Mexican Labor News & Analysis

Bombs Blast Pemex Pipelines, Leftist Group Suspected

Six bombs exploded in Mexican Petroleum (PEMEX) facilities or pipelines in Veracruz and Tlaxcala on September 10, causing huge explosions, though no one was injured or killed. The explosions forced the closing of more than 120 plants in several Mexican states, including the Volkswagen auto assembly plant.
Authorities evacuated between ten and twenty thousands people because of fires and gas leaks in the affected areas. The bombings damaged least a dozen pipelines, most carrying natural gas, according to Jesús Reyes Heroles, the head of PEMEX.

The Peoples Revolutionary Army (ERP), a leftist revolutionary organization, is presumed to be responsible. A note from the ERP was reportedly found at the site of one of the bombings. The ERP took responsibility for similar pipeline bombings that occurred in July.

On August 31 over 10,000 people were evacuated from Torre Mayor, Mexico City's tallest tower, after an attempted car bombing. The ERP also took credit for the attempt.

The ERP is an independent revolutionary group coming out of longstanding radical nationalist and leftist traditions in Mexico. The ERP is not associated with other left groups in either the parliamentary left, such as the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) led by Andrés Manuel López Obrador, nor with the extra-parliamentary left, such as the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) led by Subcomandante Marcos.

Calderón: Stronger Security

In response to this latest pipeline bombing, Mexican President Calderón said, “We will act energetically against those who are responsible, and we will not rest until we find them and bring them to justice….Those who attack the security of Mexicans for whatever reason attack democracy…Now more than ever, it is indispensable that we strengthen national security organizations through laws and through the budget.”

Some security analysts have suggested a possible alliance between the EPR and drug cartels, but that notion has been ridiculed. Ricardo Alemán, a columnist for El Universal, a Mexico City newspaper, said, “There is no evidence that they [EPR members] are directly linked to drug trafficking.” Drug dealers he suggested “don't need the EPR at this moment” since they can buy entire police departments and city governments.

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New Company Union Claims to Beat Miners Union in Elections

The new miners union created with the support of the Grupo Mexico mining company to challenge the Mexican Miners and Metalworkers Union (SNTMMRM) claimed victory in a representation election held among more than 4,000 workers at la Caridad mine in Sonora.

The representation elections are the latest stage in the struggle between Grupo Mexico and its political allies on the one hand and the Mexican Miners Union on the other. The struggle has involved legal charges against Mexican Miners Union leaders, the removal of the union’s top officer, Napoleón Gómez Urrutia, jobs actions, local and company-wide strikes and a national general strike by the miners. For several months the Mexican Miners Union has been engaged in a strike against Grupo Mexico.

The Mexican Mine Workers union’s fight for its life has enormous implications for the future of Mexican unions and workers. If Grupo Mexico can succeed in replacing the established union with a new company union, then all unions at major corporations in Mexico will be in danger.

Miners: A Stolen Election

The new National Union of Exploration, Exploitation and Plant Workers of the Mines of the Mexican Republic (Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Exploración, Explotación y Beneficio de Minas de la República Mexicana - SNTEEBMRM), headed by Francisco Hernández Gámez claimed that it won more than 4,000 votes while the old union won only 137.

The Mexican Miners Union, headed by Napoleón Gómez Urrutia, argued that the Mexican Secretary of Labor, the Federal Labor Board, and Grupo Mexico had colluded to deny workers a fair vote. The union outlined a list of reasons that the election was not legitimate:

· Of the 1,200 miners who might have voted, 900 unionized miners at la Caridad in Sonora were prevented from participating in the “recuento,” a process similar in some ways to a decertification and representation election in the United States.
· At San Luis Potosí 15 miners were fired to prevent them from participating in the election and to intimidate other workers.
· At Nueva Rostia, Coahuila, workers from the second shift were locked in the mine to keep them from voting.
· At Nacozari, Sonora, the the election took place after laying off 900 workers and less than a month after the August 12 assassination of Reynaldo Hernández.
· Grupo Mexico had brought charges against Mexican Miners Union representatives for extortion in order to intimidate them.
· At some locations police or soldiers were used to intimidate workers.
· In all locations outside toughs were brought in to intimidate workers and the local population.
· In some instances the company bribed workers with between US$150 and US$350 for each for their votes.
· The new company union does not yet enjoy legal status and therefore should have been banned from participating in a representation election.

