From: harelb@math.cornell.edu (Harel Barzilai)
Subject: NORTH AMERICAN WORKER-TO-WORKER NETWORK (Mexico News)
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: daemon@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: ?
Date: Sun, 30 Aug 1992 05:12:08 GMT



    Between 1988-1991, 136 members of the PRD (Democratic
    Revolutionary Party) have been killed. The PRD ran an alternative
    slate under Cuauhetemoc Cardenas in the 1988 elections.


[Via misc.activism.progressive from LaborNet's apc.labor]
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Topic 200       FREE TRADE LABOR EVENTS/NEWS/RESOU 
labornotes      apc.labour       9:13 am  Aug 28, 1992 
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                    NORTH AMERICAN WORKER-TO-WORKER NETWORK 
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NEWS FROM MEXICO 

* From 1975-1992, more than 7,000 grievances filed against 
Mexico's Social Security program have yet to be resolved by the 
Federal Labor Arbitration and Conciliation Board, reported labor 
lawyer Manuel Fuentes. 
      Grievances deal with demands for pension pay, retirement, 
unjustified firings, and work accidents. According to Fuentes, 
more than 20,000 workers have unresolved grievances. "Some retired 
workers have died before their cases are resolved, without pay, as 
some cases take up to 15 years." (La Jornada, May 30, 1992) 

* More than 20,000 retired workers marched in Mexico City in April 
to protest against their poor pensions. Retirees receive 324,000 
pesos a month (US $108) or 45% of the Mexican minimum wage. (La 
Jornada, April 22, 1992) 

* Mexican workers earning minimum wage have seen a 30.81% decline 
in real buying power since the Mexican government implemented its 
Solidarity Pact intended to stabilize the economy, reported 
Notimex news source. Price increases due to the lifting of all 
government subsidies of basic food products have completely wiped 
out minimum wage increases.(San Antonio Light, July 14, 1992) 

* The Mexican government report on the maquiladora industry says 
that the total number of plants on the U.S.-Mexico border is up 
11.1% from 1991. As of January 1992, there were 2,019 maquiladora 
plants, employing 486,210 workers.(San Antonio Light, July 14, 
1992) 

* The first industrial park is being built in Mexico City 
announced Jaime Serra Puche, Secretary of Commerce and chief 
negotiator for Mexico in the NAFTA negotiations. According to 
Puche, the park is ideal for the city because the U.S.-owned 
assembly plants "are modern and don't pollute and generate jobs." 
The three year project will build 25 buildings for U.S. assembly 
for export manufacturing, and promises the creation of 25,000 
jobs.  (La Jornada, March 21, 1992) 

TEACHERS 

The Secretary of Public Education (SEP) granted Mexican 
elementary- high school teachers a 20% wage increase to 
$403/month, or $13/day.  The wage increase is 3.5 times that of 
the minimum wage.(La Jornada, May 15, 1992) 
      In mid-May, President Salinas de Gortari and the National 
Teachers Union (SNTE-Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la 
Educacion) signed a National Agreement to Modernize Basic 
Education. The Agreement will decentralize education to a state- 
wide funded system, develop new educational materials, and divide 
up the largest teachers union in Latin America with 500,000 
teachers into 31 state locals and 1 from the Federal District of 
Mexico City. 
      According to the Agreement, the SNTE will still be 
recognized as a national union, with 32 locals. However, teachers 
will negotiate independently with each state government. According 
to Luis Hernandez, a leader of the largest democratic current 
within the union (CNTE), within a week after signing the 
Agreement, 15 state governors had proposed changes in their state 
education laws to establish state education committees. In all the 
proposed changes, the union was not a participant, but rather, 
subject to state laws whereby teachers became state employees. 
      "There is no way to save the SNTE's national character if 
there are no legal modifications," reported Hernandez. On the 
contrary, "teachers will have to leave their national organization 
and become state organizations which will allow control over the 
union." 
      Pre-school and primary school teachers in Mexico City also 
protested the Agreement charging it will individualize struggles 
for higher wages, and encourage the privatization of the education 
system as poorer states will not be able to provide as adequately. 
In the southern state of Oaxaca, teachers from SNTE Local 22 
announced plans to form a coalition with parents denouncing the 
Agreement. 
      Besides dividing up the union, educational programs will 
      also undergo changes. Members of the Coalition of Indigenous 
Teachers of Oaxaca held a hunger strike in front of the local 
governor's palace, to protest the elimination of the 21-year old 
Indigenous Education program. The strikers also placed coffins to 
protest the killing of more than 60 teachers. 
      Other changes have also occurred in the union: 
* Revolutionary Vanguard, the name of the government-controlled 
executive committee, has been abolished with the election of new 
union leadership, including PRD members; 
* Teachers can now choose their party affiliation. Beforehand, all 
teachers had to register with the PRI.  (La Jornada, May 19, 24, 
25, 26, 28, 1992) 

