Date: Sun, 3 May 1998 23:03:49 -0400
From: Dan La Botz <103144.2651-AT-CompuServe.COM>
Subject: AUT: Part 2 - Mex Labor News - May 2, 1998


     PART 2 OF MEXICAN LABOR NEWS AND ANALYSIS FOR MAY 2, 1998
               BE SURE THAT YOU HAVE PART 1

                              ###

               REVELATIONS OF GOVERNMENT SPYING
               IN MEXICO CITY, CAMPECHE, TABASCO

     Mexican labor union activists have long complained of
government spying on unions and workers, but recent revelations
have shown the size and sophistication of some of the
government's many surveillance systems. Mexico appears to have
been covered for years by a complex web of informants
supplemented by government intelligence agents using the most
advanced electronic equipment to spy on Mexican labor
organizations. 

     In Mexico City, in the Department of the Federal District
throughout most of the 1990s there existed a sophisticated
electronic surveillance system, according to PROCESO magazine.
Apparently Manuel Camacho Solis, former Mexico City Mayor a
leader of the Institutional Revolutionary Party created the
intelligence system in 1993. Camacho Solis has since been
expelled from the PRI and formed his own reform party. 

     The intelligence system Camacho created continued to be used
throughout the succeeding administrations of Manuel Aguilera and
Oscar Espinosa Villarreal. 

     The electronic surveillance system was bought and owned by
Route-100, the municipal bus company, and, among other uses, it
monitored the activities of the bus company's union, the Sole
Union of Workers of Route 100 or SUTAUR.

     In addition to the electronic equipment, there was also a
network of 80 spies who reported on political and labor union
organizations to the higher-ups in the Federal District
government, according to Carlos Imaz of the new city government
of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD). The PRD says it
has dismantled all such surveillance systems and spy networks. 

                       Spies Strike

     More information about government spying came to light on
April 16 when 250 undercover spies known as "indicadores"
(indicators) went on strike in Mexico City's Secretary of Public
Security (SPP). The agents who specialize in spying on political
demonstration, marches, sit-ins and so on, held their own
demonstration to complain that the Chief of Staff of the SPP,
Jose de Jesus Gomez Juarez, had cancelled much of their Saturday
and Sunday work, meaning that they lost over-time pay. 

                    Bugs in Campeche

     In April in the southern state of Campeche, Senator Layda
Sansores Sanroman located a concrete house in Campeche City's
historic district filled with electronic eaves-dropping
equipment. The house also contained file cabinets filled with
hundreds of dossiers and thousands of pages of transcripts of
recorded telephone conversations of politicians, journalists and
union officials, among others. 

     Government agencies denied any knowledge of the bugging
operation. But financial records discovered by Senator Sansores
showed state government checks for more than $l.2 million dollars
used to buy the equipment from Israel.

     Mariclaire Acosta, president of the non-governmental Mexican
Commission for the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights, told
the WASHINGTON POST that the Campeche center was part of "a
horrible, filthy method of political control." Said Acosta, "It's
a fundamental violation of the right to privacy."

     Sansores said that records found in the Campeche spy center
indicated that there were 22 other such centers throughout the
country.
                    Ears in Tabasco
               
     Meanwhile in Villahermosa, Tabasco, another spy center has
been uncovered. The Tabasco "center for government information"
also had electronic monitoring equipment, and a staff of 80
informants commonly known as "orejas" or ears.

     No doubt, many other government spying systems exist in
Mexico, as well as employer spies and "official" union spies.
Obviously such organizations and police agents who exist to
report on the activities of union and political activist make a
mockery of workers' democratic rights. 

                         ###

     NEED A GOON SQUAD? GO TO THE LABOR BOARD BUILDING

     Say you're an employer in Mexico and needs a goon to knock
some sense into disgruntled workers who want higher pay or
dissident union members who want to choose their own union or
elect their union officers, where would you go to find some
reliable thugs? 

