transformations and the contestation of structural violence.