Date: Mon, 17 Nov 1997 16:45:54 -0600 (CST) From: Sendic Estrada Jimenez <sestrada-AT-fcfm.buap.mx> Subject: M-NEWS: E;MEXICAN LABOR NEWS - PART 1, Nov 2 (fwd) ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Sun, 2 Nov 1997 20:45:27 -0500 From: Dan La Botz <103144.2651-AT-compuserve.com> Subject: MEXICAN LABOR NEWS - PART 1 Dear Friends, Attached please find Mexican Labor News and Analysis, Vol. 2, No. 20 - PART 1. NOTE that this issue because of its length (21 single spaced pages) is being sent in two parts. In solidarity, Dan La Botz MEXICAN LABOR NEWS AND ANALYSIS Dia de los Muertos November 2, 1997 Vol. II, No. 20 PART I ----------------------------------------------------------------- NOTE THAT THIS ISSUE IS BEING SENT IN TWO PARTS, THIS IS PART I ----------------------------------------------------------------- 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 subscription, 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: Sarah Livingston, Dag MacLeod; Jorge Robles; Sam Smucker. ----------------------------------------------------------------- IN THIS ISSUE: *UNT Gains Adherents, Drafts Democratic Statutes *Mexico's New Democracy Hits Local Politics *FSTSE, Public Employees Union, Threatened by Democracy *Petroleum Workers Protest Union Election Fraud *Over 100,000 Teachers Strike, Demonstrate for Higher Pay *Rebellion by Three Locals of Environmental Agency Union *IMSS Workers Win 25% Wage Package Through Mobilizations *Secretary of Health Workers Win 19 Percent Wage Increase *FAT to Hold National Congress; Set Course for Next 3 Years *Follow-up: Han Young Election, NAFTA NAO Complaint Filed *Don't Buy a Hyundai: National Boycott Launched *DINA Workers Win 31% Wage Increase--Trend or Aberration? *Union Official Begins Hunger Strike to Save Pensions *University Union (STUNAM) Settles for 17 percent. *Kimberly Clark Workers Reject Wage Offer, Strike Continues *Social Statistics: ----------------------------------------------------------------- NEW NATIONAL UNION OF WORKERS (UNT) GAINS ADHERENTS, DRAFTS DEMOCRATIC STATUTES; BUT HERNANDEZ JUAREZ FLIRTS WITH ZEDILLO, EMPLOYERS by Dan La Botz The National Union of Workers (UNT) which will be formally founded later this month, claims to have attracted more than 160 workers and peasants organizations with a membership of over 1.5 million members. The UNT's organizing committee has drafted proposed statutes which would establish a three-person or troika leadership, a rotative presidency, and require independence from political parties. At the same time, Francisco Hernandez Juarez, general secretary of the Telephone Workers Union (STRM) and one of the principal figures in the new UNT, has been flirting with Mexican president Ernesto Zedillo. And Hernandez Juarez's Federation of Unions of Firms of Goods and Services (FESEBES), the most powerful bloc within the UNT, has entered into a "new labor culture" agreement with COPARMEX, the powerful employers' association, calling for greater cooperation between management and labor. Led by Hernandez Juarez of the Telephone Workers Union (STRM) and Antonio Rosado Garcia of the Social Security Workers Union (SNTSS), in August scores of unions voted at the National Workers Assembly to establish the new UNT federation as a rival to the Congress of Labor (CT). The organization of the UNT then represents a potentially important break with Mexico's corporativist system of state control of the unions. Until recently the Institutional Revolutionary Party has through the Congress of Labor (CT) and the Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM) controlled most of Mexico's unions. Peasants Affiliate with UNT Many unions continue to rally to the new federation. Among the 160 organizations which have joined the UNT are six peasant federations or unions: the Cardenist Peasant Federation (Central Campesina Cardenista or CCC), the Independent Federation of Agricultural Workers and Peasants (Central Independiente de Obreros Agricolas y Campesinos or CIOAC), the Coordinating Committee of Democratic Urban and Peasant Organizations (Coordinadora de Organizaciones Democraticas Urbanas y Campesinas or CODUC), the General Union of Workers, Peasants and the People (Union General Obrera Campesina y Popular), the National Coordinating Committee (Coordinadora Nacional or CN), the National Union of Agricultural Workers (Union Nacional de Trabajadores Agricolas or UNTA) and the National Union of Peasant Regional Organizations (Union Nacional de Organizaciones Regionales Campesinas or UNORC). Max Augustin Correa Hernandez, general secretary of the Cardenist Peasant Federation (CCC), says that several peasant organizations have decided to join the UNT because their labor unions have not been officially recognized either by the authorities or by the official labor organizations. He said that the peasant unions want to be part of a democratic and militant labor movement which will fight for the day laborers (jornaleros) who presently have no recognized unions, no collective bargaining