AUT: Part 1 - Mex Labor News - May 2, 1998

[Dan La Botz <103144.2651@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

MEXICAN LABOR NEWS AND ANALYSIS
May 2, 1998
Vol. III, No. 9
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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
Analysis, 3436 Morrison Place, Cincinnati, OH 45220.

     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, Linda
Stevenson.
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Dear Readers,

     We delayed this issue a day to be able to cover the May Day
events in Mexico City.

     With this issue we drop the name of Sam Smucker from our
list of contributors in Mexico, as he has returned to work as a
labor organizer in the United States. But for several months Sam
played an important role on the Mexico City volunteer staff as
writer and guest editor. Best of luck in your future endeavors
from all of us.

     Dan La Botz, Editor.
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IN THIS ISSUE
In Mexico
     *May Day in Mexico--Three Separate Demonstrations -
          by Peter Gellert
     *CTM Coup in the Congress of Labor (CT) - =

          by Dan La Botz
     *Rodriguez Alcaine Implicated in Embezzlement--PROCESO
     *Congressmen Won't Give CTM Leader Cadillac as Planned
     *Dissidents in Mexico City Union Could Give Cardenas a Break
     *Revelations of Gov't Spying: Mexico City, Campeche, Tabasco
     *Need a Goon Squad? Go to the Labor Board Building
     *Medical Residents End Strike
     *Mine Accident and Child Labor     =

International Solidarity
     *Two Summits: The Governments' and the Peoples' -
          by Andrew Elmore
     *May Day, Mexico, Korea, United States, Some Thought
          by Young-Il Lim, Linda Stevenson, and Jess Kincaid
     *U.S. Transportation Union Officials Visit Mexico
     *Sorry, No Social Statistics This Time!
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               THREE SEPARATE DEMONSTRATIONS =

                MARK MAY DAY IN MEXICO CITY

                    by Peter Gellert,
    [With assistance from Linda Stevenson and Jess Kincaid.]
               =

     May Day, International Workers Day, was marked in Mexico
with three separate mass demonstrations, reflecting both
divisions and new trends in the country's labor movement. In the
shifting balance of forces in the Mexican workers' movement, it
appears that as many or more people participated in the
independent demonstrations as were mobilized by the "official,"
or pro-government labor organizations.

     The official, pro-government labor movement, organized in
the Congress of Labor (CT), held a mass rally in the Zocalo, the
national plaza in downtown Mexico City. Between 100,000 and
250,000 workers attended. While the official labor leadership
raised general slogans such as "salaries that contribute to the
productive effort," "government economic policies based on social
justice," and "defense of the country's sovereignty, resources,
and integrity," the rally reflected the CT's slavishly
pro-government orientation. =


     Indeed President Ernesto Zedillo, on the reviewing stand for
his first May Day rally, made the customary speech telling the
assembled workers that the Mexican government was their
government and backed their interests. Focussing on democracy
with stability, Zedillo emphasized continued economic growth and
smooth transitions from one presidential term to the next. "This
is the moment of national unity," Zedillo exclaimed. "The unity
that respects plurality and differences. The unity that all
Mexicans deserve, and that makes us all stronger and more able to
overcome our challenges as a nation." The speeches of Zedillo and
the new CT leader Joel Lopez Mayren were received with a minimum
of applause or enthusiasm by a an audience nearly devoid of
spirit.

     The official labor movement's rally was noteworthy because
it followed major desertions from the CT's ranks in the past
year. In addition, for the past four years the CT--at the time
under Fidel Velasquez's six-decade domination of labor--had
cancelled the traditional May Day parade, with the argument that
rank and file discontent could lead to incidents. However the
umbrella organization of the official unions, thrown into an even
greater crisis following Velasquez's death last June, is clearly
under great pressure to play a more visible role.

     Before 1994 the CT's May Day parade was closely watched by
observers for any signs of dissident that were usually displayed
for a few minutes--before being violently repressed by CT goons
or the police--while contingents passed under the reviewing stand
(and thus under the watchful gaze of the president). This year
there were no such incidents, except for some calls from teachers
for a salary increase when their collective bargaining agreement
expires on May 15. The traditional parade was replaced by a rally
and much of the potential dissident was siphoned off by the other
two, more militant demonstrations. The CT rally, in fact, only
lasted 35 minutes.