     No problem. Just go down to the Federal Board of
Conciliation and Arbitration, the labor board in Mexico City.
Police recently found at least 100 goons offering their services
to attorneys, union officials, politicians and employers. 

     The thugs are reportedly recruited in the Nezahualcoyotl and
Santa Ursula Coapa neighborhoods and receive goon training on
Guerrero street. Then they report to the labor board to look for
work in the field of thuggery.

     While the professional arm-twisters and leg-breakers usually
engage in threats, intimidation, beating and the occasional
political kidnapping, they can also be hired to perform murders,
reportedly for about 30,000 pesos (a little less than 4,000
dollars). No doubt some work cheaper.

     In the recent past women attorneys representing democratic
and independent unions have been beaten by some of the goons
right in the labor board building. Over the years these goon
squads have been used to beat, kidnap and murder union
dissidents, such as those from the Ford Cuautitlan plan, for
example. As their regular presence at the labor board indicates,
these hooligans and assassins form an integral part of the
Mexican labor relations system.

                              ###

                  MEDICAL RESIDENTS END STRIKE

     Hundreds resident physicians from 25 Federal District
Hospitals with the support of other residents from thirteen
states, organized in a National Coalition of Residents of IMSS,
formally ended three weeks of job actions, strikes and protests
on April 23. The doctors employed by the Mexican Institute of
Social Security (IMSS) and had the support of the National Union
of IMSS Workers (SNTSS). The physicians struck over lack of
medicine and equipment and bad working conditions and low pay.

     Not until April 23 did the doctors' protests and work
stoppages end when the Mexican government agreed to a 40 percent
increase in the educational stipend (ayuda didactica) for more
than about 6,000 doctors throughout Mexico. Marcelo Vasave, a
representative of the residents, said this was a fair agreement
reached with the consensus of all of the residents in the
country.
                              ###

                 MINE ACCIDENT AND CHILD LABOR

     Three miners--at least two of whom were children--were
killed and two others seriously insured after an explosion in a
small coal mine on the El Mezquite ejido in Sabinas, Coahuila.
The accident occurred just as the Global March Against Child
Labor 1998 reached Mexico.

          The dead are Juan Carlos Fernandez, age 17, Pablo Eduardo
Hernandez, age 14, and Armando Garcia, of unknown age, all of
Sabinas. The explosion was believed to have been caused by a
short or a spark in one of the small mines known as "pozos" or
wells. 

     Mine owner Javier Arizpe said that he employed the minor age
workers only with the permission of their parents. Nevertheless,
States Attorney Jose Jaime Castillo Ruiz said he will investigate
both the explosion and the employment of juveniles.

                              ###

                         TWO SUMMITS: 
          FREE TRADE AND ITS OPPONENTS IN SANTIAGO

                       by Andrew Elmore

     While executive heads of 34 Western Hemisphere countries
gathered in Santiago, Chile for the Second Summit of the Americas
on April 18, another summit had ended a few blocks away. In an
historic meeting of over 1000 representatives of diverse social
groups from every country in the American Continent, the Summit
of the Peoples of the Americas brought together non-governmental
organizations such as human rights groups and environmentalists
together with organized labor. While the heads of government
negotiated commercial agreements, the People's Summit called for
social protections and the defense of the interests of the
majority.

     Among Mexican labor organizations represented at the Summit 
were the Authentic Labor Front (FAT), the Mexican Action Network
on Free Trade (RMALC), and National Workers Union (UNT), and the
Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM). In addition to non-
governmental organizations, unions, and groups of ordinary
people, the Summit included a number of Mexican politicians,
including Senator Juan Antonio Prats of the Party of the
Democratic Revolution (PRD) and representative José Angel
Conchello of the National Action Party (PAN).

          Free Trade on the Continent by 2005

     While the Second Summit of the Americas gave lip-service to
democracy, human rights, and social justice, the governmental
summit reaffirmed the Continental leaders=92 commitment to the Free
Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). The FTAA would link together
all of the hemisphere=92s economies (except Cuba=92s) by the year
2005.

