Mexican Labor News & Analysis

Teachers Accuse PRI Leader Of Murder

A group of dissident teachers has charged two former Teachers Union officials and the current head of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) of responsibility for the 1981 assassination of a teacher activist.

A group of dissident teachers went before the Special Prosecutor for Social Movements and Politics of the Past in late August and accused Elba Esher Gordillo, former leader of the Mexican Teachers Union (SNTE) and current head of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), of responsibility for the assassination teacher activist Misael Nuez in 1981. The group also accused Carlos Jonguitud Barrios, another former head of the teachers' union, of responsibility for the murder. (See: Karina Aviles, "Demandarn a Jonguitud y Gordillo por el homicidio de Misael Nuez," LA JORNADA, August 26, 2002, and "Jonguitud y Gordillo, acusados de homicidio y asociacin delictuosa," LA JORNADA, August 27, 2002.)

The dissident teachers of the National Coordinating Committee (la CNTE) of the Teachers Union argue that Gordillo and Jonguitud were the intellectual authors of the murder of Nuez, whose assassination opened a "dirty war in the teachers union," in which scores of others also perished. Carlos Jonguitud Barrios headed the Revolutionary Vanguard caucus that for years ran the union. When Carlos Salinas de Gortari became president in 1988, he helped unseat Jonguitud and replace him with Gordillo.

In Interview, Jonguitud accuses Gordillo

The accusation by the dissident teachers was prompted by an interview with Jonguitud conducted by reporters and published in the Mexico City daily LA JORNADA on August 25. In that interview Jonguitud stated that Gordillo maintained goon squads who had been responsible for the murder of Nuez. Some news commentators have suggested that Jonguitud's statement was an act of revenge intended to bring down Gordillo, now at the height of her power as head of the PRI and simultaneously political operator for President Fox. Jonguitud, the theory goes, is taking revenge against Gordillo who was responsible for helping to bring down Jonguitud in 1989, and replaced him as head of the union.

Gordillo, without a doubt Mexico's most prominent female political leader, used her role as head of the teachers' union to become a major player in the PRI and in Mexican politics generally. During the years of Salinas and Zedillo, she cultivated relationships to Mexican intellectual leaders from the PRI to the conservative National Action Party. Today while heading the PRI, many would argue that she now plays a crucial role in offering political support to president Vicente Fox. (See: Jesusa Cervantes and Jos Gil Olmos, "Una priista, operadora poltica de Fox," in PROCESO, August 25, 2002.)

The Assassination of Nuez

The assassination of Nuez took place on January 30, 1981 in Tulpetlac, Oaxaca. According to various sources, Rufino Vences Pea, Joel Vences Hernndez and Jorge Meja Pizaa were the assassins, shooting Nuez with a Colt .45 pistol. They had been paid 300 pesos to kill the leading teacher union dissident of the Valley of Mexico region. The murderers had been contracted by Clemente Villegas, the assistant to Ramn Martnez, then the general secretary of el SNTE. Throughout that period, Carlos Jonguitud Barrios was the "moral leader" of el SNTE and the power behind the throne. Elba Esther Gordillo was the head of the union in the State of Mexico, and the person who had much to gain by the elimination of Nuez.

Elba Esther Gordillo has denied responsibility for ordering the assassination of Nuez, offered to help the authorities resolve the case, and claimed she was being attacked because of her friendly relations with Fox. The Teachers Union leadership rushed to defend Gordillo, while legislators from the PRI, the PAN and the left-of-center National Action Party (PRD) called for an investigation to determine the responsibility of Jonguitud and Gordillo. La CNTE, the dissident caucus, has organized a national plebiscite in the teachers union, calling for the expulsion of Gordillo.

Tip of the Iceberg

The assassination of Misael Nuez, terrible as it was, represented only the tip of the iceberg of repression in the teachers' union during the 1970s and 1980s. According to an article by Luis Hernndez Navarro, published in LA JORNADA on August 30, 152 teachers have been murdered or disappeared since 1979, 87 of them from Oaxaca. In almost all cases they were teacher dissidents fighting to democratize their union and members of the CNTE opposition group.

