Date: Sun, 20 Jun 1999 23:56:10 -0400
Subject: AUT: Mex Labor News, June 16


MEXICAN LABOR NEWS AND ANALYSIS                   
June 16, 1999
Vol. IV, No. 11
----------------------------------------------------------------
               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-AT-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, Robert Donnelly, Peter Gellert, Elyce Hues, Jess Kincaid,
Jorge Robles, Don Sherman, Jeremy Simer.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
IN THIS ISSUE:
     *The Media, Power and Politics: The Murder of Paco Stanley 
          - by Peter Gellert
     *Teachers End Mobilization With Mixed Results
     *Teachers' Groups Support Cuauhtemoc Cardenas for President
     *SUTERM Electrical Workers: Rebellion and Repression
     *Mexican Supreme Court Rules in Favor Sosa Texcoco Strikers
     *The Supreme Court Decision on Public Employee Unions: An   
     Interview with Roberto Tooms
          - by Don Sherman
-----------------------------------------------------------------
[While MEXICAN LABOR NEWS AND ANALYSIS focuses on labor unions
and workers, we think it important to look from time to time at
the political context surrounding the labor movement. As the year
2000 elections approach, once again the media, drugs and murder
seem to be at the center of things, as we see in this story from
Peter Gellert, our political correspondent in Mexico. - Ed.]

                 THE MEDIA, POWER & POLITICS:               
                  THE MURDER OF PACO STANLEY
               
                         by Peter Gellert

     A well-known Mexican television personality, Francisco
 Paco  Stanley, was gunned down in broad daylight while driving
on a major Mexico City thoroughfare on June 5.

     The murder of the popular tv comic shocked Mexican society
and reinforced concerns that crime and the unresolved killings of
well-known figures has gotten far out of hand. But like many such
cases in Mexico, the murder of Paco Stanley brought other social
and political issues to the fore.

     The mass media, specifically television, immediately sought
to blame the Mexico City government, headed by Cuauhtemoc
Cardenas of the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution,
for not preventing what was termed random street violence. In
hours-long coverage of the crime, TV Azteca anchormen openly
demanded the mayor=92s resignation.

     But after reaching a crescendo, the media onslaught quickly
ran into trouble. 

     First, cocaine was found on Paco Stanley=92s body, in his
blood, and car. Reports immediately began circulating tying the
TV personality to organized crime and very possibly to drug
trafficking. This questioned the television version of the murder
as simply one more act of random street violence.

     Then a document was discovered issued by the Interior
Ministry accrediting Stanley as a public servant and authorizing
him to posses firearms exclusively reserved for security forces
and the army. Why was Stanley issued such credentials? 

     The Interior Ministry explanation that he was given such
papers because he asked for them and was moreover an important
personality convinced no one. Indeed, in the week since news of
the credential emerged, Interior Ministry spokesmen have dodged
questions on how many others have been granted bogus ID documents
accrediting them as federal government functionaries.

               Anti-Cardenas Campaign Collapses

     In addition, the City Government Prosecutor=92s Office is now
investigating Paco Stanley=92s wealth, which is reportedly at great
variance with his income level.

     All this brought the media campaign crashing down. In an
editorial, the left-wing Mexico City daily newspaper LA JORNADA
denounced what it termed a   vast, irresponsible, immoral
lynching campaign headed by the electronic media.  The City
Government Prosecutor=92s office said that what occurred was not a
random act of violence, but a settling of accounts, a carefully
designed and executed killing by organized crime. Even Federal
Attorney General Jorge Madrazo leaked information to the press
that his office was pursuing the drug angle in its line of
investigation.   

     In response to the new revelations and a strong reaction in
political circles against the anti-Cardenas campaign, the TV
giants reluctantly changed their tune. TV Azteca called for a
vote of confidence in the authorities' investigation, while
Televisa reported on the cocaine traces.

     Even President Ernesto Zedillo himself got into the act. In
an obvious response to pressure, a week later the president
condemned what he termed the  hysteria  and undue attention
surrounding crime.  

     Beyond the tragic loss of life, which included the death of
a passerby, the recent events have put the spotlight on the
manipulative practices of the powerful electronic media and their
responsibility to society. Continued pressure and investigations
into the Interior Ministry, organized crime, and the true history
of Paco Stanley may well spark new revelations in the days and
weeks to come.
                              ###                 

          TEACHERS END MOBILIZATION WITH MIXED RESULTS

     After almost a month of work stoppages and marches that
involved tens of thousands of teachers, and affected hundreds of
thousands of students, the National Coordinating Committee of the
Teachers Union (la CNTE), a dissident movement within the Mexican
Teachers Union (el SNTE), has ended its current offensive.
Teachers from Guerrero, Michoacan, Oaxaca, Zacatecas and the
Federal District participated in the month-long mobilization, as
did teachers from several other states, though in smaller
numbers.

