MEXICAN LABOR NEWS AND ANALYSIS
January 16, 1998
Vol. III, No. 2
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About Mexican Labor News and Analysis
Mexican Labor News and Analysis is produced in collaboration with the Authentic Labor Front (Frente Autentico del Trabajo - FAT) of Mexico and with the United Electrical Workers (UE) of the United States and is published the 2nd and 16th of every month.
MLNA can be viewed at the UE's international web site: HTTP://www.igc.apc.org/unitedelect/. For information about direct subscriptions, submission of articles, and all queries contact editor Dan La Botz at the following e-mail address: 103144.2651@compuserve.com or call in the U.S. (513) 961-8722. The U.S. mailing address is: Dan La Botz, Mexican Labor News and Analysis, 3436 Morrison Place, Cincinnati, OH 45220.
MLNA articles may be reprinted by other electronic or print media, but we ask that you credit Mexican Labor News and Analysis and give the UE home page location and Dan La Botz's compuserve address.
The UE Home Page which displays Mexican Labor News and Analysis has an INDEX of back issues and an URGENT ACTION ALERT section.
Staff: Editor, Dan La Botz; Correspondents in Mexico: Bob Briggs, Peter Gellert, Jess Kincaid, Wendy Patterson, Jorge Robles, Juan-Carlos Romero, Fred Rosen, Don Sherman, Sam Smucker, Linda Stevenson.
DEAR READER,
MLNA specializes in covering labor issues, but we felt the Acteal massacre so important that we dedicate a good part of this issue to covering the massacre and the aftermath.
We would like to take this opportunity to gratefully acknowledge a grant of $1,000 from the Resist Foundation of Somerville, Massachusetts. The grant helps to cover our communications expenses.
Dan La Botz, Editor
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By Wendy Patterson
Chiapas once again burst on to the front pages of newspapers around the world with news of a massacre in the small town of Acteal in the troubled highlands of Chiapas on December 22, 1997. Local members of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) gunned down forty-five unarmed Tzotzil Indian refugees who were praying in a church where they had taken refugee.
The subsequent investigation has shown that the local and state PRI officials not only had knowledge of preparations for attacks on the village but also provided material aid to the murderers. Yet, while dozens of local peasants who are PRI members have been arrested, it appears that those responsible for ordering the attack have yet to be apprehended.
Behind the Massacre
Hundreds of displaced supporters of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) had fled their towns and taken refuge in Acteal, located in the municipality of Chenalho. The attackers, many of them poor Tzotzil peasants themselves, were armed with AK-47 and M-16 rifles, arms which they could not possibly have afforded on their own. The PRI loyalists opened fire on the Zapatista supporters and then pursued them for hours as the victims tried to escape.
The mayor of Chenalho, a member of the PRI and a known paramilitary leader, and nearly 40 others have now been formally charged with a variety of crimes for their participation in the massacre. As a further sign of governmental complicity, it is now known that during the massacre, which lasted five hours, both Public Security police and Army units were close by but did nothing to stop the slaughter.
In a separate incident, on Monday, January 12, during a day of international protests for peace in Chiapas, members of the Public Security force in Ocosingo fired on unarmed protesters, killing one Tzeltal woman, wounding her baby and another young man.
Governor and Interior Minster Step Down
On a political level the crisis in Chiapas led Zedillo to remove both the governor of Chiapas and the Interior Minister. Zedillo appointed Francisco Labastida Ochoa as the new Interior Minister and Albores Guillen as Chiapas governor (this makes the fifth PRI-named governor of that troubled state in four years.) Both men are long-time PRI leaders and are likely to continue the status quo policies.
The Mexican government's National Human Rights Commission has already concluded that former Chiapas governor Ferro Ruiz of the PRI had information that the massacre would occur beforehand and failed to do anything to prevent it. He and other local officials face possible charges related to the massacre.
The immediate response of the government was to send the Army further into Zapatista territory to conduct searches for arms. Even before this, the Army declared itself on "maximum alert" and overwhelmed the region. In the municipality of Chenalho itself, the Army increased its presence so that there is now one soldier for every 20 inhabitants.
Army Attack on Realidad
On January 3rd there were reports that the army had "taken" La Realidad, the presumed headquarters of the EZLN and of Subcomandante Marcos. Naturally, this provoked much outcry from many sources. Labastida and the Army hotly denied the reports, the latter even released a bulletin in which it accused the press and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) of acting irresponsibly by disseminating misinformation.
After nearly 48 hours of confusion, the press finally confirmed that the Army was present in La Realidad for approximately 17 hours and interrogated and tortured several villagers (by threatening them with rifles) demanding to know where the EZLN headquarters- and Marcos- were. The Army, however, denied it had taken the town.
The government justified the Army's searches by saying it was enforcing the Federal Law of Firearms and Explosives "indiscriminately," claiming there is a need to disarm "all sides" of the conflict. Nevertheless, the searches seem to be taking place only in towns sympathetic to the Zapatistas (or neutral hamlets) and not in areas where the paramilitaries are located. This has led the EZLN to charge that the Army is trying to provoke confrontations with EZLN forces and that it is acting against the 1995 Law for Dialogue, Reconciliation, and a Just Peace in Chiapas.
Army Counter-Insurgency
The Acteal massacre grows out of Mexican government policies and military tactics. The widely read Mexican magazine PROCESO recently published a report on the so-called Campaign Chiapas 94 in which the Army details a counter-insurgency strategy to "create paramilitary groups, displace the population, and destroy the bases of EZLN support." According to the article, the Acteal massacre is the logical extension of the strategy, whose key objective is to "break the relationship of support that exists between the population and the law-breakers," (by which they mean the Zapatistas).
The Army's report continues, the military intelligence should "secretly organize certain sectors of the civil population, among them cattle ranchers, small land-owners and individuals characterized as highly patriotic, who will be employed in support of our operations." The report states that it is the role of the Army to "assist and support the forces of self-defense and other paramilitary organizations," and, "in case self-defense units don't exist, it is necessary to create them." The government has denied the existence of this plan, while the military has, alternately said that it doesn't exist or that they can't find it.
CONAI--the National Peace Negotiating Commission, (the NGO connected with the Dioceses of San Cristobal)--has documented the increased presence of paramilitaries and violence in the area over the last two years and linked it to local PRI officials. (As an indication of the low-intensity war, some 1500 people have been killed in Chiapas since the uprising in 1994.) There has been a pattern of harassment and violence against Zapatista-sympathetic or independent towns. This has included stealing their crops, burning their houses, threatening them and forcing them to flee.