     Massive attendance at CT rallies is not considered
noteworthy, since most participants are forced to attend, and are
threatened with loss of a day's pay--or worse--if they fail to do
so.
               National Workers Union: A First

     The second demonstration, called by the National Workers
Union (UNT), was held immediately following the CT rally. The
UNT, which is less than six months old, unites both unions that
have broken with the CT as well as independent unions. The UNT's
militant call "For a Combative and Democratic May 1st" stressed
the "priority to construct a labor movement different from what
has existed in Mexico for several decades because its structures,
practices, and relations with the government, business and
society no longer represent the Mexican workers and have led to
setbacks and a loss of its historical vanguard role."

     The UNT march and rally, attended by between 100,000 and
150,000 workers in well-organized contingents, including some
from independent peasant confederations, featured slogans
rejecting neo-liberalism and calling for a new economic policy;
salary increases; an end to corporativist labor practices and
trade union democratization and autonomy; and opposition to
privatization of the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS),
the national health system.

     Participating in the UNT march were the telephone workers,
workers from IMSS, airline and trolley workers, and university
unions, among others, as well as dissidents from the
Revolutionary Workers Confederation (COR) and strikers from the
Nacional Monte de Piedad pawnshop.

     Since this was the UNT's first May Day, its ability to
mobilize its 150 member unions in the streets was an important
test. In addition, for many of its affiliated unions--such as the
telephone and social security workers unions--the May Day call
includes political and social demands not usually raised. Given
that the UNT's main organizational strength is outside Mexico
City, Bertha Lujan, a leader of the Authentic Labor Front (FAT),
one of the most militant of the labor organizations comprising
the UNT, characterized the march as "a qualified success."

                    Intersindical

     Finally, for the fourth year running, the radical left May
1st Inter-union Coordinating Committee held the day's third march
and rally, which also concluded in the Zocalo. The Intersindical,
as its called, unites both independent unions, dissident
tendencies within other unions, social organizations such as the
El Barzon debtors movement, the National Indigenous Congress, the
far-left (some might say ultra-left) Independent Proletarian
Movement (MCI) and the Francisco Villa Popular Front (FPFV),
dozens of neighborhood groups, as well as political currents such
as the Zapatista National Liberation Front and smaller left
parties.

     The Intersindical's march and rally--between 75,000 and
100,000--featured many of the same demands as the UNT, but also
raised more political slogans such as cancellation of Mexico's
foreign debt; for a new constituent assembly and constitution;
freedom for political prisoners; and against government policy in
Chiapas.

     While the CT and UNT May Day demonstrations were strictly
limited to the organized labor movement, the Intersindical's
march and rally were weaker in terms of trade union
participation, although it did feature striking workers from Sosa
Texcoco, a plant which processes lake kelp; CASA, an autoparts
plant; fired workers from GM and the Secretary of Agrarian
Reform; and democratic currents from unions representing the
Metro or subway workers and federal government employees. =


     The Intersindical's march and rally took on the
characteristic of a mobilization of the independent social
movements and radical left. Unlike the UNT's demonstration, in
which contingents dispersed as they reached the Zocalo, the
Intersindical's march was more like a traditional left affair,
with participants treated to several hours of speeches.

     Despite the efforts of some forces, particularly the FAT, to
promote a united May Day demonstration between the UNT and the
Intersindical, given the similarity in many of their demands, the
obstacles were too formidable. On the one hand, the UNT is
reticent about marching with social organizations outside the
labor movement, and would undoubtedly be uncomfortable over the
presence of dissident currents from their own member unions in
the march. =


     The major stumbling block, however, was the ingrained
sectarianism of many sectors of the Intersindical--particularly
the MCI and FPFV--with respect to working with the UNT, who they
continually and publicly denounce as "neo-charros," a reference
to the classic Mexican trade union bureaucrat. While UNT leaders
such as Francisco Hernandez Juarez of the Telephone Workers Union
and Antonio Rosado from the Social Security Workers Union remain
members of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party and have
a history of bureaucratic practices within their respective
unions, the formation of the UNT is nonetheless an important
break from Mexico's traditional corrupt and ineffectual business
unionism.