     La CNTE and other teachers' groups seeking a 100 percent
wage increase, as well as many other union and political demands
had organized strikes and protests by tens of thousands. For
example, in the state of Michoacan teachers struck for 27 days,
from May 13 to June 10, carried marches in 113 towns and
villages, and organized sit-ins in 70 towns. Thousands of
teachers marched in the state capital of Morelia, and left 1,000
teachers to occupy the city square or zocalo. 

                    Confront PRD Governor

     In Zacatecas the dissident teachers movement confronted
Ricardo Monreal Avila, the new governor from the left-of-center
Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD). Monreal Avila told the
teachers "there's no more money." In any case, he said, he also
had demands from the agricultural and health sectors.

     In the end the Michoacan teachers did not win the 100
percent wage increase they sought, but had to settle for the 20
percent negotiated earlier by their national union leadership.
But they did win changes in the state's education law, and
stopped the further decentralization of education to the 
municipal level. The results were similar in other states.
     
                    Sendero Luminoso???

     During the course of the month long struggle, teachers from
Michoacan, Guerrero, Oaxaca and the Federal District surrounded
the offices of the Secretary of Public Education (SEP), and set
up a tent city that completely occupied the national plaza
(zocalo) in the center of Mexico City. 

     Faced with another of the annual upheavals by the teachers,
Secretary of Education Miguel Limon Rojas accused the dissident
teachers' movement la CNTE of being linked to Sendero Luminoso,
the violent and brutal Maoist party in Peru. Limon Rojas and
other education officials have previously accused la CNTE of
being linked to the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN)
and the People's Revolutionary Army (ERP). 

     But the government's red-baiting did not deter the movement.
The teachers did not win the 100 percent wage increase that they
sought, nor most of their other political demands. But they did
win on some local issues. Once again la CNTE showed itself the
most powerful union movement in Mexico, capable of mobilizing
tens of thousands of teachers on an independent political basis--
but still without the power to topple the teachers' union's
bureaucratic leadership which is linked to the ruling
Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).

                              ###            

                    TEACHERS' GROUPS SUPPORT
            CUAUHTEMOC CARDENAS OF PRD FOR PRESIDENT

     Teachers from Locals 9, 10, 11 and 32 of the Mexican
Teachers Union (el SNTE) announced their support for Mexico City
Mayor Cuauhtemoc Cardenas as candidate of the Party of the
Democratic Revolution (PRD) at a press conference at the
Journalists Club in Mexico City on June 10. Cardenas, who was
present, gratefully accepted the teachers' endorsement, and
called upon them to develop a program of educational reform for
Mexico.

     The Local unions represent teachers from the Mexico City
area where Cardenas has done well in his past bids for the
presidency in 1988 and 1994. Those local unions have been aligned
with the opposition movement within the teachers union, the
Coordinating Committee of the Teachers Union (la CNTE). 

     Cardenas also called upon the teachers union members to help
build a broad political alliance which could form a ruling
coalition after his election. He said that so far only the
Mexican Workers Party (PT) and the Revolutionary Workers Party
(PRT) had voiced their support for such a coalition.

                              ###

     THE STRUGGLE IN THE ELECTRICAL WORKERS UNION (SUTERM):
          RANK AND FILE ORGANIZATION VERSUS REPRESSION

     A rank and file movement within the Sole Union of Electrical
Workers of the Mexican Republic (SUTERM) is challenging general
secretary Leonardo Rodriguez Alcaine, who also heads the
Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM) and the Congress of Labor
(CT), both of which support the Institutional Revolutionary
Party. A new National Coordinating Committee of the Workers of
SUTERM announced on June 5 that it is demanding that Rodriguez
Alcaine convene general meetings in all local unions so that
workers may vote by secret, direct ballot on the issue of the
privatization of the electrical industry.

     Earlier this year President Ernesto Zedillo proposed the
privatization of the electric power industry which would mean the
sale of both the Light and Power Company and the Federal
Electrical Commission (CFE). The Mexican Electrical Workers Union
(SME) immediately opposed privatization and launched a national
campaign to oppose it. But Rodriguez Alcaine, head of SUTERM,
supported President Zedillo's proposal. Gradually many SUTERM
members began to oppose the proposal and their own leader
Rodriguez Alcaine for failing to consult them, and failing to
represent their interests. 

     Rodriguez Alcaine has met the rank and file rebellion with
the SUTERM with the usual measures. On June 4 SUTERM union
officials who had spoken out against the privatization,
Evangelina Navarrete, a union steward, received a notice from the
CFE telling her the union had removed her from office.

     Nevertheless the dissident movement within the SUTERM
continues to grow, claiming 10,000 members in the union's 55
sections, out of a total of 65,000 workers. The movement
threatens not only the authoritarian bureaucracy of SUTERM, but
the entire hierarchy of Mexico's state-controlled labor unions. 