The result has been that thousands of peasants have become refugees from their towns, as was the case with the refugees in Acteal. Today, it is estimated that there are upwards of 8,000 "displaced" persons in the highlands. This has created a politically tense and socially disastrous situation as there are great shortages of shelter, food and health care and many refugees have fallen ill.
Indian women have organized demonstrations and literally attempted to push soldiers out of their homes and their towns. Several of the non-PRI affiliated towns in the region are demanding that the military leave their premises.
The Zedillo administration has been further embarrassed by the refusal of some villages to accept government assistance, or to only accept aid that is filtered through NGOs. The government has justified the overwhelming army presence in the area by saying they are performing social work and providing aid. The national Minister of Health was sent to the region to try to convince the local population to accept government aid, with apparent limited success.
Army Accuses Bishop Ruiz
On January 9th, General Gomez Salazar--commander of the Seventh Military Region--issued a press statement accusing Bishop Samuel Ruiz of being connected to the EZLN. (Samuel Ruiz has played a key role as an unofficial negotiator between the government and the EZLN.) The evidence the Army presented was that they found in Zapatista towns books written by the Bishop or edited by the Dioceses and translated into Tojolabal language. Later the same day he issued a bulletin stating that he was speaking only for himself, and "not in an official manner."
The government has now dropped the issue but it was clearly an attempt to discredit the Bishop who, some observers believe, is key to peace in Chiapas. But was it also an indication of the government's inability to control the Army?
The EZLN's Subcomandante Marcos claims that "General Gomez Salazar, has decided to effect a coup dÆetat, acting outside of the laws of Congress...Meanwhile (he) continues violating the laws for dialogue [as agreed upon in 1995]."
External Pressure on Mexico
The U.S. government continues to support the PRI, as both governments seek a means to stabilize the Mexican situation, and protect foreign investment. Aside from pressure from NGOs and human rights organization, the most significant external pressure on the Mexican government to resolve the crisis in peaceful way may come from the European Union, who in 1997, made a point of tying trade accords to improvement of Mexico's abysmal human rights record even before these recent events in Chiapas.
It is difficult to say at this stage whether the crisis in Chiapas will lead to a weakening of the PRI. That depends on how the PRI handles the unfolding developments. Two hundred thousand Mexicans turned out for a protest for peace on January 12. The opposition parties, the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) and the National Action Party (PAN), have both issued strong statements calling on the government to find a peaceful solution to the crisis and condemning its lack of appropriate response to the massacre.
What path will the PRI take to resolve the crisis? Zedillo's approach over the last four years is not likely to continue to be viable given the acute nature of the crisis on the ground in Chiapas. Given the amount of international attention on Chiapas now, the government is not likely to opt for an outright military solution, which would bloody its image and could cost it political support.
However, if the EZLN is perceived as making mistakes -either real or as a result of the government's campaign to vilify them- this could allow the government to justify a military attack. This is certainly what the EZLN itself is predicting and warning against. But, as Marcos said in a recent communique in which he affirmed that the EZLN has not accumulated arms since 1994, the Zapatistas strongest arms are words, and it is therefore, their strongest defense.
Given the fearlessness and determination exhibited by Zapatista sympathizers over the last weeks, (not to mention Zapatista soldiers), should a military confrontation occur, it would likely be prolonged and bloody.
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Perhaps nothing says as much about a labor movement as its response to ethnic minorities, women, and issues of war and peace. The Acteal massacre of 45 Indians--21 women, 15 children, and 9 men--forces the Mexican unions to confront all three. The response has shown a union movement dominated by cynical reactionaries, but also made up of genuine humanitarians.
Leonardo Rodriguez Alcaine, the head of the Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM), spoke out on Chiapas at a meeting in Jalisco on January 10. Rodriguez Alcaine attacked Bishop Samuel Ruiz for his connections with the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN), and accused both of having harmed investments in Chiapas and affected the economy of the entire country. Priests, said Rodriguez Alcaine, should stay in the pulpit and not in politics.
Many Unions on Indians' Side
But while the CTM attacked the victims, many other labor unions, particularly the unions independent of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), called for an end to the Mexican Army's occupation of Indian villages in Chiapas.
University unions such as SITUAM, STUNAM, STAUCH, the Nuclear Workers Union SUTIN, the Electrical Workers Union (SME), democratic Locals 9 and 10 of the Teachers Union (el SNTE), the Authentic Labor Front (FAT) and several other labor unions joined with civic organizations, Indian groups, social movements, and non-governmental organizations to demand:
*Fulfillment of the San Andres accords.
*Fulfillment of the Law for Dialogue, Reconciliation and a Dignified Peace in Chiapas, and respect for the National Mediation Commission
*Punishment for those responsible for the massacre at Acteal.
*Withdrawal of the Mexican Army from the Indian Communities.
*Disbanding of the paramilitary organizations.
FESEBES, the Federation of Unions of Goods and Services, in another advertisement expressed its "preoccupation with the situation in Chiapas" and called for a return "to dialogue."
The National Coordinating Committee of the Teachers Union (la CNTE) placed an advertisement in the newspapers calling upon the Zedillo government to stop its genocidal war in Chiapas.
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by Dan La Botz
Cuauhtemoc Cardenas, the new mayor of Mexico City, and his Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) can expect to be confronted with continuous problems from labor unions and workers of all sorts. The public employees of Mexico City and the Federal District will of course take their problems to Cardenas who as mayor becomes their boss. Private sector employees will come to Cardenas in an attempt to gain an ally in struggles with their union officials and employers. Workers from all over Mexico will also appeal to Cardenas as the leader of the PRD, Mexico's center-left opposition party.
The Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM), affiliated with the Institutional Revolutionary Party, will attack Cardenas, and try to embarrass him. Leonardo Rodriguez Alcaine, head of the CTM, has already accused Cardenas, who has been in office a little more than a month, of refusing to live up to his campaign promises.
Cardenas will also confront almost daily the issues of Mexico's several thousand prostitutes, tens of thousands of "ambulantes" or peripatetic street vendors, and hundreds of child laborers found at every major intersection in the city selling, performing or begging. If things continue as they have for the past few years, Cardenas can also expect four demonstrations per day by workers, neighborhood organizations, and political dissidents.
Most important, perhaps, Mexicans will want improvements in their wages. Today 48 percent of the economically active population in the Federal District earns less than two minimum wages. That is, less than US$6.40 per day.