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Many Union Organizations Reject Labor Law Reform

Many Mexican labor organizations, both those historically allied with the government and those in the opposition both say they reject and will oppose the labor law reform created by a government sponsored conference of employers and unions. The opposition among the usually pro-government labor unions could bring another political defeat to President Vicente Fox.

President Fox and his Secretary of Labor Carlos Abascal Carranza have been pushing to reform Mexico's Federal Labor Law (LFT), arguing that the law must be modernized to make the country more productive and attractive to investment. Reform of the LFT has had strong backing from the Mexican Employers Association (COPARMEX) and other business groups who want a more flexible labor regime, that is one with fewer rules protecting unions and workers.

While the independent National Union of Workers (UNT) announced some time ago that it would offer no support to the proposed reforms to the Federal Labor Law (LFT), now ten unions from the Congress of Labor (CT) have also rejected the proposal. Leonardo Rodrguez Alcaine, head of the CT, has supported the process all along, and supports the proposal now coming out of it, but he has not been able to keep 10 of the CT's 34 unions in line. Among the unions that reject the proposed reform are the Miners and Metal Workers Union (SNTMMRM), the Federation of Unions of Workers at the Service of the State (FSTSE), and the Revolution Workers Confederation (COR).

New Law Would Weaken Right to Strike

Napolen Gmez Urrutia, head of the Miners Union, told the press, "this proposal would in practice prevent the outbreak of strikes, because obviously the employers are never going to accept that they are carried out." Under the new law, the Labor Board, made up of some employer members, would have to approve strikes. Many authorities would argue that the right to strike hardly exists in Mexico today, since Labor Boards refuse to authorize them.

Some of the CT-affiliated unions object that the Office of the Public Registry of Unions would be headed by a man appointed by president Fox, rather than by someone appointed by the Congress. Skeptics might wonder if what the CT unions really object to is the public registry itself, which would give workers more information and power by informing them about labor union officers and contracts, and making the organization of unions a simpler process.

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Mexican Electrical Workers Union Resists Privatization

In late August some 30,000 electrical workers marched, stringing themselves out for three miles in a long line from the Monument of the Revolution to the Zcalo in Mexico's historic downtown, in a symbolic stand against the sale of the national electrical industry. The August 30 demonstration forms part of the launching of a national campaign to keep Mexico's electric power out of the hands of wealth, probably foreign investors.

The Mexican Electrical Workers Union (SME) is gearing up once again to resist the privatization of the electrical power industry as proposed by President Vicente Fox. The SME, with some 51,000 members, will work to revive and strengthen its National Front Against Privatization, and to distribute 10 million leaflets throughout the country. Later the SME hopes to collect more than the 2.3 million signatures it obtained on its anti-privatization petitions in 1999. (Mexico has a population of 100 million with 40 million in the workforce, that is about 5 percent of all adults signed the petition.)

President Vicente Fox, and the two more conservative parties, the National Action Party (PAN) and the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), have pushed the privatization. The Mexican business elite has generally supported privatization, and foreign investors salivate at the thought. The union fears that President Fox will create the conditions to force the two major public electrical companies, Light and Power of Mexico and the Federal Electrical Commission, into a technical bankruptcy. The SME argues that privatization will be bad for unions, workers, consumers, and for the Mexican people who will lose control of a strategic industry.

Leonardo Rodrguez Alcaine who leads the other electrical workers union, the Sole Union of Electrical Workers of the Mexican Republic (SUTERM), and who also heads the Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM) and the Congress of Labor (CT), has generally supported privatization. But the opposition in his union pledges that 100 of the union's 204 locals will support the SME campaign. The movement is also supported by the National Assembly of Men and Women Workers (ANTT), an alliance of democratic unions, as well as many other labor unions and workers from various industries.

The Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), Mexico's left-of-center opposition, also rejects privatization as do some members of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and even a couple in Fox's own conservative National Action Party (PAN). The SME welcomes the PRD's support, even while maintaining its
political independence.

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PEMEX White Collar Workers Organize

Thousands of "confidential employees," a term that means employees who work closely with management, have formed a labor union in the Mexican state oil company, PEMEX. The term originally referred for example to people such as CEO executive secretaries. Many are what we might think of as "white collar workers," professional, technical, and clerical.

