Date: Wed, 2 Jun 1999 14:07:47 -0400
Subject: AUT: Part 2, Mex Labor News, June 2, 1999



          BEGIN PART 2, MEXICAN LABOR NEWS AND ANALYSIS
                    BE SURE YOU HAVE PART 1

     THOUSANDS OF SUTERM MEMBERS RALLY AGAINST PRIVATIZATION;
   DISSIDENTS THREATEN SPLIT IN UNION UNLESS UNION CHANGES LINE

     Thousands of members of the Sole Union of Mexican Electrical
Workers (SUTERM) marched several miles through Mexico City from
the Angel of Independence monument to the Legislative Palace on
May 22 to protest the government's plan to privatize the
electrical industry. The rank and file rebellion by SUTERM
electrical workers represents a challenge to the entire Mexican
labor establishment.

     President Ernesto Zedillo announced plans earlier this year
to privatize both the Light an Power Company of central Mexico
represented by the Mexican Electrical Workers Union (SME), and
the Federal Electrical Commission represented by SUTERM. While
the SME leadership has opposed privatization, SUTERM's leaders
have supported Zedillo's plan.

     But the more than 3,000 workers from 40 union locals who
marched on May 22 not only opposed privatization, but called for
the removal of Leonardo Rodriguez Alcaine who heads not only
their union but also the Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM)
and the Congress of Labor (CT). The revolt in the SUTERM thus
threatens the whole "official" labor union structure.

          Union Dissidents Call for Alliance with SME

     The National Coordinating Committee of the SUTERM, the
hastily assembled alliance of local unions and rank and file
activists which called for the demonstration, claims to represent
more than 15,000 SUTERM workers "located in all the nerve centers
of the system." The National Coordinating Committee has
threatened to leave the union if Rodriguez Alcaine and the
union's national executive committee don't change their line and
come out against privatization. 

     The SUTERM dissidents have called for an alliance with the
Mexican Electrical Workers, and have called for a convention in
Tapachula, Chiapas on June 26 and 27. (Tapachula is on the other
side of the mountains from the area controlled by the Zapatista
Army of National Liberation - EZLN - and this has nothing to do
directly with that movement.)

     The dissident SUTERM workers marching in Mexico City carried
placards with the following slogans (among many others):

     "No to the authoritarian imposition of the Federal
          government."

     *"No to the privatization of the electrical industry."

     *"La Guera has got to go. (La Guera or "the blond" is
          the nickname of Rodriguez Alcaine)."

     *"Don't sell off the national patrimony."

          First Opposition in the Union in 20 Years

     The SUTERM demonstration represents the first public
manifestation of dissent in the union in more than 20 years. In
the early 1970s under the leadership of Rafael Galvan, the SUTERM
lead a movement called the Democratic Tendency which called for
democracy in the unions and a new progressive direction for
Mexican society. Galvan's Democratic Tendency and the SUTERM
union were smashed by the Mexican government and the army. The
union's democratic and militant leaders were removed, and the
government used force to impose its own loyal leadership. 

     For 23 years the PRI controlled the SUTERM bureaucracy, and
the bureaucracy controlled the local unions and the rank and
file, and hardly a peep was heard from anybody. But when Zedillo
called for privatizing the electric power industry, he set off a
chain reaction he didn't expect. The other electrical workers
union, the SME, began opposing privatization, the movement then
spread to the SUTERM. Many SUTERM members now express their
admiration for the SME leadership, and demand the removal of
Rodriguez Alcaine as a worthless puppet of the government. The
attack on Rodriguez Alcaine also threatens the CTM and the CT
because he heads both of those organizations as well.

     Zedillo's plan to privatize the electrical industry has not
only run into stiff opposition form both electrical workers'
unions, but it may have provoked the crisis that could
conceivably contribute to the collapse of the old labor union
system dominated by the CTM and CT.
                         