HIGHER EDUCATION 

For the first time in its history, the Autonomous University of 
Puebla (UAP), well-known for its commitment to social causes, will 
be selling its research services to small and large businesses. 
Research will be directed towards market analysis as well as how 
to apply new technologies. (La Jornada, May 26, 1992) 

AUTO WORKERS 

Reinstated democratic Ford workers in the Cuautitl n plant won all 
the local's executive committee seats in a vote in April. Workers 
had fought for democratic elections and real union representation 
at the plant since 1990 when a Ford worker was killed by CTM union 
hired thugs. (La Jornada, April 23 and May 24, 1992) 

Most of the 2,800 General Motors workers in Mexico City will be 
ready for retirement and the others given their severance pay when 
the plant moves to Silao, Guanajuato. According to La Jornada, the 
new plant will produce 120,000 vehicles/year, up from the 67,000 
currently produced at the Mexico City plant. 
      "Mexico is very important for GM," assured financial 
assistant Juan Steta, "not only for economic reasons, but also 
because of its closeness to the U.S. Here we can find abundant 
labor and a series of factors that allow us to produce with lower 
costs." GM currently has 27 parts plants in Mexico with assembly 
plants in Ramos Arizpe, Coahuila; Toluca, Mexico, and Mexico City. 
      The new plant will be up and running in three years and is 
expected to employ 3,000 workers. The governor is investing five 
million dollars in infrastructure. "The plant is very similar to 
those in the industrial corridor of the north, with a very fluid 
and efficient transportation system," said Governor Carlos Median 
Plascencia. "Because of this, we don't need to worry about housing 
around the plant." 
      The land designated for the plant was previously 
commonly-held indigenous land. Privatization of ejidos (communal 
lands) is now permitted under the Mexican Constitution.  (La 
Jornada, March 29, 1992) 

* On July 28, the German-owned Volkswagen of Mexico announced the 
temporary closure of its only North American plant in Puebla, 
displacing 14,298 workers. Workers produce nearly 1,000 Beetles a 
day plus 2,000 engines for export. 
      The announcement followed a week-long strike of dissident 
unionists who charged the union president had accepted company 
money and signed a contract June 30 without workers approval. The 
new contract grants a lower wage increase than demanded, and doing 
away with many work rules. 
      The company has refused to negotiate with the strikers who 
are calling for a referendum and recognition of their new 
executive committee. The Mexican Department of Labor ruled against 
the new union in August. VW has now rehired 95% of the displaced 
workers, who lost all seniority and contract benefits. 

QUALITY & PRODUCTIVITY 

Fidel Velazquez, 92-year old leader of the Confederation of 
Mexican Workers (CTM), and President Salinas de Gortari signed a 
National Agreement To Raise Quality and Productivity in May. The 
Agreement mandates that government, business, and labor develop 
programs to "modernize" with the use of new technology, management 
and worker cooperation, productivity research, and worker 
reorganization.  Increased salary due to higher productivity rates 
must be negotiated on a company by company basis. 
      Fidel Velazquez instructed his 15,000 unions affiliated with 
the CTM to negotiate individual productivity agreements within 
their collective bargaining agreements. Just six weeks prior, 
Velazquez had publicly denounced the Agreement, saying not one of 
his affiliates should negotiate individual agreements when the 
Secretary of Labor continues to rule strikes "non-existent." In 
just the first four months of 1992, 70 CTM-led strikes were 
declared non-existent by the Secretary of Labor. 
      Velazquez added that all CTM-affiliated unions negotiate 
salary increases and benefits directly with their employer rather 
than through the Secretary of Labor because "we receive better 
conditions." 
      Secretary of Labor Arsenio Farell explained that the 
Agreement puts emphasis on the need to better human resources. All 
renumeration for increases in productivity will be based on the 
workers' efficiency, initiative, responsibility, and effort, he 
said. 
      Manuel Garcia Urrutia of the Authentic Workers Front (FAT), 
an independent workers federation, criticized the agreement, 
saying "It is a blank check for business to implement changes in 
labor legislation. It is an agreement that denies the fact that 
workers are worn out and already overexploited with the miserable 
wages they receive." (La Jornada, April 8, 14, 17 and May 26, 27 