     To promote the unity of the Mexican workers movement, the
UNT, for its part, called for an open dialogue with the
Intersindical and the CT, although indicating it would have
nothing to do with recently selected CT President Joel Lopez
Mayren, who it characterized as an opportunist and pseudo-leader.
[See Article below.]

     The Mexican labor movement appears rather deeply divided
into reactionary, reformist and radical contingents which offer
quite different political alternatives to Mexico's working class.
The UNT reformist labor federation and the Intersindical's
radical social movement have grown in weight relative to the
increasingly reactionary CT. Overall the May Day 1998 labor
demonstrations marked another stage in the continuing decline of
the Congress of Labor and the gradual development of the UNT as a
credible reformist alternative.

                              ###

     CTM'S RODRIGUEZ ALCAINE AND R.R. UNION LEADER VICTOR FLORES
            CARRY OUT COUP IN THE CONGRESS OF LABOR

                         by Dan La Botz

     Leonardo Rodriguez Alcaine, head of the Confederation of
Mexican Workers (CTM), and his ally Victor Flores Morales, the
leader of the Mexican Railroad Workers Union (STFRM), carried out
a coup in the Congress of Labor (CT), the umbrella organization
that embraces all of Mexico's "official" or state-controlled
labor unions, dumping the former CT president and installing one
more to their liking.

     At the April 20 meeting of the Congress of Labor, Rodriguez
Alcaine and Flores deposed CT President Hector Valdez of the
Federation of Unions of Workers at the Service of the State
(FSTSE), the federal public employees union, and replaced him
with Joel Lopez Mayren, head of the Revolutionary Workers'
Confederation (COR), a small national labor federation. Lopez
Mayren has been identified with the "Foro" group of unions
dominated by Mexican Teachers Union (SNTE) leaders Elba Esther
Gordillo and Humberto Davila.

     The coup in the CT--followed almost immediately by another
round of protests and resignations by member unions--appears to
represent yet another event in the continuing process of the
disintegration of the Mexican house of "official" labor.

                    Behind the Coup

     Rodriguez Alcaine and Flores argued that because Hector
Valdez's term as general secretary of the FSTSE had just ended,
he was no longer eligible to be the head of the CT. The CT
statutes require that the president must be the general secretary
of his own union. =


     In reality that technicality was just a pretext for what is
a struggle for power within the CT on the eve of the symbolically
important May Day demonstrations. Rodriguez Alcaine and Flores--
who represent the most reactionary figures in Mexican labor,
those closest to the state-party and the employers--desperately
want to hold on to the old corporative order through the old
methods.
                    Pyrrhic Victory

     Rodriguez Alcaine and Flores showed up at the meeting
ballots with only the name of Lopez Mayren as head of a "unity"
slate. The vote was 26 votes in favor and 7 abstaining, with no
union having the courage to vote against. =


     Rodriguez Alcaine, Flores and Lopez Mayren claimed victory,
but this was a pyrrhic victory for the CTM and Railroad Union
leaders. Almost immediately after the vote three federations or
unions either refused to recognize the new president or resigned
in protest from the Congress of Labor.

     The Revolutionary Confederation of Workers and Peasants
(CROC), one of the seven organizations which did not support the
election of Mayren Lopez, said it would not recognize the new
president because he was incompetent and was a "goon"
(golpeador).

     The more independent-minded Mexican Electrical Workers Union =

(SME) indicated that these events would lead to its "imminent"
withdrawal from the Congress of Labor.

     The National Union of Technical and Manual Workers of
Cinematography which represents about 500 permanent and 1,000
casual workers in the Chrubusco Studios, the Film Laboratories
Studios of Rosarita Beach, Baja Caliornia, and at other film
studios throughout the country announced its withdrawal from the
CT. =


     "Technical and Manuals" leader, Gabriela Gurrola, accused
the new CT president Lopez Mayren of embodying the "anti-
democratic and exclusionary politics" within the umbrella labor
organization.  =

                              ###

     RODRIGUEZ ALCAINE APPARENTLY IMPLICATED IN EMBEZZLEMENT
      OF ELECTRICAL WORKERS' DEATH BENEFITS--PROCESO MAGAZINE

     Rodriguez Alcaine, the head of the Confederation of Mexican
Workers (CTM), is apparently implicated in the disappearance of
millions of pesos from the death benefit fund of the Sole Union
of Electrical Workers of the Mexican Republic (SUTERM), according
to the weekly Mexican political magazine PROCESO's April 12
issue. A total of as much as 13 billion pesos, or about 1.6
billion dollars, is involved.