                              ###

               MEXICAN SUPREME COURT FINDS IN FAVOR
                    OF SOSA TEXCOCO STRIKERS

     One of the most long-standing and important labor struggles
in Mexico in the last half-dozen years has finally been
resolved. The Mexican Supreme Court has handed down a decision in
favor of the workers of the Sosa Texcoco plant, requiring the
employer to pay them 140 million pesos in severance and other
remuneration. However, while the workers have won a moral
victory, the bankrupt company does not appear to be able to pay
them.

     Luis Madrid, general secretary of the Union of Workers of
Sos Texcoco, said, "We expected this result, because we always
knew we were right."

     Sosa Texcoco is a plant located Ecatepec in the State of
Mexico that produces health food from a seaweed that growing in
Mexican lakes. The plant once employed as many as 2,000
employees, but in the early 1990s its workforce was reduced to
about 700 workers. At about the same time management began to
renege on benefits owed to workers, leading to a strike that
began on September 23, 1993.

                         Long Legal Battles

     The Mexican Board of Conciliation and Arbitration declared
the strike legal in November of 1994, but the company appealed
the decision. However, in the meantime the management and the
union negotiated and in February of 1996 reached an agreement by
which the company would fulfill its contractual obligations and
pay severance pay to the striking workers. Workers were to be
terminated with full severance pay by February 29 of that year.
But the agreement was never fulfilled.

     Sosa Texcoco went bankrupt, and fell into the hands of a
receiver, Administradora Metropolitana SA de CV. The union and
the receiver took the issues to the Labor Tribunal on more than
one occasion, which resulted in mixed decisions.

     Throughout all of this more than 600 workers continued to
maintain their strike at the plant, while also carrying their
fight to all possible public forums, winning support and
solidarity from workers of all sorts. In the course of the
struggle, several workers died of various illnesses.

     While workers have won a moral victory, they will have to
compete with other creditors, such as banks, the Mexican
Institute of Social Security, and the Workers Housing Program
(INFONAVIT). Though the legal victory is won, it is not clear how
long the financial settlement will take.

                              ###

               FOLLOWING SUPREME COURT DECISION
          ON PUBLIC EMPLOYEES RIGHT TO FORM UNIONS
               FSTSE BEGINS TO DISINTEGRATE

     Following the Mexican Supreme Court's ruling last month that
public employees no longer had to belong to the one government
sponsored union in their workplace, the Federation of Unions of
Workers at the Service of the State (FSTSE), the pro-government
public employee federation has begun to break up. Union activists
and workers in several branches of the Federal government have
begun to form new independent labor unions. While the process has
only begun, it seems to represent an important new trend in the
Mexican labor movement.

     According to reports in the Mexican press, several new
unions have either been organized:

     *In the Secretary of the Environment, Natural Resources and
Fisheries (SEMARNAP) which employees 40,723 workers, the
Democratic Union of Workers of SEMARNAP has organized 3,000
workers. Founded in 1977.

     *In the Secretary of the Treasury and Public Credit (SHCP)
which employs 56,911 workers, the Union of Workers of the System
of Administration of Tribute has organized 800 workers. Founded
in 1995.

     *In the Secretary of Communications and Transportation (SCT)
which employees 48824 workers, the National Union of Air Traffic
Controllers which has organized 700 workers.

     *The Secretary of Health and Assistance (SSA) which employs
61,0943 workers, the Independent Union of Health Workers has
organized 12,000 workers.

     Some of the new independent unions have received support
from other unions, professional organizations, or from the Party
of the Democratic Revolution. All are engaged in organizing
campaigns aimed at winning a majority of the workers in their
jurisdiction which may not be the same as the old union.

                              ###

                    THE SUPREME COURT DECISION: 
                THE END OF PUBLIC SECTOR UNIONISM? 
                         OR THE BEGINNING?

                          by Don Sherman

Last week MEXICAN LABOR NEWS AND ANALYSIS labor correspondent Don
Sherman had an opportunity to interview Roberto C. Tooms, one of
the 14 directors and spokesman of the Democratic Union of 
Workers of the Secretary of Environment, Natural Resources and
Fisheries (SDT-SEMARNAP). Sherman questioned Tooms regarding the
Mexican Supreme Court's recent decision to permit more than one
labor union among public employees. The decision has been
variously interpreted as an anti-labor blow that will destroy
unions in the public sector, and as a victory for rank and file
workers and labor union democracy. In this interview, Tooms
offers his view. Sherman conducted the interview in the union's
offices in Mexico City. - Ed.

Sherman: Before we turn to the Supreme Court decision, tell us a
little about your union? How are you structured?