Salary Cuts and No More Aviators
Cardenas attempted to set a new tone for Mexico City's public servants by reducing his own salary by 30 percent, from 98,000 pesos a month to 70,000 pesos. Cardenas has also promised to reduce the salaries of 4,000 other top level public officials by the same 30 percent. Cardenas's predecessor, Oscar Espinosa Villarreal of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) earned a fantastic 2.1 million pesos annually in salaries, expenses, perquisites, and Christmas bonus. It remains unclear whether Cardenas's proposed salary reductions will be mandatory or voluntary.
Jesus Gonzalez Schmal, a former leader of the National Action Party (PAN) elected on the PRD ticket, has called for eliminating all of the ghost employees and freeloaders on the city payroll, known in Spanish as "aviadores" or "aviators." Gonzalez Schmal said that there should be no dismissals of the city's 110,000 unionized workers, but that there would be a careful examination of the management employees. According to the records of the out-going administration the City has about 6,000 high and medium level administrators and consultants. Many of the consultants had been hired out of political favoritism.
Raquel Sevilla Diaz, vice-president of the Mexico City council's budget committee, says that of 230,000 city employees, over one third are "aviators." Some "aviators," she said, hold several positions simultaneously. She expects they will begin "to fly" soon, for they will fear being hit with criminal charges when they go to pick up checks for jobs they do not perform. She believes that the new government will need 140,000 workers, or 90,000 less than currently found on the payroll.
At the same time that PRD municipal officials talk about eliminating the ghost employees in the city administration, the PRD federal legislators have insisted upon minimum wage increases at least five percent above inflation. The federal minimum wage sets the standard for nearly all wages in Mexico and would also be extended to city employees. The PRD's proposal thus leads to rising expectations of economic improvements for most workers.
Cardenas Inherits Problems
The previous administration has left Cardenas with dozens of unsettled labor issues. For example, the Sole Union of Workers of the Government of the City (SUTGDF) wants to know what is going to happen to some 600 workers of the General Administration of Social Protection, an agency which was disbanded by the previous mayor. They are asking Cardenas to find jobs for those workers.
In another case, more than 100 workers for the Federal District's Attorney General's office (PGJDF) held a sit-in in December at their workplace. They demanded a traditional "end of the administration bonus," in this case of 3,100 pesos. In Mexico, nearly all public workers from top supervisors to the lowliest laborers are terminated at the end of an administration, leading to the demand for a special severance bonus.
"The governor of the Federal District, Cuauhtemoc Cardenas, is obligated to fulfill the promises that [his predecessor] Espinosa Villarreal made to the rank and file workers, and must pay the bonus we ask," said one of the demonstrators. The Attorney General's chief of staff promised to pay the bonuses.
The Union of Workers of the Judicial Power of the Federal District (STPJDF) has another problem. They want Cuauhtemoc Cardenas to double the budget for their branch and come up with salary increases for the workers of the Superior Court of Justice of the Federal District.
During December 300 temporary city workers marched around the Zocalo demanding the payment of their 1996 and 1997 Christmas bonuses. They claim that the alderman took their money for his own uses, and they want Cardenas to solve their problem too.
The Bigger Problem: Enough Jobs
According to Saul Escobar, a founder of the Party of the Democratic Revolution and the head of the General Administration of Labor and Social Welfare for the Federal District, 200,000 residents of Mexico City are unemployed, while two million are either under employed or employed in the informal economy. He estimates that about 50 percent of all workers work in the informal economy in Mexico City.
Activists in the PRD's former campaign organization, the Sun Brigade (the PRD's symbol is the yellow sun) carried out a survey in December among 270 community leaders and residents of the Alvaro Obregon Delegation (a city subdivision like a borough) to find out their concerns. The residents rated unemployment as one of their primary problems (other concerns were the environment, public safety, conflicts over land, government inefficiency and corruption). According to the survey, 22 percent of the Delegation residents were unemployed, or 51,333 people. The PRD's Brigades and the community will be looking to Cardenas to create thousands of jobs.
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While Mexico has a new labor federation, the National Union of Workers (UNT), and while the Congress of Labor (CT) appears to be deeply divided and paralyzed, still the organization which has dominated the Mexican labor movement for 60 years, the Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM) remains far from vanquished. Leonardo Rodriguez Alcaine, the man who last year succeeded Fidel Velazquez as head of the CTM, has launched a new offensive aimed at strengthening the CTM organization, gaining new adherents among peasants and maquiladora workers, and recapturing the CTM's lost political power.
For the last several months Rodriguez Alcaine has been traveling throughout Mexico, visiting state organizations both to shore up the organization, and to work for his own election to the post of general secretary, the top union office. Rodriguez Alcaine launched a new organizing campaign at the CTM's Third Ordinary Congress of the Federation of Workers of Guerrero on December 17 where he proclaimed that the CTM will create two new secretariats to organize farm workers. Historically the CTM did not organize rural workers, which fell to the jurisdiction of the National Federation of Peasants (CNC), so this represents an important change, and a response to the UNT's success in affiliating several peasant organizations.
While the CTM has had the right to organize maquiladora workers since the zone was created in the mid-1960s, it has often declined to do so because of tacit agreements between border states' government officials, party leaders, maquiladora park owners, and multinational employers to keep most of the zone union-free. In those states where the CTM has organized, it has established "low-profile" unions which negotiated terrible contracts with low wages and no shop floor presence for the union.
Porfirio Camarena Castro, head of the Guerrero CTM, announced that the federation will start a new program to fight for the rights of workers in the maquiladoras or assembly plants, mostly on the northern border. He said that the CTM is preparing a letter to president Zedillo on the Free Trade Agreement and the maquiladora workers. Camarena Castro also stated the CTM would take up the environmental issues on the border.
Rodriguez Alcaine told union leaders in Guerrero that Juan S. Millan, one of the CTM's most sophisticated and liberal leaders, will be the CTM's candidate for governor of Sinaloa, indicating an attempt by the federation to regain its former political power.
With a bold campaign to organize workers the CTM could recoup some of its former power and influence. But given the CTM's long record of subordination to the government, the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, and the Mexican and multinational employers--as well as Rodriguez Alcaine's own quirky behavior and frequent outlandish pronouncements--such a turn-around seems unlikely, if not impossible.
The CTM will elect a new National Executive Committee for the 1998-2004 term at its 13th National Congress to take place on March 7 and 8. Five thousand CTM delegates will attend and are expected to give their support to Rodriguez Alcaine who has been the "unity candidate" since September 1997.