This could be a very important development. While confidential employees are supposedly so close to the boss that they could not join a union, for decades Mexican state and private companies have been increasing the number of confidential employees to avoid labor unions and collective bargaining agreements. In many Mexican workplaces, confidential employees form a large sector of the workforce, sometime as much as a quarter, a third, or even half of all workers. Between confidential employees on the one hand and temporary employees on the other the number of regular permanent employees (said to be "de planta") who have union rights has been dramatically reduced over the past 30 years.

The new National Union of Confidential Employees of the Petroleum Industry (Union Nacional de Trabajadores de Confianza de la Industria Petrolera) currently represents 7,000 members and hopes to become the representative of all 30,000 confidential employees, despite company opposition. The new union, which also opposed the privatization of the state-owned oil company, complained of continuing repression against its members, in violation of their human and labor rights. Complaining that PEMEX was losing its "intellectual capital," spokesmen Eduardo Cortez and Alfredo Hernndez, said they would be presenting collective demands to management in the near future.

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Petroleum Workers Union (STPRM) May Strike For Raise

The Mexican Petroleum Workers Union (STPRM), in the midst of a deep crisis because of accusations that its leaders diverted company and union funds to candidates of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), now faces the company with a demand for a 15 percent wage increase. The national oil company, PEMEX, is offering only about 7 percent. Nevertheless, director Ral Muoz Leos, believes that the two will reach some agreement. These negotiations come at an odd time, since company officials have also been accused of illegally diverting funds for political purposes in cahoots with the union leaders.

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Petroleum Union Dissidents Call For Removal Of Leaders

Members of the National Coalition of Democratic Petroleum Workers and of the National Petroleum Forum called upon the Mexican Attorney General (PGR) to remove Carlos Romero Deschamps and Ricardo Aldaa Prieto for their roles in the 2.2 billion peso "Pemexgate" scandal. They also insisted that the government call up Joaqun Hernndez Galicia, former head of the national union, to testify about his knowledge of properties and resources of the union in 1989 when he was arrested, convicted and imprisoned by the Salinas administration.

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Head of Metro Union Removed From Legislature By PRD Gov't

The Attorney General of the Federal District took action in early September to expel Fernando Espino Arvalo from the Legislature on the grounds that he had interrupted public services and attacked the transportation system. The charges grew out of a strike by Metro workers on one line of Mexico City's enormous subway system that moves millions of people each day. The government of the Federal District is headed by Mayor Andrs Manuel Lpez Obrador of the Party of the Democratic Revolution.

Legislators from the institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), rushed to the defense of Espino, arguing that he had only engaged in labor union actions in representation of his members, and that this was a case of political vengeance by Lpez Obrador.

In addition to fighting Lpez Obrador, Espino has also been fighting an opposition group within his union, and Mexico City newspapers featured photographs of his "goon squad" (golpeadores) shortly after having beaten dissident members.

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PRD Mayor Accuses PRI Of Organizing Union Strikes

Andrs Manuel Lpez Obrador, mayor of Mexico City, has accuse Roberto Madrazo and other leaders of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), or organizing the series of labor union strikes against his administration. Lpez Obrador is a member of the left-of-center Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD).

The Sole Union of Workers of the Government of the Federal District (SUTGDF), controlled for decades by the PRI, has carried out a series of job actions and strikes that have disrupted services at every level in the city of 10 million inhabitants. (The Mexico City metropolitan area has a population of about 18 million, one of the largest in the world.)

The Lpez Obrador government accuses the SUTGDF leaders of striking to preserve corrupt practices or perks. Among other accusations the city government accuses the unions of stealing gasoline. The SUTGDF leaders argue that they strike in defense of their members wages and benefits. The press has pointed out that the strikes have been called by leaders of 10 of the 32 local unions serving the city, and without a membership vote or authorization.

At present there seems to be no end in sight for this conflict.

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Farmers Protest At Mexican Congress

Hundreds of farmers from a variety of peasant and farmer organizations protested at the Mexican Congress in Mexico city on august 29. The farmers from groups such as El Barzn, the debtors' organization, the National Front for the Defense of the Mexican Countryside, the Party of the Democratic Revolution of Aguascalientes, and other contingents from Puebla and Veracruz blocked local streets, burned bales of hay, and rode their horses around the Congress building in the San Lzaro neighborhood.