Following the union representation election, the Mexican Mine Workers (SNTMMRM) union won a court decision reinstating 1,700 miners from La Caridad and another workplace in Sonora. The union says that the return to work of these miners invalidates the earlier election conducted in their absence.

SNTEEBMRM, the new company miners union, has affiliated with the National Federation of Independent Unions (Federación Nacional de Sindicatos Independientes - FNSI), a federation of company unions headquartered Monterrey, Nuevo Leon. FNSI was founded in 1936 to resist the left nationalist politics of president Lázaro Cárdenas and the new Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM) which he supported, then seen as a “red” labor union. (The CTM subsequently became a conservative state-party controlled federation.) In response to Cárdenas and the CTM, the industrial elite of Nuevo Leon, led by the Garza Sada clan, took the initiative to create company unions throughout their steel, class, and beer industries. Since then, the FNSI has spread to other industries in the state and more recently to some maquiladoras in that state and others.

(The FNSI webpage can be found at: http://www.fnsi.org.mx/ing/display.php The English version of the page does not function at all and the Spanish language version is incomplete.)

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Teamsters Protest as Mexican Truck Drivers Enter U.S.

Unionism and racism mixed at the Otay Mesa border crossing south of San Diego on September 6 as the first Mexican truck drivers entered the United States bound for locations across the country only to be met by other workers waving picket signs and shouting slogans opposed to their presence.

For the first time Mexican truck drivers will be able to drive their vehicles anywhere in the United States under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), after a decision by the U.S. Department of Transportation. On September 6, the DOT granted permission to Transportes Olympic, based in a suburb of Monterrey, Mexico, to begin to send its drivers to points throughout the United States. Mexico has, in turn, granted authority to Stagecoach Cartage & Distribution Inc. of El Paso to travel anywhere in Mexico.

Jimmy Hoffa, president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT), fought to keep Mexican companies and drivers from entering the United States. The Teamsters joined the Sierra Club in arguing that the Mexican trucks would be unsafe and should be kept from entering the United States. Public Citizen also opposed the Mexican truckers entering the USA. The DOT and highway patrols in the border states assert that their safety standards are rigorous and will be enforced on drivers from Canada, Mexico and the U.S.

Hoffa told a Teamsters’ women’s conference taking place at the same time as the Mexican drivers entered that he was concerned about the Mexican drivers and what they would be hauling.

The Teamsters union organized protests involving a few dozen of its members at the San Diego, California and Laredo, Texas border crossings where the Teamsters carried American flags and signs reading “NAFTA Kills”' and “Unsafe Mexican Trucks.” In San Diego Teamsters were joined by anti-immigration activists and some on the picket line shouted. “They’re trying to take our jobs. They’re trying to take over the country.” (A video of that protest is available at: http://video.nbcsandiego.com/player/?id=153715 )

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Update on Vaqueros Navarra Struggle

(This information was provided by Lynda Yanz of the Maquila Solidarity Network and by Benedicto Martinez of the Frente Auténtico del Trabajo. For more information, see the update in the August MLNA at http://www.ueinternational.org/Mexico_info/mlna_articles.php?id=120#723). They also asked that we convey their great appreciation to those of you who sent letters or financial contributions).

Background

The struggle by workers at Vaqueros Navarra began in May when workers organized to protest the amount VN was paying out in annual profit sharing (utilidades). It subsequently became a fight to win the right to be represented by an independent union affiliated with the FAT. Not surprisingly many worker leaders were fired and supporters of the independent union were harassed and pressured to "voluntarily" resign. However, some workers refused to give in to management intimidation and continued to press for their right to be represented by the union of their choice.

