AUT: MEX LABOR NEWS 16 MARCH 98

[Dan La Botz <103144.2651@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

MEXICAN LABOR NEWS AND ANALYSIS
March 16, 1998
Vol. III, No. 6
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               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
subscriptions, submission of articles, and all queries contact
editor Dan La Botz at the following e-mail address:
103144.2651@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx or call in the U.S. (513) 961-8722.
The U.S. mailing address is: Dan La Botz, Mexican Labor News and
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     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: Bob
Briggs, Peter Gellert, Jess Kincaid, Wendy Patterson, Jorge
Robles, Juan-Carlos Romero, Fred Rosen, Don Sherman, Sam Smucker,
Linda Stevenson.
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IN THIS ISSUE:

     *New Teachers Union President Elected; Charges of Fraud
          by Sam Smucker
     *Railroad Workers End Strike in Sonora; Some Jobs Saved
          by Dan La Botz
     *Mexican Electrical Workers Avoid Privatization, No Strike
          by Fred Rosen
     *CTM Elects Rodriguez Alcaine; Changes Position on NAFTA
     *New Tripartite Pact Criticized by UNT, FAT
     *Social Statistics
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          NEW TEACHERS UNION PRESIDENT ELECTED
     AMIDST CHARGES OF FRAUD, INTIMIDATION, BRIBERY

                    by Sam Smucker

     After several days of back-room negotiating between the
ex-general secretary Elba Esther Gordillo and the current general
secretary Humberto Davila Esquivel, the 2,700 delegates to the
16th National Convention of the National Teachers Union (SNTE)
which took place in March elected, Tomas Vazquez Vigil, as the
new general secretary for the next five-year term. =


     Vazquez Vigil, currently a member of the National Executive
Committee, is said to be strongly identified with Gordillo's wing
of the union. The second most powerful position in the union,
Secretary of Finance, went to someone linked closely to Davila
Esquivel.

     The SNTE is reputedly Latin America's largest union,
claiming 1,200,000 members.

          Opposition Claims Fraud, Intimidation

     Meanwhile, democratic opposition groups claim their impact
at the convention was limited by fraud and intimidation in the
delegate selection process. Internal divisions, mostly over the
question of participation in what many believed to be an
undemocratic and illegitimate convention, crippled the
opposition's effectiveness. =


     A variety of opposition groups arrived at the convention
with approximately 600 delegates or a little more than 20%. =

Forces linked with the Democratic Fractions group hoped to form a
united slate and at least capture a proportional number seats on
the national executive committee. But the largest democratic
opposition group, the National Coordinating Committee (CNTE),
made a tactical decision not to participate in the convention
process.

          First Opposition Slate at Convention

     One faction of the opposition made up of Democratic
Fractions and Local 18 of Michoacan, did run an opposition slate
against the Institutionalist slate, the first time ever in the
teacher's union that an opposition slate has been recognized at
the National Convention. The opposition slate received  only 13 %
of the vote as CNTE delegates were no longer participating in the
convention by the time of the Saturday vote. New Unionism,
another small, moderate opposition group associated with the
Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), voted for the
Institutionalist slate.

     Democratic Fraction and la CNTE charge that the delegate
selection process was marked by intimidation and bribery as well
as outright fraud. Most dramatic was the case of Local 10 in
Mexico City in which there were evidently several cases of ballot
box stuffing as vote counts exceeded by several hundred the
number of voters. Democratic opposition activists claim that even
more important was wide-spread intimidation and bribery on the
part of managers and hired thugs linked to the Institutionalist
slate. =


     Opposition groups have filed charges with the Union's
National Electoral Committee. At least one opposition slate, that
of the Valle de Mexico Local, was not permitted to register its
slate of delegates for the national convention in the face of
violence on the part of  the Institutionalists.

     Such tactics, as well as divisions within the opposition
groups, caused two defeats at the Local conventions which
proceeded the National Convention. Local 10, formerly controlled
by opposition groups, is now controlled by Institutionalists with
Jaime Figueroa Velazquez as second in command of the local.
Figueroa Vazquez is the former police chief of Acapulco and is
believed to be the leader of a group of thugs inside the SNTE.  =


     In Local 14 in Guerrero, Institutionalists negotiated
separately with each opposition group within la CNTE and
effectively broke the opposition coalition. Institutionalists
delegates were able to take control of the local even though the
majority of delegates were members of la CNTE. =


     These two major defeats leave the opposition in control of
the state-wide locals in Chiapas, Oaxaca, and Michoacan and of
Local 9 in Mexico City, but that represents only 4 of the
approximately 55 locals within the union.