[January 14, 1998] Workers at the Han Young-Hyundai plant in Tijuana, Mexico appear to have won an historic victory, as management signed over the collective bargaining agreement to a new independent labor union. Almost one month after its initial certification, the Independent Metal Workers Union (STIMAHCS) was finally accorded collective bargaining rights with the Han Young maquiladora in Tijuana that produces chassis for Hyundai Precision America.
The signing over of the contract came as a result of a second intervention by Mexican federal labor authorities after local labor officials and government-affiliated unions refused to recognize the independent union's certification despite two earlier union representation election victories.
Contract Signed Over
Under Mexican labor law, when one union replaces another at a factory, management signs over the old contract to the new union. STIMAHCS, an affiliate of the Authentic Labor Front (FAT), won a union certification election on December 16, 1997. However, until today, Han Young management had refused to sign over the contract, which amounted to a de facto nullification of the election victory.
Collective bargaining rights (called "titularidad" in Mexican federal law) compel a company to enter contract negotiations and give workers the legal right to strike should the company refuse to negotiate in good faith. An agreement signed today also requires that government-affiliated union representatives cease their presence at the Han Young maquiladora and withdraw their claims against the workers' independent union. (The government unions had filed claims with the Tijuana labor board on December 19.)
The Mexican federal government was feeling heat from various sides. Human rights advocates around the world were poised to flood Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo's office with phone calls, faxes and e-mails on January 16 and to hold public protests on February 7. Several members of the U.S. House of Representatives, under the leadership of David Bonior, had pressed for Mexican federal intervention when the Tijuana labor board, under pressure from Baja California Governor Teran Teran and the maquiladora industry association, refused to certify the union's October victory.
Additionally, it was clear that the Mexican government was concerned about negative publicity that would be generated as a result of a hearing scheduled for February 18 before the National Administrative Office (NAO). The NAO is the structure established in the U.S. Department of Labor to administer the NAFTA labor side agreement. The complaint--filed by the Support Committee for Maquiladora Workers in conjunction with STIMAHCS, the International Labor Rights Fund and the National Association of Democratic Attorneys of Mexico--charged the Mexican government with repeated failure to comply with its own labor law and with the North American Accords on Labor Cooperation by denying workers their freedom of association and failing to ensure a transparent process through impartial labor tribunals.
Hyundai Precision America has been cooperating with the Support Committee to see that Han Young management rehires the illegally fired workers with full back pay and that other legal obligations of Han Young are fulfilled.
Although Hyundai and Han Young are separate entities, Han Young produces exclusively for Hyundai. Hyundai Precision America president Ted Chung "felt it necessary to see that Han Young do the right thing," explained Mary Tong, executive director of the Support Committee.
Signs today are good that the Han Young workers can now proceed to their next goal, collective bargaining between management and STIMAHCS, in the very near future. Collective bargaining takes place on the basis of the old contract, rather than via the negotiation of a new labor agreement.
Second Victory
In addition to collective bargaining rights for STIMAHCS, another victory with historic implications came out of today's events. Mexican federal officials saw to it that Baja California state officials granted registration to a second independent union, the "October 6" Union of Industry and Commerce. The date in the new union's name commemorates the first of the two elections in which STIMAHCS was certified as the bargaining agent for the Han Young workers.
Authorized agents for the new union are three of the Han Young workers and Enrique Hernandez Felix, the union organizer for the Han Young struggle. The existence of the second union in no way alters the fact that STIMAHCS will be the sole bargaining agent for the Han Young workers. The purpose of gaining registry for the second union is to speed up the process whereby workers at other Tijuana factories can gain independent union recognition via a certification election. Organizers hope that this second union will lead to a proliferation of independent unions in the Tijuana area.
NAO Complaint to be Withdrawn
The agreement signed today by the Mexican federal government and the Han Young workers represents an historic step forward for labor rights in Mexico. For its part, the Mexican government was able to remove a public relations thorn from its side. As part of the agreement, the complaint before the NAO will be withdrawn. [Information for this article was provided by the Support Committee for Maquiladora Workers and Labor Alerts. For updates contact Campaign for Labor Rights: (541) 344-5410, <CLR@igc.apc.org>. To become Campaign for Labor Rights member/subscriber and receive newsletter, send $35.00 to Campaign for Labor Rights, 1247 "E" Street SE, Washington, DC 20003. Sample newsletter available on request. Web site: http://www.compugraph.com/clr]
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[The following three articles deal with different aspects of the important Echlin workers' struggle for union recognition. - DL.]
by Peter Gilmore
NEW HAVEN, Conn. Under pressure from union members, a U.S.-based multinational corporation agreed last month to meet with an alliance of workers from Canada, Mexico and the United States to investigate charges that the company used armed thugs to intimidate workers during a union drive at a Mexican plant. During its annual stockholders meeting Dec. 17, Echlin Inc. also agreed to consider a code of conduct drafted by the workers' alliance.
The action came one day after a demonstration by workers outside the company's Branford world headquarters, and two days after a complaint was filed in Washington, D.C. against the company under the NAFTA labor side agreement.
"It's unusual for a company like Echlin to respond so quickly to protests from its workers, but it's also rare for a company to face such strong opposition from workers in three countries," said Robert Kingsley, UE director of organization. "We've made Echlin understand that it won't be able to cover up abuse of its employees."
Thugs Thwart Democracy
The protests were sparked by events last fall at the Echlin-owned ITAPSA plant near Mexico City. On the eve of a Sept. 9 union representation election, ITAPSA workers were held prisoner overnight in the factory by 170 thugs carrying guns, chains and steel pipes.
The thugs were organized by the Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM), a labor federation controlled by the Mexican government, and led by a CTM official and ITAPSA's industrial relations manager. Through this intimidation, the CTM and management expected to avoid the need to deal with a genuine union.
ITAPSA workers, looking for improved protection from asbestos and toxic chemical exposure, had contacted the STIMAHCS, the Independent Metalworkers Union affiliated with the Authentic Labor Front (FAT), an independent Mexica labor federation.
In the weeks before the election, 52 union activists were fired, and company thugs threatened workers and their families in their homes with beatings and rape. During the overnight plant occupation, ITAPSA workers were threatened with violence if they voted for the real union.
One worker was beaten while the election was underway. The election itself required workers to declare their votes out loud in front of management.
Fearing for their lives and the safety of their families, most "voted" against the FAT affiliate.
Unions File Charge
Unions representing Echlin workers in the U.S. and Canada filed charges on Dec. 15 with the U.S. National Administrative Office (NAO), which was established under the NAFTA labor side agreement to hear complaints of labor law violations in the other NAFTA countries.
