INE Workers Accept 6% Salary Increase, Digi Mart USA News (Mexico): Following a work stoppage that left more than 64% of the Citizen Service Centers (MAC) in Mexico inoperative, provisional council president Blanca Cruz García and the workers’ negotiating committee agreed to a 6% base salary increase, with a promise that a raise of two minimum salaries, which the workers are requesting, will be achieved over the next year.
On Monday morning, dozens of workers from the institute’s service centers protested outside the INE’s central headquarters to demand better working conditions. Wearing uniforms and holding placards, they chanted slogans saying that while they receive low wages, senior INE officials divert millions.
They also briefly closed the Periférico Sur in both directions.
After more than five hours of meetings, the provisional council president held a press conference and said it had been agreed to reopen the modules at 100% and offer a 6 percent base salary increase. Councilor Carla Humphrey reported that of the 841 modules in the country, 297 were operating and 544 were closed, meaning 35.3 percent were operating and 64.7 percent were not.
She promised that all modules would be back in operation across the country the following day.
Cruz García said the staff’s demands fell into three categories, and that the first corrections would be applied immediately in the final two months of the year. These include priority attention to sanitary facilities, access areas, cleaning supplies and stationery, and security services.
The institute also committed to respecting the 30-minute meal break within the work shift and to providing regulatory facilities for approved leave.
Cruz García also reiterated the institutional commitment that no administrative records would be filed and no deductions or reprisals would be applied against staff who took part in the mobilization or chose to work under protest.
Regarding the demand for a 25% raise or a fixed figure of 19,000 pesos, the INE confirmed that the base agreed for the start of 2027 will be 6%, a figure that may be adjusted upward depending on budget sufficiency and any savings the agency generates during the second half of the year. The authority also noted that from 2027 the legal salary cap for electoral authorities will take effect, reducing the income of councilors and senior officials who currently exceed the permitted limit.
Later, Edgar Fernández, representative of the module workers, acknowledged that they will accept a 6% increase, which could rise to 8% or 12%, with the goal of reaching the two minimum salaries they are requesting. He stated that the institute would formally request a budget expansion from the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit (SHCP) during the first quarter of the year to cover the difference needed to reach two minimum salaries in 2027.
The INE also committed to including the resources needed for these increases in its 2028 budget.