A: We are a democratic union. Every two years we have a General
Congress. At that Congress we elect our 14 National Executive
Directors that carry out the program that has been put forward by
the representatives at the congress. Delegates at the congress
each represent around 50 workers and all the national directors
are equal. Even though we have a general secretary, she is no
different than any of the other Directors. [The general secretary
is the top officer in most Mexican unions.]

Q: Many MLNA readers are interested in how the recent Mexican
Supreme Court decision on permitting public sector independent
unions within the government dominated official structure is
going to change public sector unionism is your country. Can you
comment on that?

A: Well, I am very optimistic that things will change. State
service workers are dissatisfied with the official public sector
Federation of Unions of Workers at the Service of the State,
FSTSE. We call it "Mama Boss." The Federation is just part of the
government and does what the government wants. But to really
change things, it is going to take much more that one court
decision. We have a long history fighting to establish our own
democratic union.

Q: Can you briefly tell us that history?

A: Our union was formed in 1977 as the Union of Workers of the
Secretary of Fisheries. Because of the requirements of the
Federal Labor Law of Workers of State Unions (LFTSE), we were
required to belong to FSTSE. But, as we say in Mexico, we were
always a stone in their shoes. We negotiated our own contracts
with the Secretary of Fisheries, and we tried to run our union as
best we could without letting the Federation interfere with our
work with our 3,000 members. However that situation changed in
1994.

Q: What happened then?

A: There was another administrative "reform" and the Secretary of
Fisheries was merged in December 1994 with other departments of
the government to become the Secretary of Environment, Natural
Resources and Fisheries or SEMARNAP. FSTSE approved this merger,
and immediately tried to do away with us. In March 1995, FSTSE
called a union meeting in Guadalajara, Jalisco, and without
taking us into account, formed a new union out of the new
Secretary of Environment, Natural Resources and Fisheries Since
then we have been waging a struggle against FSTSE and the Mexican
government.

Q: Briefly again, what kind of struggles are you talking about?

A: Right now I am talking legal struggles. We have submitted
complaints to the International Organization of Labor, the U.S.
National Administrative Office (NAO) [established by the NAFTA
agreement] and of course with the courts here in this country. We
have had some success. However every time we have had a favorable
court decision giving us back our rights as a union, the Federal
Tribunal of Conciliation and Arbitration (FTCA) comes back and
un-registers our union. This tribunal is not really impartial
since one of the three magistrates that sit on a panel is
appointed by FSTSE. However, finally, the Second Tribunal in
Matters of Labor [the Mexican labor court] ruled in late 1998
that we are a registered union within SEMARNAP. [That decision
was handed down months before the recent Supreme Court decision
invalidating Mexican federal laws that limited one union per
public sector workplace. The argument of the court in this
decision was that the spirit of Article 123 of the Mexican
Constitution upholds freedom of association in the universal
sense and federal laws must conform to that principle. The Court
cited Mexico's ratification of the International Labor
Organization Convention 87 in support of its decision.]

Q: Now that you are a registered union with the Mexican
government are you then recognized fully as a union?

A: No, we can not collect dues. The Institutional Revolutionary
Party (PRI) government is still preventing us from doing that. We
can not represent workers. We are a union in name only. Our
members are all voluntary. It will take a reform of the labor law
to clarify the legal decision that granted us union status. Right
now there is no mechanism to determine majority or minority
status. Even if there was, and we were determined to have
minority status, can we still represent our members?

Q: But a reform of the labor law will take legislation and right
now there is an effective alliance between the National Action
Party (PAN) and the PRI on many issues such as the recent bank
bailout. Is it possible that any federal legislation on granting
rights to minority unions in the public sector would be
beneficial to your union?

A: The leaders of the unions in this country are scared of labor
law reform. They know that it will affect their power. However,
these changes have to come about and I believe the workers
themselves will put enough pressure on the political situation so
that labor law reform will potentially benefit us. I know that
there is a great deal of dissatisfaction in FSTSE. Workers are
just now beginning to form their own unions. As I said before, I
am optimistic about the future.

                              ###

MAQUILADORAS: CURRENT STATISTICS, as of April, 1999

Maquiladora Firms by Industry and Employment
Mexican National Institute of Statistics (INEGI)

Industry            No. of Firms  Percent    Workers
                                  of Firms

Textile and Garments    1,195      28.2%     203,575
Electrical & Electronic   795      18.8      344,180
Furniture and Wood        472      11.1       48,502
Services                  309       7.3       39,954
Chemical Products         285       6.7       19,721
Auto Parts                255       6.0      194,000 
Other Industries          924      21.8      158,099

Total:                  4,235     100.0    1,008,031   

END MEXICAN LABOR NEWS AND ANALYSIS, VOL. 4, NO 11, JUNE 16, 1999


     --- from list aut-op-sy-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---