     This summit was a continuation of the Continental dialogue
started in Miami at the 1994 Summit of the Americas. During the
first summit, Mexico was held out as the model of economic reform
and NAFTA as the model trade agreement. Just ten days later,
however, the Mexican peso underwent a massive devaluation. Since
then, and contrary to the expectations created at the December
1994 Summit, the expansion of free-trade agreements throughout
the hemisphere has proceeded slowly. 

     Nevertheless, in this Summit governments have continued the
process set in motion in 1994, proclaiming in their Final
Declaration that "we are confident that the FTAA will benefit the
well-being of our peoples, including economically disadvantaged
people in our respective countries."

                    A People's Summit

     That confidence in favor of free trade stands in stark
contrast to the Final Declarations of the People=92s Summit, which
criticizes economic agreements like the FTAA for "causing rising
unemployment, expanding the informal sector of the economy,
endangering labor relations, increasing production quotas and
decreasing salaries." The unconditional government support of the
FTAA in the face of this, according to the Summit, means that
"the proclaimed social concerns of these countries continues to
be treated like small-change in commercial negotiations."

     Bertha Lujan, Coordinator of the Mexican Action Network on
Free Trade (RMALC), told MEXICAN LABOR NEWS AND ANALYSIS that, in
addition to its lack of proposals to protect social interests,
the People=92s Summit opposed the official Summit=92s "participation
in negotiations without the approval of the people, converting it
into a discussion between governments and executive powers."  

                       A New Agenda

     According to Lujan, "Social groups on the Continent, unions,
women, peasants, indigenous communities, all represent an
alternative path to that of neoliberalism, which is why the two
Summits were in absolute opposition." The Summit of the People
launched a counter-strategy to create a Continental Social
Alliance which would represent all sectors of society.

     The People's Summit meetings reflected the multi-faceted
composition of the Summit: Organized Labor, Women, Indigenous
Communities, Peasants, and Environmental activists all had a
forum. For three days, these groups met to focus their agenda on
topics of globalization such as sustainable development,
international investments, quality of life and employment.

     The Summit achieved wide-ranging agreements on a social
clause for commercial negotiations in the Americas. The final
declaration approved the International Confederation of Free
Trade Unions=92 (ICFTU) proposal to base the social clause on
ratified International Labor Organization (ILO) agreements,
including the right to organize and to a collective contract, the
prohibition of forced and child labor, and protection from
discrimination in employment. 

     The Economic Alternatives meeting and the Parliamentary
session called for all future economic agreements with special
protections for the agricultural sector, indigenous autonomy,
natural resources, the facilitation of technology transfers, and
a focus on developing and resolving foreign debt for developing
countries through international funds. Finally, these demands
were all sent by Chilean Chancellor José Miguel Insulza to all
the chiefs of state and of government participating in the Summit
of the Americas, to analyze before beginning negotiations of the
FTAA.

        Labor Meeting Produces Interamerican Labor Accord

     Coordinating the Labor forum was the Interamerican Regional
Labor Organization (ORIT), whose President, Dick Martin of the
Canadian Labor Congress, along with Vice-President Luis Anderson
presided. They in turn handed the floor to international and
national Federations affiliated with the ORIT, such as the
moderate Chilean Unified Federation of Workers (CUT) in Chile.
Chilean independent unionists objected with heckling when the CUT
invited the Chilean Minister of Labor to speak, according to Maty
Arteaga, a FAT organizer.  

     Among independent Mexican labor union speakers at the Labor
Table were Alexandra Barrales, Vice President of the newly-formed
federation National Workers=92 Union (UNT) and Alejandro Vega, top
officer of SITUAM, the Union of Workers of the Metropolitan
Autonomous University. They both spoke about the need for Mexican
unions to form both national and international alliances. Mexican
labor organizers were visibly upset when a representative of
Mexico=92s the Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM) took the
floor, according to Arteaga. "She spoke about how the CTM was the
first union to oppose privatizing Social Security. When she
lamented the death of Fidel Velazquez, [the former CTM patriarch]
who, she said, was =91Mexico=B4s most important labor leader,=92 we
shouted =91liar !=92" 

     The labor session passed important measures such as the
commitment to labor rights expressed in ILO agreements, some of
which are still unsigned or unenforced in some Latin American.
Those measures were included in the Final Declarations of the
Summit.