The complaint accuses representatives of the company and the CTM of working together to deprive ITAPSA workers of their rights by using surveillance, threats, firings and other forms of retaliation.
Mexican government authorities overseeing the election observed the thugs in the plant and were aware of that an employee was beaten, but refused repeated union requests to suspend voting. The officials then certified the results, ignoring the violence and obvious violations of Mexican labor laws.
"Strong cooperation among workers in the three NAFTA countries is putting a new level of pressure on companies that violate workers' rights in North America," said Teamsters Vice Pres. Tom Gilmartin.
"NAFTA's weak labor side agreement has left us no choice but to get in the face of the companies responsible for this kind of abuse."
Rallies, Petitions
The rally outside the Echlin world headquarters on Dec. 16 was attended by dozens of New Haven area union members, among them members of UE Local 299 from Circuit-Wise, Entoleter and Harco and UE Local 243 members from Sargent. Warren Gould, president of the Greater New Haven Labor Council AFL-CIO was a speaker.
Benedicto Martinez, coordinator of the FAT and president of the metalworkers union STIMAHCS was also present. "We must meet corporate exploitation across borders with union solidarity across borders," declared UE Dir. of Org. Kingsley.
In addition to the rally in Branford, union demonstrations also took place inside the Irvine, Calif. Echlin plant represented by UE Local 1090 and outside the Echlin plant represented by the United Paperworkers in Indiana.
Petitions collected in union-represented Echlin workplaces in U.S. and Canada, containing the signatures of more than 1,000 rank-and-file workers, were personally handed to Echlin CEO Larry McCurdy by UE's Kingsley and other union officials. The Dec. 17 stockholders' meeting was attended by Kingsley, Martinez, Local 243 Pres. Ray Pompano, Local 299 Pres. Dorothy Johnson, UE Field Org. Steve Hinds and Mark Brooks of the United Paperworkers International Union.
The FAT's Martinez addressed stockholders and top management; also during the meeting, Kingsley engaged CEO McCurdy in a public discussion of the ITAPSA incident which led directly to the company's commitment to a joint investigation of the events.
The unions filing the NAO complaint are UE; Teamsters; Canadian Auto Workers; Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE); United Paperworkers International Union; and the United Steelworkers of America in both the U.S. and Canada.
The charges are supported by labor and human rights organizations in three countries, including: FAT; National Lawyers Guild; National Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice; and the Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras, among many others.
A front-page article in the Dec. 20 New York Times, headlined "Labor Is Forging Cross-Border Ties," described the Echlin Workers Alliance as "the first joint effort by workers for the same corporation in all three countries of North America." UE initiated the Echlin Workers Alliance; the founding meeting took place in Chicago March 1-2, 1997.
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By Fred Rosen and Sam Smucker
Since this past May, the militantly independent Authentic Workers Front (FAT), has been locked in a fierce struggle with the government-incorporated Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM) to represent the workers at a disc-brake manufacturing plant called ITAPSA, a subsidiary of the Connecticut-based Echlin Corporation. ITAPSA has had what Mexicans call a "protection contract" for years with the CTM -- a contract signed by the company and the union bureaucracy without the knowledge of the workers. In return for payoffs to the union leadership, the company is "protected" from the organization of a real union with real demands.
Echlin, with over 100 plants worldwide -- eight of them in Mexico, all represented by government-controlled unions -- is the fourth-largest auto-parts producer in the world. It employs about 32,000 workers worldwide, and it's sales last year topped $3 billion. ITAPSA pays its workers between $5 and $10 a day, a good deal more than the $3.50 a day minimum wage earned by as much as 20% of the working population, but a good deal less than the $15 a day the government itself estimates it costs to buy a "basic basket of goods," and several good deals less than what it would have to pay equally productive workers in, say, Connecticut. Echlin's commitment to Mexico is contingent on those low wages. Mexico, in return, gets to keep the jobs provided by companies like Echlin as long as wages remain "reasonable," which is to say lower than the cost of living. This has become the assigned role of the government-controlled labor movement.
The FAT's organizing drive at ITAPSA began in a manner familiar to union organizers. "We began by just talking to each other one at a time," says Maria Trinidad Delgado, a mother of two in her early twenties who, until she was fired for union organizing, earned about $5 a day working for ITAPSA. "Mostly we talked about working conditions -- the slippery floors, the asbestos dust, the deafening noise, the company's refusal to give us any protective equipment like gloves or masks."
"In the early days we had no one to advise us," says Delgado. "We didn't know our rights or anything. There were two union [CTM] delegates in the factory, one could be found in the morning, the other in the afternoon. When we complained to them, they would tell us to calm down and be thankful we had such a good job."
Early last year, Delgado and a few other workers began building a clandestine organization within the factory. They sought out organizers from STIMAHCS, the metalworkers union of the FAT, and met in small groups, typically in the homes of workers and organizers, to discuss health and safety problems within the plant, abusive managers, sexual harassment, low wages and the company's arbitrary wage structure -- and what they might be able to do about it. They invited their co-workers to join these discussions one or two at a time, and by the middle of May, felt they had a clear majority in favor of an independent union.
"The key complaints were about health and safety," says Eugenio Najera, one of the workers who helped organize these early discussions. "Even though wages are very low and promotions are very arbitrary, it was not wages but working conditions that pulled people into the organizing drive."
In late May, feeling they had the support of 80% of the plant's workers, they decided to surface and make their organizing effort known. In late May STIMAHCS filed a petition with the federal Mediation and Arbitration Board for a union election that would give the independent union the right to represent the workers of the plant.
Workers' affidavits state that the company responded with the firing of employees involved in the organizing effort. Workers also reported speedups and increased work loads in departments believed to be especially sympathetic to the FAT, and a company-CTM effort -- with the cooperation of the federal labor board -- to ferret out and fire as many FAT supporters as possible. In August, a scheduled election was postponed at the last minute, and unwary workers showing up wearing FAT buttons were fired on the spot.
By September 9, the date set for the new election, a total of 52 workers, about 20% of the plant's workforce, had been fired for union activity. While many accepted indemnification pay and left the company rolls, 25 refused to leave and thus remained eligible to vote for union representation. As the new election day approached, these 25 fired workers optimistically leafleted the plant every day and spoke to co-workers between shifts.
On the day of the election, however, workers say that company-contracted CTM thugs, members of a Mexico City gang called Los Chiquiticos (the Little Guys) intimidated them -- in the presence of members of the federal labor board -- into casting their oral votes for the government-controlled CTM. In the small office used as a voting station, workers had to vote in front of management reps, a pack of CTM officials and several primitively armed Chiquiticos wearing CTM buttons. Not surprisingly most workers cast their oral votes for the CTM.