     Of the 43 seats on the National Executive Committee only
five will be held by opposition groups and two of those by the
moderate group New Unionism. The other three seats are divided
among a member of Democratic Fractions, and two union leaders
from Guerrero, one with links to the PRD and the other a member
of the once Maoist-inspired Labor Party (PT). Formerly,
opposition groups had controlled seven seats on the national
executive committee. These positions are not elected, but rather
traded in back room deals. The largest opposition group, la CNTE,
refuses to participate in this process and therefore holds no
seats.

     Jorge Mejia Mateos of Democratic Fractions told MEXICAN
LABOR NEWS AND ANALYSIS that the opposition's inability to
present a united slate against the institutionalists was a
defeat. But, he add that all the opposition groups came away from
the convention with a greater openness to talk to each other. The
Michoacan Local will hold a nation convention of opposition
groups at the end of March, and the CNTE will hold their national
convention in April. Mejia Mateos was hopeful that these events
will build a dialogue between opposition groups.

                         ###
          RAILROAD WORKERS END STRIKE IN SONORA
           BUT MANY PROBLEMS REMAIN UNRESOLVED

                    by Dan La Botz

     [Empalme, Sonora] Railroad workers in Sonora returned to
work in the first week of March, ending a remarkable strike that
shut down the Pacific North line for over two weeks, paralyzing
freight and passenger movements throughout much of western and
northern Mexico. Workers struck to protect their jobs, their
union contract and their working conditions all of which had been
threatened by the privatization of the railroad. The strike
succeeded in saving some jobs and keeping some workers under the
existing contract.

     Last year the Mexican government sold the Pacific North line
to a private consortium which includes the Union Pacific. The new
owners, FERROMEX, would not guarantee jobs to the workers, wanted
to abrogate the contract and change conditions. Unable to get
guarantees for their future, the workers struck.

     The strike, which first began as a wildcat and then became
an official strike by the national union, saved some jobs, but
many problems remain and sporadic outbursts of resistance
continue among workers and retirees. Retired railroad workers
seized the company headquarters in Guadalajara, Jalisco on March
11 and 12, and workers on another railway, the Chihuahua-Pacific
railway, engaged in wildcat strikes at about the same time.

     In the agreement reached in the first week of March in
negotiations between the old state company (FERRONALES), the new
private company (FERROMEX), the Mexican Railroad Workers Union
(STFRM), and STFRM Local 8 of Empalme, the companies agreed to
protect some of the workers jobs. As of March 13, according to
Local 8 general secretary (top officer) Carlos Figueroa, the
companies agreed to protect the job of 86 workers on the Nogales-
Nacozari shortline, 10 office workers, 15 warehouse workers, 80
Piggy Back workers. In addition, FERRONALES will continue to
operate the repair shops, which do not form part of the
privatization deal, and will keep 1,200 shop workers on the
payroll. =


     Still hundreds of workers had been pressured into signing
their severance papers or had been forced into early retirement.
Many await rehiring, but with no guarantees for their future. In
addition to the problems on the Pacific-North Line, there are
also similar issues on the Ojinaga-Topolobampo line and the
Coahuila-Durango line, the latter bought by Penoles.

     Victor Flores, head of the Mexican Railroad Workers Union
(STFRM), has said that if the new owner does not rehire most of
the workers, he will call another strike against the Pacific-
North Line. "If it is necessary to stop the trains from leaving,"
he told reports on March 10, "then we will do so." However, until
the strike led by Local 8 in Empalme, Flores had been an advocate
of privatization, a supporter of the state company and the new
owners, and a poor representative of his union's members.