                              ###

            200,000 TEACHERS STRIKE IN SEVERAL STATES
              FOR HIGHER WAGES AND POLITICAL DEMANDS

     More than 200,000 teachers in several states struck for
higher wages--and a long list of other demands--throughout the
month of May. Rejecting the 20 percent wage increase negotiated
by their Tomas Vazquez Vigil, general secretary of the Mexican
Teachers Union (el SNTE), teachers in the Federal District,
Chiapas, Guerrero, Michoacan, Oaxaca, and the Federal District
struck during some part of the month of May. 

     Primary school teachers, the lowest paid in the system, with
the 17 percent wage increase, will see their salaries go from
3,538 to 4,091 pesos per month. Some 35 percent of all teachers
earn these wages. Most of the rest will receive 5,207.45 pesos
per month. (9.6 pesos=US$1.00).

          Protests in 20 States; Strikes in Half a Dozen

     The National Coordinating Committee of the Teachers Union
(la CNTE) and other opposition groups within the union, together
with local union leaders and rank and file activists called and
coordinated the massive strikes. Some strikes began toward around
May 1, but others started after May 15 when SNTE leader Vazquez
Vigil accepted a wage increase of 17 percent plus 3 percent in
improved benefits. 

     With the announcement of the settlement, teachers in a score
of states either struck or engaged in protest demonstrations. The
strikes in May involved 45,000 teachers in Chiapas; 20,000 in
Guerrero; 55,000 in Michoacan; 57,000 in Oaxaca; and 48,000 in
the Federal District. Thousands struck in other states as well.

               Sit-In at the SEP--a Tradition

     In Mexico City thousands of teachers have been camped for
weeks now around the offices of the Secretary of Public Education
(SEP) to protest the 20 percent wage increase. At the SEP there
are 2,400 teachers from Guerrero, 700 from Oaxaca, 1,500 from
Michoacan, 300 from Tlaxcala, 200 from other states, and hundreds
from the Federal District.

     The teachers have conducted several mass marches through
Mexico City, perhaps the most impressive a march from tens of
thousands of teachers and students from the National Autonomous
University of Mexico (UNAM) who are also engaged in a strike to
protest the imposition of the first tuition at the huge public
university. The teachers and students marched together to the
presidential residence, Los Pinos, to demand an increase in the
Federal budget for education, raises for teachers and no tuition
for students. 

          La CNTE Strikes for Raise--and Much More

     The National Coordinating Committee (la CNTE), the 25-year-
old rank and file movement within the Mexican Teachers Union (el
SNTE) not only called for its traditional demand of a 100% raise,
but also a long list of other economic, social and political
demands. La CNTE calls for:

     *A 100% wage increase.

     *An increase in the Christmas bonus (aguinaldo) to 90 days
pay.

     *The repeal of the Rule of General Payment at UNAM, that is
no tuition for university students.

     *The cancellation of the privatization of the electrical
industry. 

     *An increase in the Federal education budget.

     *The fulfillment of the San Andres Accords, that is the
agreement between the Mexican government and the Zapatista Army
of National Liberation (EZLN) granting a measure of autonomy to
the Mayans in Chiapas.

     *The demilitarization of the country.

     *The rescue of free mandatory public education.

     Secretary of Public Education Tells Teachers to Go Home

     The Secretary of Public Education (SEP) has told the
teachers camped out at the offices in Mexico City that the
country has a decentralized education system, and that the
teachers should go home to their respective states to negotiate
with the governors. But teachers continued to march and maintain
their sit-in at the SEP.
                              ###

           FSTSE BACKS FRANCISCO LABASTIDA OCHOA
          AS PRI CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENCY IN 2000

     The same day that the Mexican Supreme Court granted public
employees the right to form independent unions, that is on May
11, the country's federation of public employees meeting in
convention in Mexico City endorsed Francisco Labastida Ochoa of
the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) as its choice for
president. The endorsement was accompanied by fervent applause
from the union delegates. 

     Jose Ayala Almeida, the head of the Federation of Unions of
Workers at the Service of the State (FSTSE) told the press that
in the 88 unions affiliated with the federation "the workers and
leaders identification with his political figure is palpable."