On December 15, an eight-union, trinational alliance called the Echlin Workers Alliance filed a complaint before the National Administrative Office (NAO) in Washington, under procedures established by the NAFTA labor side agreements, alleging the violation of Echlin workers' "associational rights," as well as the right to a safe and healthy workplace. It also challenges the way union elections are held in Mexico. If the NAO accepts the group's charge, it will set a date for a public hearing at which all parties to the conflict can tell their side of the story. If it then rules in favor of the Alliance, the NAO (which despite its billing as NAFTA's great concession to labor, has no enforcement power) can order cabinet-level consultations with regard to the situation.
The FAT's hope is that the publicity flowing from those consultations will pressure both Echlin and the Mexican federal labor board to reinstate the fired workers and schedule a new election, this time under free and fair conditions. "Echlin wants low costs," says Benedicto Martinez, the STIMAHCS leader who is a member of the FAT's three-person presidency, "but it also wants a stable work atmosphere -- in all its factories. So we are keeping up the pressure."
The eight unions in the Alliance -- the UE, the Teamsters, UNITE, the United Paperworkers, the U.S. and Canadian United Steelworkers, the Canadian Autoworkers and the FAT -- represent Echlin workers in the United States, Canada and Mexico. The group, which came together last March to provide mutual support to its members in contract negotiations and in new organizing, promises to confront Echlin with a stronger, more united labor movement in all three NAFTA countries. "As a three-country alliance, one of our goals is to prevent the company from pitting us against one another," says Mary McGinn, a UE organizer who coordinates the trade-union coalition, "and we are now committed to supporting our Mexican partner, the FAT."
"Our complaint alleges that the workers in Echlin's Mexico City plant were prevented from freely choosing their own union," says McGinn. "We are demanding a new fair election and the immediate reinstatement of all 52 workers who were fired for their involvement in the independent union's organizing drive." This kind of international labor solidarity is not new, she adds, "but in the past it has taken place around a specific event, like a strike or a particular organizing drive. This, on the other hand, isan on-going alliance to strengthen all of our hands at the bargaining table and in organizing Echlin workers in all three countries."
As we enter the new year, the ITAPSA conflict remains on hold. Fired workers hold daily demonstrations at the factory gate demanding their jobs back, and regularly leaflet and talk to workers at Echlin's other plants in and around Mexico City. FAT leader Martinez is hopeful the NAO complaint, combined with this energetic rank-and-file pressure from below, can have some effect. "It can't provide a solution," he says, "but it can set a political precedent. It can help us pressure U.S. companies like Echlin to treat our workers fairly, and help us pressure our own government to become a genuine judge of labor conflicts -- to adhere to and enforce the law." [An earlier version of this article appeared in the January 15 edition of the NEW HAVEN ADVOCATE. It is adapted for MLNA with permission.]
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by Jess Kincaid
Four workers and a Spanish observer were beaten while leafleting outside of an Echlin factory in northern Mexico City last month. On Monday, December 15, workers fired from ITAPSA S.A. de C.V. went to distribute flyers and protest at American Brakeblock, also a subsidiary of the multinational Echlin Corporation.
ITAPSA workers Celestino Garcia Luna, Gildardo Hernandez Lopez, and Oscar Manuel Buendia Valverde were beaten by hired thugs and a Spanish labor rights observer was kicked and his camera smashed. The most seriously injured was a worker from American Brakeblock who was apparently mistaken for one of the ITAPSA leafleters. The man, Jose Luis Mendoza Hernandez, was put in the hospital with head injuries by an attacker with brass knuckles.
Salary negotiations were going on inside the plant that day when around a dozen fired ITAPSA workers arrived to speak with American Brakeblock workers and condemn suppression of their independent union campaign at ITAPSA. The workers had handed out flyers, hung up a banner advocating free association and a halt to repression, and were broadcasting denunciations with a megaphone when they noticed a taxi pull up and enter the factory. A short time later approximately 12 men came out of the factory and proceeded to attack them.
According to the Mendoza Hernandez, his assailants were hired by Jose Luis Espinoza de Los Monteros, chief of industrial relations for ITAPSA, and Alberto Contreras Lara, legal advisor to the government-associated union representing American Brakeblock, Local 3 of the Mexican Workers Confederation (CTM) - the same confederation that holds the labor contract at ITAPSA. In an affidavit from the beaten American Brakeblock worker, filed as part of complaint regarding the events at American Brakeblock, Mendoza Hernandez states that the beatings took place at the orders of both Alberto Contreras Lara and his brother Antonio, charged with organizing the group of thugs.
A coalition of unions in the United States filed a complaint against Echlin before the National Administrative Office (NAO), established under the labor side agreement of North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the same day as the attack, and are expanding the complaint to include the incident.
Fired ITAPSA workers demonstrating outside a salary negotiations session held at the ITAPSA plant on Tuesday, later reported being filmed by company employees as well as being passed by truck full of intimidating men which then entered the factory grounds. The workers then left the scene.
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The Roman Catholic Church, the Congress of Labor, the National Union of Workers, and the Party of the Democratic Revolution all condemned the government's 14.7 percent increase in the minimum wage announced in mid December as a criminal attack on the well-being of Mexican workers.
Mexico's new minimum wage is approximately US$3.20 per day. Most Mexican wages are tied to the government wage board's minimum. An increase closer to 20 percent had been expected.
Mexico City Norberto Rivera Carrera told reporters that the government's announced increase in the minimum wage was "criminal." The Congress of Labor called it "an assault on the workers." The Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) called the minimum wage increase in reality "a decrease" and demanded an immediate increase. The National Union of Workers (UNT) and the PRD announced that they would organize joint protests demanding a larger increase in the minimum wage.
Academics in the Economics Department of the National Autonomous University (UNAM) said the wage increase was altogether insufficient. The Center of Multidisciplinary Analysis of the UNAM said that this wage increase would give workers their lowest purchasing power since 1935.
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Joaquin Hernandez Galicia, better known as La Quina, the former head of the Mexican Petroleum Workers Union (STPRM), was released from prison by President Ernesto Zedillo on December 17, 1997 after serving nine years of a 13-year sentence. In 1989 then-President Carlos Salinas de Gortari had La Quina and dozens of other STPRM leaders arrested on charges of murder and stockpiling weapons. La Quina had a reputation as a powerful and paternalistic union boss who used violence to silence his opponents in the union.