The Maquila Solidarity Network (MSN) has been coordinating with the Human and Labour Rights Commission of the Tehuacan Valley, which is the main local support for the workers, and with the Frente Autentico del Trabajo (FAT). Their participation resulted in an investigation by Verite at the request of the brand buyers. This process has been coordinated by Gap, although two or three other brands have also been involved.

Verite investigation & Brand involvement

Since the August issue of MLNA, the Verite investigation was competed and the findings and recommendations for corrective action communicated to the brand buyers. The audit, as well as a letter Gap sent to the workers in response to a letter from them, received a fair amount of coverage in the local press.

Although the brands had provided assurances that there would be no further lay offs or pressure on workers to "voluntarily" resign, one day after the completion of the Verite investigation, workers were once again being dismissed. Management also reportedly called workers together to report that Verite had given the factory a positive evaluation. The information was reported to all the brands with whom they have been communicating on this (Gap, Levi's, American Eagle, PVH/Warnaco (for Calvin Klein), Limited (for Express), Abercrombie & Fitch and Tommy Hilfiger) and on August 20, Gap sent a letter to the company expressing concern about the new allegations of dismissals and outlining Gap's expectations, which include that workers who have been pressured to resign should be reinstated, that there should be no further employer interference with the workers' right to freely associate, and that the recuento proceed in a timely, transparent and confidential manner. There have been no further dismissals.

Hearing Set for September 28

As we go to press, we have learned that a hearing has been set for September 28. It is expected that at that hearing the date and terms under which the election will take place will be established.

Need for Financial Support

Thirty five workers have refused to accept severance and have filed complaints with the Junta for unfair dismissal, and are therefore receiving no income at present, are in desperate need of financial support - especially now that children are returning to school.

The FAT and Commission have asked us to communicate with our allies to make contributions to a fund to support the workers during this difficult time. As this is a campaign in which the FAT is involved, contributions to support these workers can be sent to the UE-FAT Solidarity Fund. Go to UE-FAT Solidarity Fund for more information about how to do so; be sure to indicate that money is to go to workers at Vaqueros Navarra.

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López Obrador Tells PRD Congressmen To Disrupt Tax Vote

Andrés Manuel López Obrador, leader of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) and as he calls himself the “legitimate president of Mexico,” has told his party’s congressional representatives to disrupt the vote on tax legislation presently before the Mexican legislature.

Calderón is proposing to raise Mexico’s taxes by 30 percent, much of that coming by closing loopholes that allow individuals and corporations to evade paying their taxes. He proposed to use the additional tax money to improve infrastructure such as highways, bridges, and sewer systems. Mexico collects only about 10 percent of GDP as taxes, one of the lowest rates in Latin America, while the U.S. collects about 25 percent. According to the Mexican Treasury Secretary, 30 to 40 percent of Mexicans file no taxes at all. Most Mexican taxes have historically come from the state oil company, Mexican Petroleum Company (PEMEX).

The proposed tax reform

The tax reform includes the following proposals:

To increase corporate taxes, corporations would pay income tax based on revenue rather than profits, taxes would be based on higher of the two figures.

To increase taxes from the underground economy, banks would deduct 2 percent tax on deposits over a certain amount, probably $1,800.

To improve the situation of PEMEX, the company would be given a $2.7 billion tax cut.

To raise taxes from better off consumers, a 5.5 percent increase in the gasoline sales tax would be imposed, or 13 cents per gallon.

It is the last item that most angered López Obrador and the PRD, since it hits at the highest paid workers and the middle class.

López Obrador: Use Civil Disobedience

On September 1, PRD members prevented Mexican President Felipe Calderón from personally presenting the state of the union address before congress. Calderón was forced to give the state of the union from the National Palace on September 2. Now López Obrador is telling his party to physically prevent the passage of the Calderón proposed tax plan. López Obrador argues that Felipe Calderón is a usurper who took power by stealing the national elections.

Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador, the losing candidate in last year's Mexican presidential election, called on his party's congressional delegation to disrupt voting on government-backed, tax overhaul legislation. Without disruption, the Calderón’s National Action Party (PAN) and the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which make up about two-thirds of the delegates, would pass the plan.