agreements, and no benefits. Many peasant laborers earn no more than US$3.00 per day. "The Cardenist Peasant Federation," said Correa Hernandez, "will present a proposal that a social security system for peasants and agricultural laborers be created, as well as a system of savings for retirement for peasant senior citizens, because at this time there is no hope of an old age with dignity for those workers." UNT Creating State Organizations; Adopting Democratic Structures, Political Independence While peasants organizations and other groups have been rallying to the new UNT, Francisco Hernandez Juarez and other leaders of the new federation have been traveling throughout Mexico establishing the UNT's new state federations. Speaking in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Hernandez Juarez told workers there that the UNT will soon have 200 unions gathered together in state federations in all of Mexico's 32 states. He also said that the new federation will have a democratic leadership structure made up of seven vice-presidents, three presidents, and an executive president who serves office for only one year. Such a collegial leadership would represent a break with Mexico's tradition since the 1940s of unions dominated by a strong-man general secretary. The Authentic Labor Front (FAT), a small, independent federation which participates in the UNT has played an important role in pushing for democratic structures in the new organization. The UNT organizers have also adopted the position that the UNT will have no affiliation with any political party, and union members will be free to join the party of their choice. This represents a break with the old Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM) and Congress of Labor (CT) where both individual workers and their unions were required to join and work for the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). In some unions, workers who refused to join and work for the PRI could be expelled from the union and dismissed from their jobs. Hernandez Juarez Coquetting with Zedillo While the new UNT may be free from party affiliations, at the end of September during the Telephone Workers Union convention, general secretary Hernandez Juarez asked President Ernest Zedillo to convene a National Movement of Democratic Convergence. For Mexicans, this harkened back other moments in Mexican labor history, such as Luis N. Morones of the Regional Confederation of Mexican Workers (CROM) and his relationship to presidents Alvaro Obregon and Plutarco Elias Calles in the 1920s, or to Vicente Lombardo Toledano and Fidel Velazquez of the Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM) and their relationship to Lazaro Cardenas in the 1930s. Morones and the CROM in the 1920s, and then Lombardo Toledano and the CTM in the 1930s led militant labor movements into submission to the ruling party and the Mexican state. Many democratic union leaders and activists saw Hernandez Juarez's gesture as an attempt to win approval from Zedillo and the Institutional Revolutionary Party, and in fact to establish a link or relationship between the new UNT federation and the PRI, a kind of neo-corporativism. (Hernandez Juarez's important statement can be found in: PROCESO magazine, October 5, 1997, page 66.) Leaders of the May First Inter-Union Group (Intersindical Primero de Mayo) the left-wing labor federation which has decided not to join the UNT, criticized Hernandez Juarez, saying he wanted to be another Fidel Valazquez, in reference to the recently deceased 40-year leader of the CTM. Some UNT leaders and activists share that sentiment. The three leaders most mentioned for the UNT's new troika leadership are Hernandez Juarez, general secretary of the telephone workers' union; Antonio Rosado Garcia, general secretary of the social security workers' union; and Augustin Rodriguez, general secretary of the Union of Workers of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (STUNAM). Also mentioned is a potential woman candidate, Alejandra Barrales Magdaleno, a leader of the flight attendants' union and general secretary of the Federation of Unions of Firms of Goods and Services (FESEBES), which represents the most important bloc of unions within the new UNT. While Barrales Magdaleno is general secretary, FESEBES has been dominated by Hernandez Juarez of the telephone workers. The New Labor Culture of Employer-Union Cooperation COPARMEX, the Employers Federation of the Mexican Republic, recently held a meeting with Barrales Magdaleno and other leaders of FESEBES to discuss the country's economic problems and industrial relations. Barrales Magdaleno called the meeting historic, saying it indicated that management was prepared to meet with FESEBES and other union federations such as the Forum: Unions Face the Nation or the new UNT, rather than with the old state-controlled federations, the Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM) or the Congress of Labor (CT). The COPARMEX-FESEBES meeting resulted in an agreement to promote