International human rights organizations argued, however, that the government had fabricated the case against La Quina, and called for his release. Police were accused of dumping a body on the union's premises and planting guns in order to frame the union leader.
La Quina's arrest was clearly in retaliation for his opposition to Salinas's election and to Salinas's neo-liberal political program. La Quina had offered support in 1988 to Cuauhtemoc Cardenas, then a presidential candidate against Salinas. La Quina also opposed the government's plans to privatize and deregulate industry.
Under the terms of his release the 76-year-old and infirm union leader must reside in Cuernavaca until January 12, 2002. He is forbidden from traveling to Ciudad Madero, the headquarters of the union.
Zedillo, who said he released La Quina for humanitarian reasons, might have done so almost four years ago, but apparently preferred to wait until age and illness had ground down La Quina and made him less of a threat.
A group of dissident oil workers from 10 local unions sent greetings to La Quina and expressed their satisfaction at his release. The dissident oil workers had helped to elect La Quina's son, Hernandez junior as a federal congressman, and promise to elect Hernandez junior to be the next head of the oil workers union.
Workers from two locals of the Mexican Petroleum Workers Union (STPRM) organized protests against union corruption in December as their union leaders left office.
In Local 24 in Salamanca, Guanajuato, Antonio Sanchez Sotelo of the dissident Union of Free Petroleum Workers (UPL), accused out-going Pedro Orozco Reza of incompetence and corruption. UPL leader Benjamin Nava Covarrubias said his group would demand a strict accounting from Orozco Reza.
"We are not opposition dissidents by habit," said Covarrubias. "We are and will be against everything which violates the laws and regulations. We will fight corruption and we want the next union leadership to fulfill its duty and to rescue the dignity of our union."
Similarly in Local 36 in Reynosa, Tamaulipas, over 100 active and retired union members demonstrated at the union headquarters in mid December to demand that out-going general secretary Enrique Yanez Trevino hand over million of pesos "held back" from the workers' credit union. The protest had an added impact since the national union leader Carlos Romero Deschamps was present at the swearing-in ceremony for the new officers. Local 36 represents 1,500 workers in Nuevo Leon, Tamauplipas and Coahuila.
When the protestors attempted to enter the union's casino where the ceremony was being held, they were stopped by guards who chained the doors. The new head of the union Jorge Pulido Avendano had to escape out the back door to avoid the protestors.
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Three thousand delegates from 55 local unions of the National Teachers Union (el SNTE) will come together on March 10 to 14 in what could be a history-making convention. Three opposition groups within the SNTE may join together to put up a common slate to oppose the union bureaucracy which has close ties to the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). If the opposition caucuses agree to do so, it will be the first time in the union's more than 50 year history that union delegates will have an opportunity to choose between an official and an opposition slate.
The SNTE is Mexico's and Latin America's largest labor union with 1.3 million members. Since it was organized in the 1930s, it has been closely tied to the Mexican state-party, the PRI. The government and the union bureaucracy succeeded in defeating or wearing down large opposition movements in the 1950s and again in the 1980s.
In 1989 union dissidents succeeded in overturning the dictatorial regime of Carlos Jongitud Barrios, but President Carlos Salinas de Gortari managed to place his candidate Elba Esther Gordillo in the union's top position. Together Salinas and Gordillo managed to keep the union rebellion under control, and the bureaucracy in power, though the union became more democratic, and some locals such as those in Mexico City were won by the radicals.
The SNTE saw a few important reforms in the 1980s and 90s. At a convention in Tepic in 1991 delegates voted that union leaders could not be reelected. Nevertheless, since the founding of the union delegates have voted for only one "unified" slate in national elections.
During the last three years, opposition groups have carried out a series of militant actions throughout the country, and have managed to spread their influence to many states and local unions. The principal demand of the teachers has been for wage increases, though many teachers also want the right control their own unions and to be independent of the PRI. Today the organized opposition represents approximately 40 percent of the union membership.
Three Opposition Groups
There are three opposition groups within the SNTE. The oldest and most important group is the National Coordinating Committee of the Teachers Union (la CNTE), headed by Raul Moron Orozco. Established in 1979 by teachers from Oaxaca and Chiapas and other southern states, la CNTE led a mass movement of teachers during the 1980s. La CNTE has emphasized the teachers right to democratically control their unions. During the 1980s and 90s la CNTE's influence spread to other local unions, particularly Mexico City, but its strongest base remains in the poorer southern states. La CNTE makes up about 20 percent of the union membership.
The second opposition group is Democratic Fractions (Fracciones Democraticas), headed by Noe Garcia and Jorge Emilio Mateos, which came out of la CNTE. Led by union officials with less radical positions, Democratic Fractions has a following in 34 of the 55 local unions of the SNTE, and makes up about 10 percent of the union membership.
Finally, the third group, New Unionism (Nuevo Sindicalismo), represents the most moderate of the opposition groups. Its leader, Miguel Alonso Raya, is also a congressman of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD). Raya has advocated a negotiating strategy, and proposes that the opposition slate also include members of the old regime. New Unionism also has a following among about 10 percent of the union membership.
If the three opposition groups within the SNTE come together, they have a very real chance of overthrowing the teachers' union's bureaucratic leadership. Were that to happen, it is very likely that the SNTE would finally break the hold of Elba Esther Gordillo and move into the new labor federation, the National Workers Union (UNT). At the same time, it would be likely to initiate a new level of internal struggle between the moderate union reforms and the more militant rank and file of la CNTE.
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The Independent Union of Workers of the Metropolitan Autonomous University (SITUAM) has pledged that it will strike on February 1 if it does not receive a 65 percent wage increase. Rector Jose Luis Gazquez Mateos had offered the union 15 percent, while Secretary of Public Education Miguel Limon Rojas said that university workers should receive 12 percent.
Alejandro Vega, general secretary of SITUAM, says his union will carry out demonstrations both at the administration of the elite public university, and at the Secretary of Finance. He said that his union could not accept the 17 percent wage increase given to the Union of Workers of the National Autonomous University (STUNAM), which in any case was really only about 12 percent in wages.
Some 23 university unions have contracts which expire between January 19 and April 30; most terminate between the end of January and the first two weeks of February. The unions are seeking wage increases between 25 and 65 percent; most are asking for fifty percent increases.
The National Coordinating Committee of University Unions (CNSU), which represents 30 university unions throughout the country, will begin a series of mobilizations this month demanding wage increases. The government's salary ceiling has been 18 percent, about two thirds in real wage increases and the rest in nominal benefits increases.