                         ###

          ELECTRICAL WORKERS AVOID PRIVATIZATION;
             CONTRACT SETTLED WITHOUT STRIKE

                    by Fred Rosen

     Two days before the March 16 strike deadline set by the
47,000-member Mexican Electrical Workers Union (SME), officials
of the state-owned Mexico City power company, Luz y Fuerza del
Centro (LFC), and negotiators for the combative SME reached a
settlement that has implications beyond the immediate welfare of
union members. =

     =

     Workers will receive 17% wage hikes and small benefit
increases, and the government has agreed not to put LFC on the
auction block. In a parallel settlement, the Sole Electrical
Workers Union of the Mexican Republic (SUTERM), which represents
48,000 workers in the border states-based Federal Electricity
Commission (CFE)--and which did not raise privatization
issues--accepted the same wage and benefits package.

     Both unions were seeking to recover members' fading
purchasing power with a 62% wage raise as well as substantial
increases in benefits. Union spokespeople said the 62% raise
would have barely restored the already diminished real earnings
its members enjoyed before the peso crisis of 1994. =


     SME leader Rosendo Flores admits the 17% settlement "was
insufficient, and due to the fall in oil prices and the
consequent state budget cuts," but, he added, "the struggle was
political [and] we avoided the privatization of Luz y Fuerza and
the mutilation of the old contract."

     Aside from salaries, the SME, in particular, had been
defending a public union's right to strike, a right increasingly
called into question by both the Mexican government and business
groups. SME was also challenging the Zedillo administration's
"new labor culture" that calls for labor-management "cooperation"
in the interests of lower costs, a more competitive international
position and the attraction of private capital to Mexico. =


     In that globalizing context, a key SME demand was the
continued public ownership of Mexico's energy industry, and the
strengthening of the nationalized LFC, its adversary across the
bargaining table. LFC supplies electricity to Mexico City and the
nearby states of Mexico, Hidalgo, Puebla and Morelos, but is
increasingly dependent upon the electricity generated by the CFE,
a public body the union fears is flirting too seriously with
private capital.

     According to the Economic Research Institute of the National
Autonomous University of Mexico, LFC now provides 25% of Mexico's
residential electricity, 18% of its industrial electricity, and
80% of the electricity used by the country's transportation
system, principally the Mexico City subway. Virtually all of this
energy is purchased from the CFE; only one percent of Mexico's
energy is actually generated by LFC itself. This is what worries
the union.

     "Of course the question of recovering lost wages and
benefits is central to our demands, and so is the continuation of
decent pension rights for our retirees,"  Jose Antonio Almazan, a
SME negotiator, told MEXICAN LABOR NEWS AND ANALYSIS last week
during a brief bargaining break, "but what we're principally
worried about in these negotiations is the move toward
privatizing the industry. There are tremendous irregularities in
the legal registration of LFC, formed as a nationalized company
only four years ago, and we're afraid that the irregularities may
not be simple oversights but deliberate openings for eventual
privatizations. Because of this there is a feeling of insecurity
for the workers."

     While electricity generation remains in the hands of the
publicly owned CFE, large co-generation plants are being financed
by private investors--both foreign and domestic--in the border
states of Tamaulipas and Chihuahua. Bids have also recently been
taken for the construction of new plants in two other border
states, Nuevo Leon and Baja California. The CFE will lease and
operate the plants, and should become the eventual owner, but
they will remain in private hands for at least 20 years. The SME
worries that questions of profitability will threaten not only
the welfare of its members, but the well being of Mexican
consumers. =


     "In the last contract," said the union's Almazan, "in order
to ease the financial stress on LFC, we agreed not to add new
personnel to its workforce until 2001, but now the company is
subcontracting work to non-union members, such as the Spanish
firm FENOSA, which has the contract to computerize the grid." But
while privatization was avoided, it appears that the non-union
subcontracting will continue.

     The fears of the "globalization" of the electricity-
generation process, and the consequent erosion of labor rights
were at the hub of the intense bargaining, closely followed by
Mexicans with a stake in the country's ongoing privatizations.
The ambiguous outcome suggests serious consequences for the
future of collective bargaining in Mexico's shrinking public
sector.
                              ###

          CTM CHOOSES RODRIGUEZ ALCAINE AS NEW LEADER;      =

     OPENS DOOR TO LABOR LAW REFORM, HEARS AFL DENOUNCE NAFTA

     In a decision which surprised no one, the delegates to the
13th CTM convention elected Leonardo Rodriguez Alcaine to head
the organization until the year 2004. Without opposition
Rodriguez Alcaine and his complete slate won unanimous re-
election from the convention's 25,000 delegates. =


     Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo came to salute the new
leaders and to pledge his continued support for the federation.
He told the delegates: "I come to reiterate with absolute
conviction, that between the Mexican state and the labor movement
there exists an historic alliance which no one can break."