TELEPHONE WORKERS 

In its recent contract negotiations, the Mexican Telephone Workers 
Unions (STRM) and TELMEX agreed that no operators would lose their 
jobs with the introduction of new technology. Operators with 20-30 
years service can apply for early retirement and/or be training in 
other jobs. 
      Telephone workers' jobs have also undergone severe changes 
with "modernization". Job classifications have been reduced from 
160 to 29 in 1989 to a mere 5 this year. Besides a 14% wage 
increase due to the negotiations, the union has promised a 1.5% 
additional increase to those of the 34,000 workers who participate 
in the modernization process of reduced classifications, and 
consequently reduced pay. (La Jornada, April 10 and 14, 1992) 

OIL WORKERS 

Since 1989, 130,000 unionized oil workers of Mexico's national 
petroleum company, Pemex, have been fired. In 1989, the STPRM (Oil 
Workers Union) had 200,000 affiliates, and is now down to 70,000. 
      In late April, hundreds of displace Pemex workers, members 
of the Displaced Pemex Workers Coordinating Council, marched from 
different states to Mexico City on a "March for Petroleum Workers 
Dignity," demanding reinstatement. Over 5,000 Pemex workers are, 
now in August, protesting in the central plaza in Mexico City 
demanding full severance pay and reinstatement, where possible. 
      The union has agreed to all these firings, and, according to 
the Coordinating Committee, "put pressure on the workers to accept 
20% less severance pay than granted in the Mexican federal Labor 
Law and union contract." In June, workers took over the 
headquarters of the union to increase pressure on both parties. 
Hours after the takeover, security agents from the union and 
company physically attacked a reporter and seriously beat 
petroleum worker Lucio Mendez Almendra, according to reports from 
the Mexican Commission for the Defense and Promotion of Human 
Rights. Workers have formally denounced the violence before the 
Public Ministry, and have called for international and national 
support. 
      Pemex has currently given up its exploration work and sold 
it to private interests. At the same time it fired workers, Pemex 
also subcontracted work out and has reduced the bargaining 
committee by transferring union workers to confidential 
(non-union) workers.  (La Jornada, April 22 and August 13, 1992, 
and reports from the Commission for the Defense and Promotion of 
Human Rights) Send letters of protest for workers reinstatement 
and against the attacks against petroleum workers to:  President 
Carlos Salinas de Gortari Palacio Nacional Mexico D.F. MEXICO 
FAX: 011-525-271-1764 

Please send copies to:  Mexican Human Rights Commission Tabasco 
No. 262-201 Colonia Roma Mexico D.F. MEXICO 06700 
FAX: 011-525-525-2545 

Carla Hills, U.S. Trade Negotiator, announced that Mexico agreed 
to open up 50% of its contracts in Pemex as soon as NAFTA goes 
into effect. Within a period of 8 years, Pemex would be open to 
70%, and in 10 years, Mexico would not be able to reserve any 
contracts exclusively for Mexican firms. (U.S.-Mexico Free Trade 
Reporter, August 17, 1992) 

SEDUE 

The Secretary of Urban Development and Ecology (SEDUE), the EPA's 
(Environmental Protection Agency) counterpart in Mexico, has been 
decentralized, and will now operate under different government 
entities. 
      SEDUE workers criticized the decentralization on several 
counts, charging that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and 
the World Bank put pressure on the government to decentralize; 
that the World Bank has funded SEDUE projects in the last few 
years; and the fact that the union nor the agency never mentioned 
the decentralization of the organization in their last contract 
negotiations. 
      More than 33 ecology groups protested the decentralization 
of 
SEDUE. 
(La Jornada, April 24 and 30, 1992) 

POLITICAL DEATHS 

Between 1988-1991, 136 members of the PRD (Democratic 
Revolutionary Party) have been killed. The PRD ran an alternative 
slate under Cuauhetemoc Cardenas in the 1988 elections. 
      "La Violencia Politica en Mexico: Un Asunto de Derechos 
Humanos," a PRD publication, documents the political violence and 
blames the attacks on one source: the lack of real democracy in 
Mexico's political system. More than 70% of the killings took 
place in only four states: Guerrero, Michoacan, Oaxaca, and 
Puebla.  (La Jornada, May 15, 1992) 

TEXTILE WORKERS 

Representatives of 228 textile companies broke off talks with a 
labor coalition on Aug. 18. The workers have been on strike since 
July 9, with an initial demand for a 40% pay hike. Although the 
workers have come down to 15%, management refuses to budge from 
its first offer of 10%. [ED-LP 8/19/92 from AFP] 

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