Demands varied from reductions in the cost of electricity and water to the call for the creation of packing plants. Some called for more investment in the countryside, while protesting the proposed privatization of the electric industry. In general, all wanted the government to support the country's farmers, peasants, and agricultural workers whose livelihoods have been threatened over the last decades by a combination of studied neglect and the turn to free markets.

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Mine Workers Block Zinc Plant

In a struggle between workers in a local union, their corporate employer, and the Union of Mining and Metal Workers (SNTMMRM), hundreds of workers in San Lus Potosblocked a zinc plant owned by Industrial Minera Mexico (IMMSA). The workers were dissidents seeking to escape from the conservative Miners Union and join the more democratic Union of Iron and Steel Workers. Workers had blocked the plant and put up strike banners, but the Secretary of Labor called in police to break the movement.

The San Lus Potos Electrolytic Zinc Refinery, located in the City of San Luis Potos, was built in 1982. It is one of the most modem zinc refineries in the world, using state of the art technologies. But it was shut down in late August when workers blocked the plant, holding other workers and actuaries of the Secretary of Labor prisoner within the plant.

The cause was a fight between the Miners Union and workes who wanted to leave and join the National Union of Iron and Steel Workers (SNTIHA). The notoriously corrupt and conservative Miners Union won the election 198 to 189.

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Strike Avoided At VW Plant In Puebla As Workers Win 7%

Volkswagen of Mexico gave a 5.5 percent raise in wages and 1.5 percent in benefits, a total of 7.0 percent to its unionized workforce on September 3, avoiding a strike. This is the first time in three years that an agreement had been reached without a strike.

In 2001 the independent union struck for 19 days and won a 10.2 percent wage gain and a 4.5 percent improvement in benefits,.

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Mexican Businessmen Call For Greater Safety In Juarez

The Association of Maquiladoras and the Chamber of the Manufacturing Industry in Jurez have called upon the government to do something about public safety in this notoriously dangerous city.

Hundreds of young women, most of them workers in the city's maquiladoras and other industries, have been killed in the city since 1993. The official toll is 260, but many believe that as many as 400 have been killed. The documentary film "Seorita Extraviada" recently broadcast on National Public Television brought this to the attention of viewers in the United States. (On the film see: )

In addition to the murders of the young women, there is a rising tide of violence in the city, with a reported 30 armed robberies each week. Many other crimes may go unreported because people have little faith in the police, and fear problems if they call them in.

In another interesting development in Jurez, the National Council of the Maquiladora Export Industry (CNIME) and the General Management of Customs have created the Trustworthy Maquiladora Program (el Programa Maqiuladora Confiable). The idea is to certify maquiladora firms complying with basic standards in the areas of structure, seniority, integrity and economic labor profile, and cleanliness, according to Bernardo Escudero Ortega of the Association of Maquiladoras.

Exactly what "trustworthy" means in an industry where government, corporation, and gangster unions collude to prevent labor organization, to evade environmental standards, and routinely violate womens', workers' and human rights generally remains to be seen.

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Letter From Kristi Disney of Tirn: Mexican Village and Sweatshop Center

Hello Friends,

I'm back in Tennessee after five amazing weeks of studying language, culture and life in general in urban and rural Mexico. I spent most of my time in Buena Vista de Cellular, a tiny rural town in the mountains of Guerrero. There are about five sweatshops in the town, making products for Levi's, Arizona Jean Co., ESPRIT and other U.S. companies. According to folks I talked with, the conditions in these factories are just as deplorable as those TIRN has learned about in border communities and in other communities we have visited.

The sweatshops in Buena Vista employ people from outside the town who work all day then take buses, sometimes for hours, back to their homes. Few people who live in Buena Vista work in the sweatshops, so they don't know much about them or the people who work in them. Most of the factories are actually managed by their Korean owners, so when U.S. companies buy from them, they place the responsibility for the working conditions on the Korean managers.

Most families in the town of Buena Vista make their living through small family-run stores. Josefina, the woman I stayed with in Buena Vista, ran a sporting goods store with her son Jos Mario. There were a few small restaurants in the town, many produce stands, a laundromat which consisted of a few washing machines in one family's living room, a leather goods store, a funeral parlor, and a flower shop. Many people made their living selling crafts, primarily baskets weaved from palm branches.