     Labastida Ochoa recently resigned his position as Minister
of the Interior in the cabinet of President Ernesto Zedillo. As
Minister of the Interior, he was Mexico's principal political
fixer. The Minister of the Interior which oversees the country's
political police, generally handles all politically sensitive
issues in the country, from negotiations with the Zapatista
rebels to labor unions strikes. 

     Labastida Ochoa pledged to maintain the "basic alliance"
that has historically existed between the Mexican government and
the labor unions, an alliance which he said had allowed Mexico to
recuperate rapidly from the economic crisis of 1994. At the same
time, Ayala Almeida reiterated the "permanent alliance" between
his union and the ruling party government. 

     Labastida Ochoa is the chosen candidate of president Ernesto
Zedillo, though under new party rules the president's endorsement
is no longer sufficient, and he will have to participate in a
primary election, and where he is expected to win. He will likely
contend in the national elections against Vicente Fox, the
governor of Guanajuato, of the National Action Party (PAN) and
Cuauhtemoc Cardenas, the Mayor of Mexico City, of the Party of
the Democratic Revolution (PRD). 

     Ayala Almeida said that in the new spirit of democracy and
pluralism, that of course the FSTSE would respect the right of
each worker to affiliate with the party of his or her choice, but
that evidently the majority of the union's leaders and activists
supported the Institutional Revolutionary Party.

     But just as the FSTSE was endorsing Labastida Ochoa on the
basis of the "historic alliance" between state-party and union,
the Supreme Court ended the FSTSE's monopoly control over the
workers--leading Ayala Almeida to question the state's
persecution of his union.
                              ###

       PAN UNION LEADERS MEET AMID CALLS FOR CREATION OF 
        LABOR FEDERATION ALLIED WITH CONSERVATIVE PARTY

     The First National Encounter of PAN Worker Unionists took
place in Juriquilla, Queretaro on May 15, and led to calls by
some union leaders for the creation of a labor federation allied
with the Conservative National Action Party (PAN). The PAN labor
meeting, called by PAN Senators Francisco Xavier Salazar Saenz
and Maria Elena Alvarez de Vicencio, brought together some 200
labor unionists from 27 different states. Public employees
predominated over private sector and industrial workers.

     The PAN union activists, particularly those from Sinaloa and
Tlaxcala, called for the creation of labor unions and a
federation with close ties to the PAN. However Senator Salazar
Saenz used all of his authority to keep the conference as a whole
from adopting such a resolution. The senator argue that party
affiliated labor unions represent "a very evil threat" to labor
unionism, and he argued that each union worker ought to be able
to participate in and vote for the party of his or her choice.

     In the end the PAN unionists called upon PAN governors to
support the unions, and called upon the legislature to pass labor
laws which benefit workers.

     The PAN union gathering did not take any position on the
Supreme Court's ruling on the right of public employees to join
labor unions of their own choosing.

     Rosendo Flores Flores, the general secretary of the Mexican
Union of Electrical Workers (SME) took advantage of the PAN
unionists meeting, to meet with the PAN unionists and discuss
their objection to the privatization of the Light and Power
company of central Mexico and the Mexican Electrical Commission.
The PAN unionists took no official position on the Mexican
government's plan to privatize the electrical power generation
industry.
                              ###

                   STEELWORKERS AT SICARTSA 
                    SEEK 70% WAGE INCREASE

     Steelworkers at SICARTSA steel mill (also known as Las
Truchas) in Lazaro Cardenas, Michoacanare demanding a 70% wage
increase in the 1999-2001 contract. Wage increases in recent
contracts have been running between 17 and 22 percent.