López Obrador told his party’s delegates to “put in practice, if it is necessary, peaceful civil resistance inside this chamber until they withdraw the initiative.”

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Elvira Arellano, Deported Migrant, Asks to Be Ambassador

Elvira Arellano, the undocumented Mexican immigrant deported from the United States last month, asked president Felipe Calderón to name her Mexico’s “ambassador of peace” and to send her back to the United States.

Arellano, who had spent the last year in sanctuary in a Chicago church where she became a spokesperson and a symbol of the new sanctuary movement, was deported after she went to Los Angeles. Her deportation separated the single mother from her 11-year-old son.

Calderón, who has spoken out strongly against U.S. immigration policies, did not name her to become his ambassador for peace.

(See: Dan La Botz, “The Deportation of Elvira Arellano,” on the Monthly Review electronic site: http://www.monthlyreview.org/mrzine/labotz220807.html )

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Mexican Congressmen Protest Presence of US Mercenaries

The parliamentary delegation of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) has raised objections in Congress to the presence of U.S. mercenaries in the state of Veracruz, Mexico. The Mexican government apparently hired Sycoleman Corporation of Arlington, Virginia, a private company that works on intelligence issues for the U.S. Department of Defense, to perform aerial anti-drug trafficking work in Mexico.

The PRI argues that some of the mercenaries actually may be U.S. military officers or persons with links to the U.S. military and that their presence on the nation’s soil is therefore a threat of Mexican sovereignty. The PRI insisted that Calderón should explain what the U.S.-based mercenaries are doing in Mexico.

(Sycoleman’s website is: http://www.sycoleman.com/ )

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Maquila Workers in Torreon Request Support

(The following information was provided by ENLACE. They can be reached at: Enlace info@enlaceintl.org or www.enlaceintl.org)

Compañeras & compañeros,

In 2001 the company SWIFT GALEY began operations in the city of Torreon, Coahuila, to produce denim and gabardine. The work shifts were 7:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.; from 3:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. and from 11:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. with inhumane conditions, as in all maquiladoras.

This past August 23, the company separated us by teams and informed us that they were going to close the factory, that we should go home. They left 1500 workers without employment.

Up to today, the company has not given us severance pay as required by law. Indignant about this violation and without a way to defend ourselves, we have decided to conduct a protest in front of the company to demand that it give us a satisfactory response and that it follow the law.

We are pressuring the company in the only way that we can, a protest outside of the factory to impede the company from taking out the machinery and leaving the country without resolving the problem with us, the workers.

Right now, the company is pressuring us workers that are outside of the plant (they’ve turned off the electricity and the water and they’ve removed the chairs that we were using there). The majority of us are women and mothers, and we do not have the necessary resources to continue this fight.

We need the most indispensable support to continue with this protest, in addition to research on this company in order to pressure it in other countries.

We hope that we can count on your solidarity.

Make a donation to the el Centro de Apoyo a trabajadoras De la maquila de la Laguna A.C. (the Maquiladora Workers Support Center of La Laguna), by making a deposit to the bank BBVA BANCOMER. The account number is 0157310765, Route # 5987, Branch TORREON SORIANA REVOLUCION. Or you can send a check made out to “Centro de Apoyo a trabajadoras De la maquila de la Laguna A.C.” y enviarlo a Calle Azteca No. 30, Colonia Nueva Provincia, Código Postal 27277, Torreón, Coahuila, México.

If you have any questions or information about the company, please communicate them to Eva Padilla by email eva242@latinmail.com or by telephone: country code 52, number 871-209-6743.

SINCERELY,
Eva Padilla Carrera and the Workers of the Maquila Workers Support Center of La Laguna

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Labor Shorts

Mexicana Flight Attendants Accept 3.8% Raise

Flight attendants who work for Mexicana have accepted a salary increase of 3.8%.