Life is slow there, and beautiful. Few people have cars, so most people travel by foot or on horses or bicycles. People are very affectionate and families are generally close and respectful toward each other. Daily living is quite different from what most people know in the U.S.
There are few computers and internet access requires a two-hour bus ride to a different town. The idea of fast food would corrupt meals, a time when families come together and share conversation and food that has been made from scratch: mangos from the tree in the back yard, cheese from the cow up the road, tortillas ground from corn fresh from the neighbor's garden.

Rural life in Mexico is changing quickly, however, as it is for many small farmers in Tennessee. Talk about increased imports of cheap grains from the U.S. were part of daily conversations, as this change is putting more small farmers like those I met in Buena Vista out of work. Yet, people continue to show kindness to U.S. citizens and are often seen wearing U.S. flags.

There is so much to learn and appreciate about Mexico. Part of that has to do with my work here at TIRN, so I'm pleased to be back and at your service!

Hasta Pronto! Kristi Disney (trade@tirn.org)

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Social Statistics

Migrant Children Without Education - Mexico has between 450,000 and 700,000 children of migrant laborers who have no access to basic education according to the Secretary of Education.

Agricultural Child Labor - Some one million children work in Mexican agriculture according to the National Congress of Peasants (CNC).

Mexican Farmers Can Either Pay Taxes or Wages - Mexican farmers can either pay taxes or wages, but do not have sufficient income to pay both, according to Miguel ngel Garca Peredes, director of the National Farm Owners Council (Consejo Nacional Agropecuario - CAN).

Maquiladora unemployment - More than 132,000 workers have been laid off in the maquiladora industry in the last year according to the Mexican Institute of Statistics (INEGI).

Maquiladora manufacturers - In the last 18 months, 22 maquiladora plants left Mexico each month, according to the National Council of the Maquiladora Industry. According to the Mexican Undersecretary for Internal Commerce of the Secretary of the Economy, 350 plants closed, but 200 new plants have opened.

Unemployed - During the Fox president, the "employment deficit" reached 2,121,228 people according to the Workers University of Mexico (UOM).

Unemployment rate - Mexico's unemployment rate in July reached 2.9 percent, the highest in 40 months.

Unemployment in manufacturing - Employment in manufacturing fell by 5.9 percent in the first quarter of 2002, according to the Mexican Institute of Statistics (INEGI).

Wages - Mexican workers' wages have lost 50 percent of their purchasing power in the last 8 years according to the Workers University of Mexico. Consequently, today 73 percent of the population cannot afford the shopping basket of 40 basic items.

Minimum Wage - The Mexican minimum wage has risen 3.98% according to Secretary of Labor Carlos Abascal. But Mexico's minimum wage has lost 10.7 percent of its purchasing power in the last two years according to the Center for Multidisciplinary Analysis of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM).

Informal Economy - Growth - Mexico's informal economy has grown in urban areas to make up 38% of all employment, according to figures from the National Population Council (CONAPO).

Informal Economy - Mafias - Organized mafias control 50 percent of the street merchants (vendedores ambulantes) according to an article in UNOMASUNO (8-31-02).

Tendency toward growth of Temporary Employment - In the first half of August, 3,778 permanent jobs were lost, but twice that many temporary jobs were created, according to a study by the Secretary of Labor and the Mexican Institute of Social Security.

Violation of Women's Rights - More than 500 complaints of termination because of pregnancy were filed by women in the last 18 months according to the Workers University of Mexico (UOM).

Phony "Protection Contracts" - Phony labor union contracts--called "protection contracts" because they protect the employer not the worker--have prolifterated, rising from 150,000 in 1970 to 600,000 in 1990, according to a study by Alfonso Bousas Ortiz, a researcher at the Institute of Social Research at the National Autonomous University (UNAM).

Class Struggle - Official Complaints - Mexico saw a surge in worker complaints to government authorities, with 307,965 such grievances filed in the last 18 months.

Class Struggle - Strikes - Between January and June of 2002 there were 31 strikes at the Federal level compared to 35 last year, according to the Workers University of Mexico (UOM).

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