          Women=92s Table Suffered Internal Divisions    

     The women=92s forum split between ultra-radical and moderate
Chilean groups who led the meeting, which was a blow to Mexican
women=92s groups which hoped to pass numerous proposals to
strengthen women=92s rights, including banning pregnancy as grounds
for firings in the Mexican maquiladoras. Still, many women left
the meeting undeterred. "We will continue to act in solidarity to
protect women=92s rights," said Arteaga, who formerly served as the
Coordinator of the Women=92s Sector of the FAT.

               An Advance, but Work Left Undone

     According to Lujan, if they are to confront the reality of a
pending hemispheric trade agreement, future continental meetings
need to take a more direct stand against commercial accords
without a social clause. Specifically, "there needs to be a
communication structure representing diverse sectors of society."
Yet, the Summit did unify organized labor in the Continent around
three important commitments for an alliance with other social
groups: the rejection of the currently planned FTAA, the
importance of preventing free investment from diminishing social
standards, and unity in the face of globalization.

     Most importantly, the People=92s Summit challenges any accords
reached by the Summit of the Americas by putting it to the
people: "we demand that any future commercial agreement be
approved by, at least, a referendum or plebiscite in every
country."  Mexican delegates sent these and all the final demands
of the Summit to Jaime Zabludosky, Mexico=92s Secretary of
Commerce, who was a chief negotiator of NAFTA.

               Press Black-out in Mexico

     While the Chilean press covered the People=92s Summit in both
print and television, the Mexican press has virtually ignored it. 
When the Mexican delegates returned from Chile to hold a press
conference, only two reporters showed up, one from the
pro-government UNOMASUNO, and another who may have worked for the
Ministry of the Interior. Nevertheless, information (including
Summit documents) is available directly through the internet at
the People=92s Summit=92s web page:
          http://members.tripod.com/~redchile/indice2.htm. 
Those interested in the Summit of the Americas can access their
web site at 
               http://www.cumbre.cl.
                    
                              ###

                    MAY DAY AROUND THE WORLD:
               MEXICO, KOREA AND THE UNITED STATES

                       by Young-Il Lim*, 
               Linda Stevenson, and Jess Kincaid

     May Day--the international workers' day--has over a
one-hundred year history, invoking the struggle of workers to
improve their conditions and a symbol of the international
solidarity that exists between working people's. Parallel to this
history has been an effort to cut working people off from their
heritage and erase the memory of labor's fights and
accomplishments, most successfully perhaps in the United States.

     The cases of Korea and Mexico provide insight into the
significance May Day plays as a symbol of the fight for
democratic and independent unionism. In recent years attempts by
both governments, with the cooperation of state unions, to
subvert the celebration of May Day have met with militant
opposition.
                    May Day in Mexico

     For decades, May Day in Mexico was an official state holiday
in which the unions paraded before the national palace, and the
president stood on balcony and reiterated the "historic pact"
between the state-party and the unions. Rather than a celebration
of workers' power, it was a symbolic representation of the state-
party's control over the unions and the workers.

     After the Chiapas Rebellion and the economic crisis of 1994,
the late Fidel Velazquez, then leader of the Confederation of
Mexican Workers (CTM), decided to suspend the CTM's participation
in the 1995 May Celebration, and led all official state unions to
do likewise, thus threatening to stop the May Day celebration
altogether. But independent unions, democratic caucuses within
the official unions, community groups and radical activists
decided to hold a march anyway, the first independent May Day in
Mexico in decades.