the "new labor culture" of labor-management cooperation, while at the same time demanding that management end the practice of "protection contracts," that is substandard contracts negotiated without the workers' knowledge and often with corrupt or criminal unions. ### MEXICO'S DEMOCRATIC OPENING RUNS INTO LOCAL POLITICS: MUNICIPAL AND STATE ELECTIONS IN VERACRUZ AND TABASCO by Dag MacLeod In mid-term congressional elections last July, the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) lost its absolute majority in the lower house of Congress, the Camara de Diputados. Although the center-right National Action Party (PAN) had been steadily gaining political strength since 1989, the PAN failed to increase its representation in the July elections. Instead, the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) captured the vast majority of the voters who defected from the PRI, surpassing the PAN as the number two force in the Camara de Diputados and winning the election for the largest municipal government in the country, Mexico City. The combination of the PRD, PAN and two smaller parties gives the opposition a slight majority over the PRI in the Camara de Diputados and will force Mexico's president for the first time in history to negotiate with the opposition on important matters such as the federal budget, constitutional amendments and legal reforms. The virtually unanimous verdict following the federal elections in July was that democracy has arrived in Mexico. That verdict was put to its first test in local and state elections in the southern gulf states of Tabasco and Veracruz on October 19. So far, the results look mixed. In municipal elections in Veracruz, opposition parties took a majority of the 210 districts in the state. The PRI remained the largest single force in municipal governments winning 103 municipalities. The PRD won 59 municipalities, the PAN 39, and three smaller parties combined for another nine city governments. Despite winning almost half of the municipal governments in Veracruz, the PRI generally won in smaller cities, leaving the opposition parties governing a much higher percentage of the population of Veracruz than the number of municipalities would indicate. While the opposition will govern more than five and a half million residents of Veracruz at the municipal level, the PRI will govern only slightly more than two million. All of the major parties in Veracruz have plans to lodge formal complaints of irregularities in the voting but on the whole, these complaints appear minor. Not so in Tabasco. Although opposition parties--and the PRD in particular--continued to advance in the absolute number of votes they received, they failed to win a single one of the 17 municipal elections. The PRI also won all 18 of the winner- take-all districts for the state legislature. Seats in the state and federal legislatures are distributed on the basis of a winner-take-all system like that in the United States and also on a proportional basis like a parliamentary system. So the opposition will receive some representation based upon the percentage of the vote that they win in the entire state. On election day there were blackouts in cities where the opposition appeared to be winning and denunciations of vote buying as the PRI machinery distributed chickens, sewing machines, construction material, and basic foodstuffs. In the southern central town of Teapa, local shops ran out of change as many customers were suddenly, and unusually, making purchases with 200 peso notes (about 25 US dollars). There were also reports of PRI shock troops traveling around the state armed with machetes intimidating opposition sympathizers. A gunfight between PAN and PRI militants was reported outside of Balancan, a town on the border with Guatemala, and in a confrontation between members of the PRI and PRD, a tear-gas canister was thrown at voters. Roberto Madrazo, governor of Tabasco and widely considered part of the PRI's "dinosaur" wing, attributes the victory to a policy that he refers to as "healthy closeness" to the people. In fact, the policy grew out of former president Salinas's "Solidarity" program through which the government targets possible dissident districts and attempts to undercut support for the opposition by strengthening its patronage networks. Madrazo appears to have perfected the technique, focusing resources on the areas where the PRI vote had been especially weak last July. Districts where opposition support remains strong are simply deprived of public works projects. The Mexican political system is generally characterized as being highly centralized, a system in which the president and the PRI control virtually all branches and all levels of government. As the power of the PRI continues to crumble, however, many of the struggles for democratization will move to local arenas. Where local PRI leaders have the resources and the will, as in Tabasco, it appears that they will be able to continue blocking meaningful reform. (Based in part on reports