     The American Federation of Labor (AFL) sent George Becker,
leader of the United Steel Workers of America (USWA), as its
emissary to the convention. For the ten years of so, the AFL and
the CTM have been deeply divided over trade issues, the CTM
support NAFTA while the AFL opposed the trade agreement. In a
recent visit AFL president John Sweeney not only met with the CTM
leaders, but also with the new more independent National Union of
Workers (UNT), representing a dramatic shift in AFL policy in
Mexico.

     At this convention, Becker, speaking forcefully and frankly,
challenged the CTM leaders' support for the North American Free
Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Becker told the CTM convention that
NAFTA was designed to protect the interests of capital and had
been used as a weapon to attack the unions in the United States.
He argued that U.S. and Mexican unions could and should work
together to resist the adverse affects of NAFTA. Becker's remarks
were received with widespread applause in the assembly.

     In response, Rodriguez Alcaine said that the CTM would seek
revisions in NAFTA to protect employment, wages, and benefits.
The announcement that the CTM would seek changes in NAFTA and its
labor side agreements represents an important change in the CTM's
position, even if possibly only a rhetorical change.

     Also, at this convention, for the first time, Rodriguez
Alcaine and the CTM raised the possibility of contemplating
changes in the Federal Labor Law (LFT). Until now the CTM has
opposed any attempt to open a discussion of either Constitutional
Article 123, the labor article, or the Federal Labor Law (LFT).

     These two shifts in position, on NAFTA and on the Federal
Labor Law, indicate that the new CTM leadership has begun to face
for the first time the profound changes in both the Mexican and
the North American political economy.

     The CTM leaders took advantage of the rostrum to attack the
Zapatista Army of National Liberation, the foreigners and the
"vendepatrias," (those who sell-out the country), accusing them
of manipulating the ethnic groups in Chiapas. The CTM announced
its support of the Institutional Revolutionary Party's new
legislative proposals for Chiapas.

     At the same time, opposition members of the Sole Union of
Electrical Workers of the Mexican Republic (SUTERM), the union
which Rodriguez Alcaine's leads, accused him of having stolen 13
billion pesos from a workers' mutual fund and of having bilked
65,000 workers out of their savings.

                              ###

                    UNIONS, EMPLOYERS, STATE
                     SIGN NEW ECONOMIC PACT
     =

     Representatives of labor unions, peasant organizations,
employers and the Mexican government signed the General Agreement
of Cooperation and Consultation at the end of February. The pact
pledges the parties to promote productivity, competitiveness, and
a fair distribution of the benefits. =


     At the ceremony held in the Labor Department building,
Secretary of Labor Javier Bonilla Garcia said that this pact will
make for frank and direct talks on the state of the economy
between the government, business and labor.

     While the Congress of Labor (CT) and the Confederation of
Mexican Workers (CTM) joined in the accord, the new National
Union of Workers (UNT) criticized and rejected the agreement. =


     Augustin Rodriguez Fuentes, leader of the Union of Workers
of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (STUNAM) and one
of the three presidents of the UNT told reports that the CT and
the CTM signed without consulting their members, which leads one
to believe that they will continue the strategy of subordinating
the working class to the employers.

