NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #19/NN_1992_19.iso/spool/misc/activism/progress/6172

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From: [e-mail] (Harel Barzilai)
Subject: NORTH AMERICAN WORKER-TO-WORKER NETWORK (Mexico News)
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    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
                              FREE TRADE MAILING
                              7435 Michigan Ave.
                               Detroit, MI 48210
                                [phone]


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: [phone]

Please send copies to:  Mexican Human Rights Commission Tabasco
No. 262-201 Colonia Roma Mexico D.F. MEXICO 06700
FAX: [phone]

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]