The Sole Union of Workers and Employees of the Autonomous University of the State of Mexico, for example, has filed strike notification, demanding a 30 percent wage increase, with a promise to strike on January 31 if it is not forthcoming. Miguel Angel Esteban Valdes, the head of the union, said the decision was made after consulting the 70 union representatives in a union meeting.
The government can be expected to strongly oppose university worker strikes and wage increases. At the Autonomous University of Yucatan (UADY) the Local Board of Conciliation and Arbitration (JLCA) has told the workers' union which rejected a 17 percent wage increase to "take it or leave it." The JCLA claimed that the union (AUTAMUADY) did not really represent the workers, and so could not legally call a strike.
Mexico's public universities continue in crisis. Juarez University of the State of Durango (UJED) could not pay workers their end of year benefits. The Autonomous University of Queretaro (UAQ) has announced lay offs for 300 workers and professors. The Autonomous University of Zacatecas (UAZ) claims it will have difficult in negotiating contracts with its unions.
The Mexican Electrical Workers Union (SME), representing 35,000 active and 10,000 retired electrical workers employed by the Light and Power Company which serves central Mexico, including Mexico City, seeks a 61 percent wage increase. The union's collective bargaining agreement will also be renegotiated, and talks are expected within two to three weeks.
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Foreign Investment
Foreign investment in Mexico reached its highest level in three years at nine billion U.S. dollars in the first nine months of 1997. (Elvia Gutierrez, "Lenta Recuperacion del mercado interno; el salario, en picada," EL FINANCIERO, 28 December 1997.)
Rate of Growth
The Mexican economy grew 7.8 percent in the last third of 1997, and 7 percent in the last year compared to 1996, according to Javier Bonilla Garcia, Secretary of Labor. ("Mejoro el empleo en el tercer trimestre de 97, informa Bonilla," Unomasuno, 11 December 1997.)
Job Creation
The Mexican formal economy employed 29.2 million persons in 1997, a 3.9 percent increase over 1996, and represented the creation of more than one million new jobs. (Maria de Jesus Espinosa M., "Dio Trabajo a 29.2 Millones de Mexicanos la Economica Formal," EXCELSIOR, 29 December 1997.)
But the International Labor Organization (ILO) indicates that Mexico's employment situation is just about what it was in the depth of the crisis in 1994. Of every 10 jobs created, 8.5 do not have fixed incomes and are not covered by the benefits established by labor law. Of those jobs created in the formal economy, 90 percent pay only between one and two minimum wages (wages in Mexico are often calculated as multiples of the minimum wage). Finally, while jobs grew at 3.5 percent, the population grew at 3.2 percent, meaning that the expansion of jobs just barely stayed ahead of the growth in population. (Gomez Sagado, "El nivel de desempleo, igual al de la crisis de '94: OIT," EL FINANCIERO, 24 December 1997.)
Minimum Wage
Mexico's new minimum wage took effect on January 1, 1998. The wage increase of 14.7 percent means the minimum wage now equals about US$3.20 per day. Mexico divides the country into three areas based on cost of living: In area A which includes Mexico City the new minimum wage is 30.20 pesos per day (8 pesos=1 dollar) while in area C the minimum is 26.05 pesos per day. Minimum wages for different trades also vary, so that a registered nurse earns 49.80 pesos per day in area A, while a receptionist in the same area earns 39.35. (From the Mexican government's chart of "Salarios Minimos" published in all papers in December, 1997.)
The publication of the new minimum wage in December was followed almost immediately by announcements of increases in water, light, telephone, bottled gas, and gasoline ranging between 15 and 28 percent.
Wages
In 1997 the minimum wage in Mexico reached its lowest level in terms of purchasing power since 1935. In December 1987, a Mexican worker had to labor 8 hours and 36 minutes to pay for the shopping basket of basic goods. Today the worker would have to work 36 hours and 22 minutes for the same goods. (Adriana Diaz, "Historico desplome del salario minimo en 10 anos," EL UNIVERSAL 16 December 1997.)
A study of the minimum wage by the conservative National Action Party (PAN) found that in the last 27 years, Mexicans have lost 71.5 percent of their purchasing power. (Minerva Cruz, "Cayo 71.5% el poder de compra del minisalario en 7 anos: AN," EL UNIVERSAL, 10 December 1997.)
Mexican wages actually lost 1.63 percent of their real purchasing power in 1997, compared to 1996. (Elvia Gutierrez, "Lenta Recuperacion del mercado interno; el salario, en picada," EL FINANCIERO, 28 December 1997.)
A study by the Mexican Senate on prices found a 12 percent increase in the basket of basic goods in the last 12 months. (Alejandro Torres, "Aumento 19% el costo de la canasta basica en 97," EL UNIVERSAL 20 December 1997.)
Health and Safety
Every 50 seconds a Mexican suffers an accident at work. Mexican industry produces four deaths and 41 injured workers every day, according to Delfino Hernandez Lascares of the Metropolitan Autonomous University (UAM). (Adriana Diaz, "Por accidentes laborales, cuatro muertos, en promedio, cada dia," EL UNIVERSAL 29 December 1997.)
Domestic Debt
Some 30 million Mexicans find themselves in default and unable to pay their debts, according to Juan Jose Quirino Salas, a leader of El Barzon, the Mexican debtors movement. Based on official statistics, Quirino Salas reports that of every 100 loans made by the bank, 57 fall in default, and of every 100 debtors who restructure their loans, 52 fall in default again. The total of the bad debt in Mexico is 430 billion pesos (8 pesos=1 dollar). (Laura Gomez Flores, "Quirino: 57 de cada 100 creditos bancarios cayeron en morosidad," LA JORNADA, 8 December 1997.)
Police Statistics
Mexico has: 400,000 local police; 26,121 state judicial police, and about 7,000 federal police. There is about 1 police officer for every 224 inhabitants of the country. Of these, 223,533 police or 55.6 percent of the total, have only an elementary school education or less. (Guillermo Gomez and Gerardo Resendiz, "Capacitacion y salarios, talon de Aquiles de cuerpos," EL NACIONAL, 5 January 1998.)
Social Struggles
The total number of strikes in the federal jurisdiction in 1997 fell to 39, down from 156 in 1992. Javier Bonilla the Secretary of Labor attributed the fall in strikes to the employers and workers desire for cooperation in the context of the "New Labor Culture." (Pablo Gonzalez, "'Reduccion Drastica' de Huelgas Durante 97, Precisa la STYPS," EL FINANCIERO 30 December 1997.)
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END OF MEXICAN LABOR NEWS AND ANALYSIS, VOL. 3, NO. 2, 16 JAN 98.