from PROCESO, LA JORNADA and REFORMA.) ### FSTSE, FEDERAL PUBLIC EMPLOYEES UNION THREATENED BY LABOR UNION FREEDOM by Dan La Botz Mexico's labor union movement, as we have reported here over the last year, is under-going a process of profound change at every level. The economic crisis which began in December 1994, the death of Fidel Velazquez in June, and the elections of July 6, 1997 all contributed to the current crisis of Mexican labor. The result has been the weakening of the Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM) and the Congress of Labor (CT) which it dominates, the appearance of the moderately reformist Forum: Unions Face the Nation (or Foro group), and of the radical May First Inter-Union Group. Then in late August, the National Workers Assembly decided to found a new National Union of Workers (UNT) as a rival to the CTM-CT. But one labor federation's problems, while partaking of all the common elements described above, has a unique source. Almost two years ago, the Mexican Supreme Court ruled that government workers employed by "decentralized agencies" had the right to union organization not under the restrictive Part B of the Federal Labor Law (LFT) which governs public employees, but under the more liberal Part A. Under Part B, workers may not strike or bargain, while under Part A they can do both. Some union activists praised the Supreme Court decision as a victory for labor union freedom, since it gave workers the right to join a union of their own choosing which could bargain and strike. The old arrangement, it has been argued, was a violation of the International Labor Organization (ILO) convention 87, signed by Mexico in 1950, which gives workers the right to a union of their choice. But others, particularly a number of important labor union leaders, argued that the Supreme Court decision would de-stabilize the unions and lead to the rise either of company unions or of union-free environments. The Mexican Supreme Court's ruling came as a particular threat to the Federation of Unions of Workers at the Service of the State (FSTSE), the state-created federation of 88 unions of pubic employees with a little more than one million members. Hector Valdes Romo, the general secretary of the FSTSE and president this year of the Congress of Labor (CT), fears that as many as 50 of the unions affiliated with his federation might decide to opt for Part A, and simultaneously leave FSTSE which only represents workers in Part B. Among the 52 unions which could leave FSTSE are the Metro workers of Mexico City, the employees of ISSSTE (the public employees social security system), and the workers of the Mexican Petroleum Workers Institute (not to be confused with the Petroleum Workers Union or STPRM of PEMEX). Valdes Romo claimed that the Supreme Court decision would "signify the pulverization of the workers unions and of the public employees unions, because it puts individual contracts ahead of collective bargaining agreements." So, when the FSTSE held its convention last month, Valdes Romo pushed through his organization a series of "reforms" which on the one hand appear to grant the members more freedom, but on the other will attempt to keep them from leaving his federation. At the convention the FSTSE voted to reject the idea of "social liberalism" promoted by Carlos Salinas de Gortari during his administration as a modern alternative to the Mexican government's older official ideology of "revolutionary nationalism." The delegates also took the long-over-due step of voting to permit FSTSE members to affiliate and vote for the political party of their choice, "in line with the democratic and pluralistic changes taking place in the country." The union eliminated the obligation of its members to participate in the political activities of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and its Popular Sector. All of that represents a victory for workers' rights, no doubt. (The union will, however, still maintain its representatives in the Institutional Revolutionary Party, including general secretary Hector Valdes Romo.) On the other hand, the FSTSE will wage a legal battle against the right of its members to organize under Part A of the LFT in order to prevent them from leaving the FSTSE. Not even Valdes Romo can deny that his members would be better off under Part A which gives them at least on paper the full legal rights of Mexican unions (such as those are). As FSTSE members, Mexican public employees have seen 750,000 of their co-workers lose their jobs, they have seen their wage increases held to just 12 percent (while some other unions won between 18 and 25 percent), and they have seen their wages lose about 70 percent of their purchasing power. They might well want another union. Now with the approval of the convention, Valdes Romo will take his members' dues money to litigate against their right to choose the form of labor organization which meets their needs. So while FSTSE members are now free to join the party of their choice, FSTSE is fighting