     The impetus provided by the 1995 May Day march gave birth to
the May First Inter-Union Coordinating Committee (CIPM; also
referred to as the Intersindical). The CIPM subsequently became
one of the most important labor groups in today's Mexico, and for
three years independent workers' organizations held successful
demonstrations and kept the spirit of May Day alive in Mexico. 

     This year the Intersindical marched, as did the new National
Union of Workers (UNT), and together their demonstrations were as
large or large than those of the "official" Congress of Labor.
May Day has been revived in Mexico as a symbol of the workers'
movement, rather than a testament to the power of the state.

                         Korea

     In Korea this year, some violence occurred between May Day
marchers and the police. This violence is indicative of the
combative relationship between the independent labor unions,
organized in the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU),
which have played a vanguard role in defending the rights of
workers since 1987, and a government increasingly espousing
neoliberal [conservative] policies and controlling the official
unions the Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU).   

     Up until the mid-1950s, in Korea, International Workers' Day
was celebrated with the rest of the workers around the world on
May 1. However, given the historical context of those years,
post-World War II, post-Korean war, and the throes of the
anti-Communist propaganda promoted by McCarthyism in the U.S., it
is no coincidence that South Korea heeded the example of the
U.S., and changed the date of Worker's Day to something different
from that of all other countries. This maneuver isolated workers
both from their national history of struggle and from any
progressive international solidarity. 

     In Korea the date was changed to March 10, while in the U.S.
the date is the first Monday of September. But unlike in the
U.S., in Korea independent workers demanded the right to their
history and international solidarity, represented in this date of
labor struggle commemoration and celebration. Since 1987, when
the "great workers' struggle" broke out, Korean democratic and
independent unions (KCTU) demanded that the government change the
date back to May 1. 

     As their numbers and strategic capacities increased the KCTU
not only gained considerable strength (now representing
approximately one-third of all unionized workers), but was able
to persuade its counterparts in the official unions to take up
their demand. The KCTU's demands from below were bolstered by the
government-controlled FKTU federation, as many middle-level
leaders and rank and file of the FKTU were convinced that it
was shameful to celebrate labor day as the government mandated,
in negation of their history. Thus, after much debate and
struggle, in 1995 the official commemoration of Workers' Day in
Korea was changed back to May 1.  

     Although the tensions between the independent and official
unions and the government still run high in Korea, the
restoration of the celebration of labor day to May 1 signifies
that the Korean labor movement has been and continues to seek the
support and connections of international solidarity after many
long years of struggle. The restoration of the marches and
rallies in the Zocalo in Mexico City represent similar changes. 

               United States--May Day Forgotten

     Ironically, May Day as the international labor day began in
the United States at the end of the nineteenth century, and arose
out of the struggle for the eight-hour day led by the Knights of
Labor. The Knights of Labor and its eight-hour day movement was
defeated after the Haymarket affair in Chicago. May Day
commemorates that struggle. In Latin America people sometimes
refer to May Day as "el dia de los martires de Chicago," or the
Day of the Chicago Haymarket martyrs.

     The experiences in Mexico and Korea illustrate the
importance of the May Day as symbols of independent labor
struggles. Perhaps in the United States, as a democratic,
independent and militant labor movement is reconstructed, May Day
may once again be celebrated where it began, as it is around the
world. 
----------------
[Dr. Young-Il Lim is a visiting professor at the University of
California at Los Angeles, Assistant Director at the Research
Center for Youngnam Labor Movements, Seoul Korea and a guest
writer this issue.]
                              ###

               U.S. Transportation Union Officials
                On Fact-Finding Mission to Mexico;
          Extend Solidarity to Mexican Railroad Workers     

     A group of U.S. transportation union officials conducted a
successful fact-finding mission to Mexico between April 20-24.
The U.S. union officials went south of the border to learn more
about the impact of privatization on Mexican railroad workers,
and to extend solidarity to the Mexican workers in their struggle
to keep their jobs, their union contracts and their working
conditions. 