Workers at the Federal Electoral Institute Demand Rights

Workers who are members of the National Union of Workers of the Federal Electoral Institute (SNTIFE) wait to hear if the Mexican Supreme Court will force the Federal Labor Board to recognize their union officers, a procedure called toma de nota. The workers complain that their union created three years ago still cannot exercise any of its constitutional and legal rights.

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Social Statistics

Economic Growth

Mexico’s president, Felipe Calderón Hinojosa, foresees economic growth of 3.5 percent in 2008 without his tax reform, but growth of 3.7 percent if the Mexican Congress passes his new fiscal proposal. At the same time, due to the using up of Mexico’s existing oil deposits, a 3 percent reduction in oil revenue is predicted for next year.

Poverty and Hunger

Mexico, with a population of over 108 million, has 19 million who live in “food poverty,” according to Ana de Lourdes Farill Herrera, media spokesperson for Food for All (Alimento para Todos). She said half a million people in the Federal District go hungry. (Sept. 8, 2007)

Educational Deficiency

Despite the fact that Mexico has succeeded in achieving about a 99.8 percent coverage in basic education, still there are about 35 million people who have educational deficiencies, according to Rogelio Castillo Trápala of the National School of Social Work of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) speaking on International Literacy Day. He said that about six million Mexicans over the age of 15 cannot read.

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MOVIE REVIEW: People Of Oaxaca Tell Their Own Story In New Video: “A Little Bit Of So Much Truth / Un Poquito De Tanta Verdad” By Jill Freidberg

By Dan La Botz

What a beautiful, powerful, dramatic and important video this is! The people of Oaxaca, Mexico tell their own story—passionately, powerfully and movingly—in the new video “A Little Bit of So Much Truth / Un Poquito de Tanta Verdad” by Jill Freidberg and the Oaxacan media collective Mal de Ojo. Freidberg is the award-winning producer of the documentaries “Granito de Arena / Grain of Sand” and “This is What Democracy Looks Like.”

The subject of this video is the Oaxaca rebellion that began in early 2006 with a strike by Local 22 of the Mexican Teachers Union. But, after the police attached the teachers, it became a massive popular upheaval that led to the creation of a broad alliance of some 250 organizations, the Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca (APPO). What started as the teachers’ struggle to improve education for parent, children and the teachers themselves, became a broad fight for democracy and social justice. For almost a year these organizations fought off hostile media campaigns, political maneuvers, and violent state terrorism that took the lives of twenty.

This is a magnificent video that captures the thousands of faces and voices of ordinary women and men involved in the social rebellion of 2006 that aimed to drive from office the dictatorial governor Ulises Ruíz. The video is narrated with audio and video recordings from the occupied media, captures the voices of Oaxaca and the subtitles provide an impeccable translation that captures not only the words but the sense of the speakers.

At the center of “A Little Bit of So Much Truth” is the remarkable role of the way in which the Oaxacans created the peoples’ media. During the months-long struggle to oust Ruíz, schoolteachers, housewives, indigenous communities, health workers, and students took over 14 radio stations and one TV station. They used the media to organize, to mobilize, and finally to defend themselves from the governor’s murderous repression.

What was the Oaxaca rebellion of 2006 all about and ultimately what did it mean? This video does not provide the answers to that question, but it provides a remarkably deep and penetrating look into the people who made up the movement. What the video does not get at, perhaps cannot get at through this medium, are all the complex and subtle questions about the nature of Local 22 and APPO and their relationship to the people we see in this video. How did APPO function? What were its politics? What was the role of its leaders? Of its constituent organizations? How did differences play out between different groups, interests and factions in the movement? Those questions are perhaps better handled in print media than in video. This video, however, by introducing us in such a personal way to the people, encourages us to ask those questions in a more concrete and down-to-earth way.

Everyone interested in Mexico, in teachers and education, in workers’ movements, in indigenous people, in the state of our world and the struggle for social justice should see the video.

One last thing. One has to be struck here not only by the courage and creativity of the people of Oaxaca, but also by the courage of Jill Freidberg and the members of the Mal de Ojo collective who were with the people of Oaxaca throughout this dangerous and inspiring struggle.

To acquire this video go to: www.corrugate.org

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