Mexican Labor News & Analysis
Recent archives

2004

Vol. 9 No. 1

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Each January we look back at the past year, and so in this issue we look at the year 2003. However, 1994 is also the tenth year of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and of the Chiapas Rebellion led by the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN). So this issue of the Year in Review also becomes something of a decade in review. We hope that it will be useful to you. – Dan La Botz.]

Vol. 9 No. 2

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Dear Reader,
With this issue we are proud to welcome Fred Rosen as a regular contributor to Mexican Labor News and Analysis. Fred, formerly the editor and publisher of NACLA: Report on the Americas, is now a freelance writer for La Jornada and the Mexico edition of the Miami Herald.
Dan La Botz

Vol. 9 No. 3

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Dear Readers,

The Authentic Labor Front (FAT), has a very attractive and informative new website in Spanish at http://www.fatmexico.org/ We think the FAT represents one of the most important forces for an independent and democratic workers’ movement in Mexico, and we are delighted to see this new way for the FAT to communicate its vision with the world.

The website has sections on FAT’s history, its basic documents, its analysis of important current questions, and information on recent developments and it local branches throughout Mexico. In addition, there are photo galleries and links to many other important labor organizations and publications.

We urge our readers to visit the site and to let others know about it.

Dan La Botz, Robin Alexander,
Editor International Affairs Director
Mexican Labor News and Analysis United Electrical Workers (UE)

Vol. 9 No. 4

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Vol. 9 No. 5

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Dear Readers, We want to take this opportunity to thank Larry Weiss, formerly of the Resource Center of the Americas, for his work over many years with that organization and for his help in providing technical assistance to distribute Mexican Labor News and Analysis to our subscribers. We wish him well in his new work on international trade issues at the Citizens Trade Campaign. We also want to thank Mary Turck, our new managing editor at the Resource Center of the Americas. You can also check out their extremely useful web site at: http://www.americas.org/ Last, but certainly not least, we thank Nancy Brigham for her terrific work on the UE web site. She has created a beautiful and useful home for MLNA at: http://www.ueinternational.org/Mexico_info/mlna.php , and we are very grateful. We urge our subscribers who have not gone to the home page to take a look at its various resources. Dan LaBotz and Robin Alexander

Vol. 9 No. 6

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Vol. 9 No. 7

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Vol. 9 No. 8

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Vol. 9 No. 9

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Vol. 9 No. 10

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Vol. 9 No. 11

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Alert:
This week has seen a major flurry of activity and press coverage around the question of Labor Law Reform, as it appeared that the PAN and PRI had joined together and were poised to push the employer version of labor law reform known as the Abascal Plan through the House of Deputies. Faced with threats of major mobilizations, they blinked, with some leaders of the PRI announcing that introduction would be delayed until next year. However, others are determined to push the bill though, and as this is being written, the latest information we have is that introduction is likely to occur towards the end of next week, most likely on December 9th or 10th.

Labor and social movements responded rapidly, beginning a sit in at the chamber of Deputies on December 2nd, and calling for major mobilizations in Mexico City and around the country for Thursday, December 9th.

UNT lawyers Arturo Alcalde and Hector Barba have declared that the midification of five articles would strike a "mortal blow" to trade unionism.

WE ARE THEREFORE ASKING ALL OF YOU WHO ARE CONCERNED ABOUT THE FUTURE OF INDEPENDENT TRADE UNIONISM IN MEXICO TO SEND LETTERS OF PROTEST TO THE MEXICAN POLITICAL LEADERS AS DETAILED IN THIS ISSUE.

Robin Alexander and Dan La Botz

Vol. 9 No. 12

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Dear Union Sisters and Brothers, Activists and Friends:

With the year drawing to a close, we find ourselves tallying up our successes and thinking about how to more effectively confront our ongoing challenges. We are happy to say that we have seen tremendous growth in the work taking place through the UE/FAT Strategic Organizing Alliance.

We have strengthened and consolidated our cross-border solidarity work in important ways.

We organized the first Cross-Border Organizing Institute with rank-and-file leaders and organizers from Mexico and the United States. We hosted a speaking tour of FAT leaders to Massachusetts, New York and Vermont to raise awareness about the critical struggle being waged by adult education teachers in the state of Guanajuato, Mexico. We organized a second, dynamic exchange of public-sector workers from Mexico, the U.S., Quebec and Japan. And we participated together at international events, including the World Social Forum at Mumbai, India, where we joined in the creation of a new union alliance of GE workers.

This year has seen major mobilizations in Mexico, and the formation of the broadest coalition in recent history, in opposition to President Fox’s platform of privatization and deregulation. Popular forces derailed labor law reform. The UE-FAT Alliance proved crucial in developing strong international opposition to the proposals.

Over the past year, the FAT has engaged in some important organizing struggles and won some extremely significant victories, both adding new members and establishing key legal precedents.

· Workers at Mexico City’s central market won an 11-month strike in which they occupied the bathroom facilities they clean. Faced with a suit for lost revenue, they prevailed with a decision that the market could not escape its responsibilities as an employer by terminating the sub-contractor who employed the workers.

· A new union of 1,000 adult education teachers in the state of Guanajuato is fighting for recognition and a contract. Despite the firing of more than a dozen union activists, the workers remain united and optimistic, and the students they teach, together with their parents, are actively supporting them.

· Over three hundred workers employed at an insurance company recently purchased by MetLife have recently joined the FAT.

· A FAT affiliate in León which has been on strike for four years won a decision awarding the workers the right to receive the equipment in the factory. They are now assessing the viability of establishing a cooperative;

· The FAT has added a number of new affiliates to their national transportation union, including some 300 workers in Chihuahua who haul wood or work in mines, and a smaller taxi drivers’ local in Ciudad Juárez.

· The FAT carries out its work on the U.S. border and in northern Mexico through its workers’ centers, the CETLACs, which have expanded from Ciudad Juárez to include Monterrey and Ciudad Chihuahua.

· In Chihuahua, municipal workers have left their old, corrupt union in droves. Their new federation has expanded to 14 municipalities and now represents more than 2,800 workers!

Also, thanks to Dan La Botz, Mexican Labor News and Analysis (MLNA) continues to be a valued resource to researchers, students, educators and labor activists around the world.

The UE/FAT Strategic Organizing Alliance continues to show the deeper benefits of a long-term and ongoing relationship of trust and solidarity that can benefit workers in both the U.S. and Mexico.
A local UE leader wrote: “The stark realization of how NAFTA, WTO, globalization and privatization are impacting on working people and unions all across the world and the complexity of these issues is evident and frightening. Also how interconnected we are, no matter what nationality. . .We must find ways to transcend these differences to work together to fight off those who exploit the dignity and intrinsic value of our labor.”

We are asking you to support MLNA and to help make the UE-FAT cross-border organizing work possible by making a financial contribution.

Please send checks to made out to the UE/FAT Solidarity Fund to One Gateway Center, Suite 1400, PGH., PA. 15222-1416. Tax deductible contributions may be sent to the same address, but checks should be made out to the UE Research and Education Fund for the:

* Workers’ Centers (CETLAC)
* Worker to Worker Delegations
* Mexican Labor News and Analysis (MLNA)
* General Support

Thank you for your support and have a good holiday!

In Solidarity,


Robin Alexander, Director of International Labor Affairs
United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America (UE)