     The plant's 3,000 steel workers belong to Local 271 of the
Miners and Metal Workers Union of Mexico which is headed at the
national level by Napoleon Gomez Sada. He generally reaches
agreements acceptable to employers and the government, as he did
most recently at the Cananea mine where he helped to squelch a
strike.
                              ###

               INDEPENDENT PROLETARIAN MOVEMENT
               ORGANIZES ANTI-WAR DEMONSTRATION

     The Independent Proletarian Movement (MPI), a leftist
political party, organized an anti-war demonstration at the U.S.
Embassy in Mexico City on May 20 to protest the U.S.-NATO bombing
and war in Yugoslavia. The MPI is the group which led the
important Route 100 Bus Drivers struggle to preserve jobs and an
independent union (SUTAUR) a few years ago. 

                              ###
SOCIAL STATISTICS

World Unemployment

     The World Banks that there are 150 million unemployed
persons and 750 million underemployed persons in the world at
present. (Yazmin Rodriguez Galaz, "Desempleadas, 150 Millones de
personas en el mundo, dice BM," EL UNIVERSAL, May 25, 1999)

Unemployment in Mexico

     Secretary of Labor Mariano Palacios Alcocer reports that
Mexico's open unemployment levels is the lowest in eight years at
2.9 percent for the first trimester of this year. In 1998 the
open unemployment rate was 3.2 percent. (Arturo Gomez Salgado,
"El indice de desempleo, el mas bajo de los ultimos 8 anos, dice
Palacios Alcocer," EL FINANCIERO, May 17, 1999.)

Unemployment in Veracruz

     The Secretary of Labor reports that unemployment in gulf
coast the State of Veracruz has reached 20% under governor Miguel
Aleman Velasco, who recently dropped out of the bid for nominee
for president of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).
(Violeta Pacheco, "Asciende ya a 20% el Indice de Desempleo en
Veracruz: STyPS," EXCELSIOR, May 22,1999)

Future Employment

     The deceleration of Mexico's economy means that in the next
two years Mexico will not create the one and a half million new
jobs it needs to, according to the Center of Economic Analysis
and Projections for Mexico (CAPEM). (Antonio Vazquez, "Se crearan
menos de 700 mil empleos anuales: CAPEM," LA JORNADA, May 10,
1999.)

Wage Increases

     In the first trimester of 1999 there were 639 contract wage
negotiations averaging 17.17 percent, while benefit increases
averaged 2.39 percent, according to the Mexican Association of
Industrial Relations Executives (AMERI). According to the report
the Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM) did best with union
wage increases averaged 17.73 percent; the Revolutionary
Confederation of Mexican Workers (CROM); did next best with 17.38
percent; the Revolutionary Confederation of Workers and Peasants
(CROC) followed with 16.79 percent; and finally the independent
unions did worst with gains of only 15.15 percent. [It is not
clear whether "independent unions" here refers to the company
unions or the independent unions which are not controlled by the
government or the company, the term is used for both. - ed.] By
sector the gains were as follows for the best: insurance
companies, 20 percent; petro-chemical companies 19.60 percent;
chemical companies 19.60; chemical companies 19.51; textile
companies 18.85 percent. Those doing worst were: cinematography
10 percent; asbestos-cement, 11.29 percent; auto, 12.25 percent;
transport, 15.25 percent. (Notimex, "Alzas salariales de hasta
17.73% en el primer trimestre," LA JORNADA, May 9, 1999.)

Social Struggle: Strikes

     It has long been recognized that employers and corrupt
unions organize phoney strikes for various reasons. The Federal
District's Under-secretary of Labor recently sent investigators
to inspect some 38 workplaces which have remained on strike since
1991. In 13 cases they found that the firm which had supposedly
been struck had moved and been replaced by a private residence, a
bar, school or other business. In another nine locations there
were no physical signs of strike activity. In 12 locations the
traditional red-and-black strike banner was found nailed over the
door, but there was no workers' picketline. In one other location
the firm was operating without any sign of a strike. In three the
workers maintained a picketline, but complained of constant
threats by the management. ("Detecta el gobierno huelgas
fantasmas," LA JORNADA, May 20, 1999.)

END MEXICAN LABOR NEWS AND ANALYSIS, VOL. 4, No. 10, June 2, 1999


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