     Every fifteen days, for 35 years, money has been deducted
from the pay checks of the employees of the Mexican Federal
Electrical Commission (CFE), the state electric company for most
of Mexico, and has been paid into the death benefit fund of the
union, SUTERM. During the period from 1976 to 1990, Rodriguez
Alcaine served as the general secretary of the union while
Eduardo Lecanda Lujambio served on his national executive board
as the secretary of social welfare.

     When 100 electrical workers recently brought criminal
charges before the Mexican Attorney General (PGR), Rodriguez
Alcaine and Lecanda Lujambio denied that they had anything to do
with the funds. But the Mexican Federal Electrical Commission
(CFE) says that the funds were paid to them. The workers' demand
has been supported by Javier Paz Zarza of the National Action
Party (PAN) who sits on the Congressional Labor Committee.
     =

                           ###

          AFTER OUTCRY, CTM LEADER RODRIGUEZ ALCAINE
          WON'T BE GETTING CADILLAC FROM PRI CONGRESSMEN

     Congressman Armando Neyra Chavez, head of the Confederation
of Mexican Workers (CTM) for the State of Mexico, reportedly sent
a letter last month to all 30 CTM congressmen in the
Institutional Revolutionary Party asking that they each chip in
9,000 pesos (about 1,100 U.S. dollars) to buy a Cadillac for CTM
head Leonardo Rodriguez Alcaine for his 80th birthday this May 1.

     But now Neyra Chavez has had to give up the plan to raise
270,000 pesos to buy the luxury automobile because it caused a
cry of outrage from other union officials.

     Mario Suarez, a leader of the Revolutionary Confederation of
Workers (CRT), called the proposed gift a cruel joke for workers
whose minimum wage jobs leave them hungry. =


     Alberto Juarez Blanco, a leader of the rival Revolutionary
Confederation of Workers and Peasants (CROC), said that the CROC
congressmen would not play such games as they would be busy
taking up the workers' demands on the eve of May Day, Mexico's
labor day. =


     Enrique Aguilar Borrego, a leader of the National Federation
of Bank Workers, said that such gifts only cause rank and file
worker to lose confidence in their leaders. "If we go on this
way, we shouldn't be surprised if we are passed over," he said. =


     Alejandra Barrales, head of the Flight Attendants Union and
a leader of the Federation of Unions of Firms of Goods and
Services (FESEBES), said that such practices as giving luxurious
gifts are a reflection of the old unionism which existed to amass
fortunes for the leaders and ignored the interests of the
workers.

     Finally Francisco Hernandez Juarez, one of the top leaders
of the new National Union of Workers (UNT) said that these sorts
of polite gifts are only intended to exalt a union leader who so
far has done nothing for working people.

                         ###

                    CTM CALLS FOR =

          NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF THE PROLETARIAT

     The Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM) has called for a
National Assembly of the Proletariat to reunite the Mexican labor
movement. The call comes at a time of declining influence for the
CTM, a crisis in the Congress of Labor (CT) which the CTM has
dominated, and an increasingly divided labor movement.

     Armando Neyra Chavez, the CTM leader and Congressman who
caused a scandal by proposing that labor legislators buy a
Cadillac for CTM leader Leonardo Rodriguez Alcaine, called for
all labor unions to join together to oppose anti-union changes in
the Federal Labor Law (LFT) and Constitutional Article 123, and
instead to work for pro-union labor law reforms and to join
employers in promoting the "new labor culture." =


     Neyra Chavez said the CTM wants to bring all labor unions
together to create a new umbrella labor organization, one which
would presumably replace both the old Congress of Labor (CT) and
the new National Union of Workers (UNT) which arose only late
last year out of a national assembly of the proletariat.