     The trip represented the first important international
contact between U.S. and Mexican railroad unions in many years,
and a first step toward creating a new relationship between the
railroad workers of both countries. 

     While in Mexico City the U.S. union leaders met with Mexican
railroad union leaders and activists, officials of the Secretary
of Communications and Transportation and the Mexican National
Railways (FERRONALES), as well as with congressional
representatives and senators. The group also toured the Terminal
Valle de Mexico railroad yards and shops and met and talked with
railroad workers. Later the delegation traveled to Empalme,
Sonora to talk with local leaders and workers involved in the
strike there in February.

      Among the union leaders the U.S. officials talked to were:
Victor Flores, head of the Mexican Railroad Workers Union
(STFRM), Salvador Zarco, leader of the Committee to Defend the
Collective Bargaining Agreement, a caucus within the STFRM; and
Carlos Figueroa, leader of Local 8 of the STFRM in Empalme,
Sonora, scene of a wildcat strike over privatization in February.

               Visit Prompted by Railroad Strike

     It was the February strike by the railroad workers of
Empalme, Sonora--first reported in the United States by MEXICAN
LABOR NEWS AND ANALYSIS--which caught the attention of U.S.
railroad unions and the Teamsters. The Transportation Trade
Division (TTD) of the American Federation of Labor Congress of
Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) then passed a resolution at a
meeting in March calling for the fact-finding mission and for
extending solidarity to the Mexican workers. 

     The U.S. delegation which visited Mexico in April included:
Edward Dubroski, First Vice-President, Brotherhood of Locomotive
Engineers (BLE); Charles Moneypenny, Legislative Director,
Transportation Workers Union of America (TWU); James
Brunkenhoefer, National Legislative Director, United
Transportation Union (UTU); Tony Padilla, Assistant National
Legislative Director, Transportation Communication Union (TCU);
Jesse Cervantes, also an official of the Transportation
Communication Union (TCU); Joel Myron,, Assistant to the
President, Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employees (BMWE);
Roger Sanchez, Local Chairman, Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way
Employees (BMWE); Dave Cameron, Senior Communications
Coordinator, International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT); and
Hugo Hernandez, International Organizer, International
Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT). Also accompanying the delegation
as tour guide and interpreter was author Dan La Botz.

     In Mexico City the U.S. delegation attended a special
informal hearing with the Mexican House of Representatives' Labor
Committee, presided over by president of the Committee,
Congressman Juan Moises Calleja Castanon of the Institutional
Revolutionary Party (PRI), and accompanied by Secretary of the
Committee Rosalio Hernandez Beltran of the Party of the
Democratic Revolution (PRD) and Secretary of the Committee
Congressman Javier Paz Zarza of the National Action Party (PAN),
as well as other Congressmen. 

     Also present at the Labor Committee meeting was Congressman
Victor Flores, the head of the Mexican Railroad Workers Union
(STFRM). The U.S. delegation thus had an opportunity to meet and
talk briefly with the Mexican rail union leader during the
hearing. But Flores declined to have a private meeting with the
U.S. delegation, despite several attempts to arrange meetings
with him. 

     In addition, the U.S. unionists met with Senator Rosa Albina
Garavito of the PRD, a secretary of the Labor Committee of the
Mexican Senate. 

     The U.S. labor union delegation met with and listened to
government officials, Santiago Corzo Cruz, an official of the
Secretary of Transportation and Emilio Sacristan Roy of the
Mexican National Railways (FNM or FERRONALES) who gave an
extensive explanation of the Mexican state company's point of
view of the privatization process.

     In Empalme, in addition to talking to STFRM Local 8 leaders
and workers, the U.S. held a meeting with Empalme Mayor Jesus
Avila Godoy and town Secretary Jose Luis Padilla. Both are former
railroad workers and Padilla is a former general secretary of
Local 8.
                            ###

 END MEXICAN LABOR NEWS AND ANALYSIS, VOL. 3, NO. 9, 2 MAY 1998



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