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Global Unions Condemn Mexico’s Move to Bust 44,000-Member Union |
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The global union movement is accusing Mexico’s president, Felipe Calderón Hinojosa, of systematically trying to bust independent unions and is demanding that he respect the rights of workers to form unions.
The latest example of Calderón’s anti-worker bias is the takeover last month by federal agents and police of the country’s second largest electrical power distributor, Luz y Fuerza (Central Light and Power). Calderón used an executive decree to dissolve the utility, but, in doing so, he also fired the entire 44,000-person workforce and disbanded their union, the 95-year-old Mexican Electrical Workers’ Union (SME), a frequent critic of the government’s policies.
SME has strongly criticized the government’s plan to privatize the electrical industry. The government has dissolved Luz y Fuerza, which provides electricity to Mexico City and several states in central Mexico, and turned its facilities over to the Federal Electrical Commission, the provider for the rest of the country. Union leaders see this as a preparatory step toward the sale of the utilities to a private company.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka in a statement condemned the unilateral action by the Mexican authorities:
The AFL-CIO supports the demands of the SME and of the Luz y Fuerza workers to reverse this egregious act of union-busting and violation of internationally recognized standards of freedom of association and collective bargaining.
SME has called for revocation of the government decree unilaterally liquidating the company, an end to the occupation of the power plants by the federal police and for good-faith negotiations between the Mexican government and the union on the relevant financial and administrative issues.
United Steelworkers (USW) President Leo Gerard called the takeover of the utility and disbanding the union “an outrageous act of union busting.”
It…provides further evidence of the government’s anti-worker, anti-union agenda and its scorched earth policy against democratic and independent unions.
In a letter to Calderón, International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) President Robert McEllrath said:
Your action is a violation of labor rights, of human rights, and a disgrace to your government. Mr. President, please respect the rights of these workers, their union, and international labor and human rights standards.
The union movement has come under constant attack since Calderón took office in 2006. Calderón employed tactics similar to the ones in the SME intervention against the Mexican Miners and Metalworkers Union. The government has refused to recognize the union’s democratically elected officers.
Both Trumka and Gerard say they stand in solidarity with the Mexican Miners and Metalworkers Union, which is demanding recognition and restoration of their democratically elected leadership and an immediate end to governmental repression of their union.
In a joint letter to Calderón, International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers’ Unions (ICEM) General Secretary Manfred Warda and International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF) General Secretary Jyrki Raina called the action against the SME “retaliatory because the leadership of the union opposed your anti-worker, anti-societal economic policies.” See the letter here.
Peter Waldorff, general secretary of Public Services International (PSI), also wrote a letter to Calderón urging him to revoke the executive order.
Communications Workers of America (CWA) President Larry Cohen said:
The working people of Mexico need an independent trade union movement to be able to bargain fairly and make economic gains for themselves and their families. The Mexican government must end its attacks on democratic trade unions and Mexican workers.
On Oct. 15, more than 100,000 people marched through Mexico City to protest the seizure. After the march, the federal government agreed to talks with the union, but the talks broke off after four days. The government refused to negotiate on reversing the presidential decree and the union declared the dialogue a “farce.”
Laura Carlsen writes in Foreign Policy in Focus that the busting of SME is a clear example of the failure of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
Unionized workers are not the only ones who suffer. NAFTA has displaced some two million Mexican small farmers in the countryside due to competition with U.S. agricultural imports.
Also, over the weekend, 15 people, including union leader Margarito Montes Parra, his family, relatives and staff, were killed in a brazen ambush in northern Mexico. Montes was the leader of the Worker, Peasant and Popular General Union, which demands land rights and presses for government support of peasants.
Norma Patino, an official with COCYP, an umbrella group of peasant and popular organizations, told the Los Angeles Times:
This was an attack not just against a union leader but against the work we do. This hurts the work of all of us.
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