     Alejandra Barrales, head of the flight attendants' union and
a vice-president of the UNT, said, "The pacts no longer work.
This has been demonstrated over the last ten years during which
the only ones who were bound by them were the workers who faced
instability in prices and a loss of purchasing power."
     =

     Similarly Bertha Lujan, a member of the leadership of the
Authentic Labor Front (FAT), described the new agreement as
another attempt to manage the economy through methods that
undermine the standard of living of the workers. "The government
doesn't understand that in the current political and economic
situation there is no longer any room for such imposed agreement
or pacts which at the last moment the hacks are called upon to
sign," said Lujan.
                              ###
SOCIAL STATISTICS

          OIL PRICES FALL--MEXICAN ECONOMY THREATENED

Oil Prices Fall

     The Mexican economy is once again in grave danger. Prices
paid for Mexican crude oil fell to their lowest prices in almost
a decade at US$10.80 on March 11. The average price per barrel
for most of the decade has been about US$19.00 per barrel. The
fall in the price of oil is apparently a result of El Nino's warm
winter temperatures and the 10 percent increase in production by
the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
Mexico's oil exports represent one of the country's principle
sources of income, and the fall in oil prices likely means a cut
in the federal budget. (LA JORNADA, REFORMA)

Mexican Workers Remittances from the U.S.

     Mexican workers in the United States send as much as seven
billion dollars a year to their family members back home,
according to Raul Izaguirre, leader of the La Raza National
Council of the United States. (Rosa Elvira Vargas, "Residentes en
EU envian a Mexico 7 mil mdd anualmente," LA JORNADA 10 March
1998.) =


Only six percent of L.A. workers with "real unions"

     According to the World Federation of Trade Union (WFTU),
only six percent of Latin American workers are protected by "real
labor union." (Fabiola Martinez, "En Latinoamerica solo 6% de los
obreros tienen sindicato real," LA JORNADA, 10 March 1998.)

Un\Employment

     The unemployment rate for January 1998 was 3.6 percent of
the economically active population, or 0.8 percent higher than
the year before, according to the Mexican National Institute of
Statistics (INEGI). ("Alcanza el desempleo 3.6% durante enero,"
REFORMA 9 March 1998.)

Underemployment

     18 percent of Mexico's 37 million people in the economically
active population (PEA) are underemployed, working two or three
days a week and with incomes which do not permit them to provide
for the basic necessities, according to Adalberto Lara Nunez,
general secretary of the regional federation of the Revolution
Confederation of Workers and Peasants (CROM) of San Luis Potosi.
(Tiburcio Cadena, "Subempleados 7 millones de Mexico," EL SOL DE
SAN LUIS 4 March 1998.)

Women Workers Wages

     78 percent of women over 12 years old in Mexico do not
receive a fixed wage and in the work places their incomes are
fifty percent below men, according to local deputy Lucerito del
Pilar Marquez Franco. (Juan Antonio Zuniga M., "78% de
trabjadoras mayores de 12 anos, sin salario fijo," LA JORNADA 4
March 1998.)

Wages

     During the period of the North American Free Trade
Agreement, that is from 1994 to 197, the minimum wage in Mexico
lost 22.93 percent of its purchasing power, according to the
Authentic Labor Front (FAT) and the Mexican Network on the Free
Trade Agreement (RMALC). (Fabiola Martinez, "Retroceso salarial
de 22.93 en el periodo del TLC, senala," LA JORNADA ...)

     Figured another way, the minimum wage lost 27.5 percent of
its purchasing power during the current presidential term (1994-
1997), according to the Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM).
(Alonso Urrutia, "Perdio 27.5% el poder adquisitivo: CTM," LA
JORNADA 28 February 1998.)

Inflation

     The Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM) reports that in
January 1998 the inflation on the basic market basket of good wa
2.22 percent compared to December 1997. This was a greater rise
in inflation than the 1.31 registered in December. (Raul Adorno
Jimenez, "Aumento la canasta basica 2.22% en enero respecto a
diciembre de 1997," EL NACIONAL 2 March 1998.)

Corruption

     According to a study by the International Transparency
organization, Mexico is the sixth most corrupt government of 52
investigated. The study found that Nigeria was the most corrupt,
followed by Bolivia, Columbia, Russia, Pakistan, and then Mexico;
on a scale rating nations from one to ten, Mexico's rating was
2.66. Denmark, Finland, Sweden, New Zealand, Canada were the five
least corrupt nations all ranking above 9.0. The United States
was the 16th on the 52 nation list, with a score of 7.61. (David
Aponte, "Mexico, sexto lugar mundial en corrupcion
gubernamental," LA JORNADA 9 March 1998.)

END MEXICAN LABOR NEWS AND ANALYSIS, VOL. 3, NO. 6, 16 MARCH 1998



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