to make sure they do not get the freedom to join the union of their choice. ### PETROLEUM WORKERS PROTEST AGAINST UNION ELECTION FRAUD, DEMAND NEW ELECTIONS Petroleum workers from several areas protested the results of their local unions elections in early October and demanded new, secret ballot elections. While protests following Petroleum Workers Union (STPRM) elections are not uncommon, what is significant, however, are several protests simultaneously in locals: 35, 38, 14, and 24. These protest movements led by local caucuses signal a revival of the oil workers movement and the political life within the STPRM. In all of these locals and others, workers are demanding the right to secret ballot elections for union officers as a fundamental step toward union democracy. Members of Petroleum Workers Union (STPRM) Local 35, Tula, Hidalgo called for new elections because the opposition slate had been denied a position on the ballot. The Democratic Union Front (FDS), a rank and file group in Local 35, and the Independent Observers Committee (COI), made up of the Civic Alliance (AC) and other citizens groups, claimed that the election had been stolen through intimidation and fraud. Similarly in Local 38, based in Salina Cruz, Oaxaca, Raul Lopez Leon and the Union Unity Front (FUS), complained that out- going general secretary David Villobos Lopez had used fraud to place his chosen successor Enrique Melendez Vazquez in the top office of secretary general. The FUS argues that Melendez Vazquez, who has been convicted and jailed for steeling stainless steel from a Mexican Petroleum (PEMEX) refinery, is ineligible, since union statute deny convicted felons the right to hold union office. The FSU leader Lopez Leon says he is fighting for jobs with dignity, full-time work, and the restitution of the workers' social, economic and political power. In Section 24 in Salamanca, Guanajuato the Union of Free Petroleum Workers (ULP), a local caucus, complains that Antonio Sanchez Sotelo was elected through fraud. The opposition group contends that the union is 40 million pesos in debt and has a lien against its building due to the mismanagement of previous union administrations. They fear that Sanchez Sotelo will not protect their interests. "How can we talk about defending the rights of the workers when 80 private companies are doing work that belongs to us?" asked opposition leader Armando Ruiz Villalon. The workers in Local 14 in Villahermosa, Tabasco complain that Gonzalo Guzman Vazquez is seeking re-election for a fourth term. When the opposition took over the union offices in protest, Guzman Vazquez called the police who arrested 62 of the dissident oil workers belonging to the Solidarity Union Group (GSS). At the same time, a group of at least 18 workers from the "General Lazaro Cardenas" Refinery in Minatitlan, Veracruz have been seeking relief from their situation. For 17 years they have worked as temporary workers, being recontracted every 28 days. They want regular full-time positions, pensions, and severance pay for laid off companions. ### FROM BORDER TO BORDER, 100,000 TEACHERS STRIKE, PROTEST FOR HIGHER WAGES Over 100,000 teachers took part in strikes and other forms of protest during the last two weeks of October, from Tijuana on Mexico's northern border with the United States to Chiapas state on the Guatemala border to the south. These work-stoppages, strikes, and demonstrations constitute part of a campaign for a 16 percent wage increase. The campaign has been initiated and largely led by the National Coordinating Committee (la CNTE) of the Teachers Union (el SNTE) and other opposition groups. In mid-October 24,000 teachers from Local 12 and 44 in the state of Durango struck for a 16 percent wage increase. Durango teachers also occupied the offices of the Secretary of Education of Durango. A week later 30,000 teachers in Locals 8 and 14 struck in Chihuahua, also over the wage increase. Some 7,000 teachers in Baja California Locals 2 and 37 suspended their teaching activities in cities in that state. In Ensenada, Baja California 6,000 teachers held a sit-in (planton) in front of the Secretary of Education offices. In Morelia, Michoacan, teachers in Local 18 began mobilizations on October 30. While the National Congress of the National Coordinating Committee of Educational Workers (la CNTE) met in Oaxaca, 40,000 teachers marched through the streets there to demand economic improvements. At the end of the march, the teachers demonstrated in front of the government palace where teacher Nikita Nava Martinez read a letter from teachers from the Los Loxicha region who have been imprisoned because they are accused of belonging to the Peoples Revolutionary Army (EPR). The letter asked for economic support so that the imprisoned teachers can be released on bond. La CNTE teachers also voted to donate half a day's pay to help the victims of hurricane Paulina. ### END OF PART I, MLNA, VOL. 2, NO. 20 -- SEE PART 2 SENT SEPARATELY
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