     The CTM's call for a national labor assembly seems bizarre
at a moment when the credibility and authority of the CTM
leadership is at an all time low.  =


                              ###

               MEXICAN TELEPHONE WORKERS' UNION
          REACHES PARTNERSHIP AGREEMENT WITH TELMEX

     The Mexican Telephone Workers Union (STRM) has settled its
new contract with the Mexican Telephone Company (TELMEX), without
a strike winning a modest wage gain, but also entering into a
partnership agreement to help the company defeat competition from
rival firms. =


     The Telephone Workers Union settlement with TELMEX holds
added significance because Francisco Hernandez Juarez, head of
the union has also been the dominant figure in the new labor
federation the National Union of Workers (UNT). What Hernandez
Juarez does as leader of his own union gives us some idea of the
future direction of the UNT.

     If the Telephone Workers Union contract is any indication,
Hernandez Juarez has set a direction of company and union
cooperation to achieve greater productivity through flexible
labor arrangements, the introduction of advanced technology, and
an alliance with the employer to defeat corporate opponents and
the rival unions--all Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM)
unions--which represent their workers.

     The STRM-TELMEX agreement for 1998-2000 provides for a 17
percent wage increase and 4.5 percent improvements in benefits.
Hernandez Juarez and the STRM had originally sought a 46.9
percent increase, but were unable to break the government-
employer-union imposed wage ceiling. The wage and benefit
increases are just about what other unions have won.

     The company also agrees to fill 4,000 unfilled union
positions and to give the bulk of new jobs created to the union.

     The Mexican Telephone Company published an "Information
Bulletin" in EL FINANCIERO and other Mexican newspapers
announcing the new cooperative program, "The TELMEX-STRM Alliance
for Competition and Development." The agreement provides in point
#3 "That the union and the administration share the goal that
TELMEX consolidate its efficiency, its modernization, and its
competitiveness, growth and leadership in the sector."

                         ###
     =

          RIVAL CANDIDATES AND DISSIDENT GROUPS =

             IN THE FEDERAL DISTRICT UNION
          COULD GIVE CUAUHTEMOC CARDENAS A BREAK

     Ever since he took office as Mayor of Mexico City,
Cuauhtemoc Cardenas of the Party of the Democratic Revolution
(PRD) has been under constant pressure from the Sole Union of
Workers of the Government of the Federal District (SUTGDF), a
union loyal to the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). Led
by Raul Quintana Bautista, the SUTGDF has attempted to block
Cardenas at every turn. =


     But now, it appears, Cardenas may be getting a break as
prosecutors close in on Quintana Bautista, rival union candidates
have been announced and dissent forces grow in the Federal
District workers' union.

                 Quintana Under a Cloud

     The union constitution requires that Raul Quintana step down
in elections to be held at the end of April. But in addition,
Quintana has been charged by the courts with a 50 million pesos
fraud (over 6 million U.S. dollars). Workers have also charged
Quintana of violating the union's constitution by carrying out
illegal elections in Local 12.

     Quintana and the union executive board have chosen a "unity
candidate" to succeed him, Carlos Gonzalez Merino. But for the
first time since the union was founded in 1942, the "official"
candidate will face an unofficial opponent, Carmelo Garcia
Pedrazo, the general secretary of Local 29.

               Two Candidates, Three Factions

     Throughout the last few years Raul Quintana has controlled
the union through the 39 executive board members and the 117
delegates. But now two organized groups have arisen in the union:
one called Reform 39 and the other known as the Coordinating
Committee of Workers of the Government of the Federal District. =


     Martha Perez Martinez, a leader of the Coordinating
Committee of Workers, accuses Gonzalez Merido of being the
candidate of Quintana's clique, but she also rejects Garcia
Pedrazo, calling his candidacy part of a political charade in the
union. But in any case, the existence of three rival political
camps in a union that was a PRI monolith represents a new
political life, and a break for Mayor Cardenas.

     While the SUTGDF statutes require that workers affiliate
with the PRI, the dissident groups call for the right to
affiliate with any party they choose, and many are sympathetic to
the PRD.

          END OF PART 1 OF MLNA FOR MAY 2, 1998
               BE SURE THAT YOU HAVE PART 2



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