500 Million Pesos in Dues Missing; Workers Believe Mexico’s Federal Labour Regulator Complicit

ByMexico Solidarity

This article originally appeared in the March 9, 2026 edition of almomento.

Alejandro Martínez Araiza, general secretary of the National Food and Commerce Union (SNAC), marks 295 days today in blatant defiance of the Federal Labor Law (LFT). Despite demands from the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare (STPS), headed by Marath Bolaños, the union leader refuses to disclose the whereabouts of more than 500 million pesos belonging to the workers’ assets.

The conflict, which is escalating in tension as the months go by, stems from the systematic violation of Article 373 of the Federal Labor Law. This law requires union leadership to provide detailed accountings of their assets. However, union members from companies with a national presence, such as Mondelez, PepsiCo, Sabritas, Barcel, Mars, Sigma Alimentos, Alpura, and Pan Ideal, report that there is no record of how union dues accumulated over the past six years have been managed.

Mexican union leader Alejandro Martínez Araiza proudly uses a photograph of himself before the US Congress for some reason, probably not a good one. In September of last year, he posted an embarrassing eulogy to US racist Charlie Kirk on his Facebook account.

A Challenge to Transparency

Since May 19, 2025, the Federal Center for Conciliation and Labor Registration (CFCRL), under the direction of Alfredo Domínguez Marrufo, formally urged Martínez Araiza to submit a detailed report of the SNAC’s finances. Far from complying, the leader has openly refused, cynically arguing that “97 percent of the country’s unions do not report their assets.”

This stance has been interpreted by rank-and-file workers as a direct challenge to the anti-corruption policies implemented by President Claudia Sheinbaum’s administration. Despite the legal challenges filed, the workers point out that Domínguez Marrufo has refused to cancel the union leader’s registration, which they describe as a “ratification of complicity.”

Re-election Irregularities

The history of irregularities doesn’t end with a lack of financial transparency. On April 15, 2025, Martínez Araiza secured his re-election in a process riddled with suspicion. According to reports, the leader moved the elections forward by seven months, holding them during Holy Week to minimize oversight.

Even more serious is the alleged intervention of CFCRL officials to validate the process. File CFCRL-MODMIEMBROS-20250415-25297-0817 reveals that, on the very day of the election, the union requested to modify its membership list. Just 24 hours later, Marco Antonio Magadán Ocampo, Deputy Director of Union Registration Verification, approved the request, updating the list to 17,161 members in an expedited manner.

The speed with which the CFCRL has processed the paperwork in favor of the SNAC contrasts sharply with the bureaucracy faced by workers’ complaints. Just three weeks after the election, Rafael Mendoza Mendoza, Technical and Registry Support Director, issued the certificate of modification of the board of directors under registration number 4232.

For the dissident workers, these actions confirm the existence of an institutional protection network that allows Martínez Araiza to operate above the law. While his 500 million peso fortune remains unaudited, the rank-and-file workers are demanding the President’s immediate intervention to stop what they consider a corruption scheme rooted in the old practices of opaque unionism.