File spoon-archives/marxism-news.archive/marxism-news_1997/marxism-news.9711, message 19


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.
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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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