Mexico's "New Labor Culture": An Interview With Union Leader Benedicto Martínez
Rosen, Fred
dAnieL rodríguez SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2008 Mexico’s “New Labor Culture”: An Interview With Union Leader Benedicto Martínez report: mexico ii NACLA’s senior analyst. by Fred...
...For example, the Lozano re- larly the National Teachers Union, to cut the power of forms would mandate that workers go through a series independent unions and workers in general...
...They say to workers in the United States, for example, if you don’t accept the conditions we are offering you, we will simply move to another country...
...This phenomenon has correctly been called a political safety valve...
...When it was out of power, the PAN used to be critipractices of the Labor Boards [the local committees that cal of the corporate unionism of the PRI...
...that role...
...There are many pressures to cut costs, and the new alliances with the old corrupt and undemocratic easiest costs to reduce are the wages and salaries of the corporate unions...
...Today many things are happening that the Abascal munity, it’s the only way to maintain levels of competireforms didn’t contemplate, but are becoming regular tion...
...And the com- social legislation...
...Does the UNT see itself playing a broader political role...
...And [to which many workers’ wages are tied] rose by 3.9...
...cal, finally turned out to be a setback for the working According to the government and the business comclass...
...corporate union to “protect” it from the organization of On the other hand, the government has not given priority to the well-being of wage earners...
...report: mexico ii ers’ rights to the global labor market...
...There has also been a generalized of working people...
...The union lead- with the progressive organizations of civil society for a ership allows the company to make decisions as long as the struggle in defense of the energy sector and progressive leadership gets a share of company revenues...
...This is a problem...
...of hard-to-comply-with requirements before they could call a strike against a company that refused to sign a col- Under the old corporate system, workers were gen39 NACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS Does the UNT represent significant sectors of the labor the labor movement as well...
...Although the proposed Lozano Law has not to be saying that’s no longer the case...
...It’s a question of they are also establishing shifts that are convethe global labor market, which has brought nient for the company...
...That’s what we have here as well...
...The unions that have historically been porate unionism persists in Mexico, and the FAT incorporated in the PRI have been called finds itself playing the same role it played almost upon to keep wages under control, and in the five decades ago...
...We president, his labor secretary, Carlos Abascal, tried to try to keep them informed about issues like labor law repromote what he called a “new labor culture,” which form, but they are mainly worried about concrete things would make labor more “flexible,” cut back on social like the disappearance of good jobs, growing insecurity protections, and in general make labor relations more on their own jobs, and the dramatic rise in the cost of 38 SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2008 Does Mexico need better labor laws, or is the problem that existing laws are being violated...
...His union, a corporate union, is about to hold an in more local sections and national unions, not enough to assembly in which they will announce that they have agreed change the world of labor here in Mexico, but yes, we are to remove all the benefits that the collective contract now making progress...
...being in Mexico...
...Many export-based companies are reducing pro- lective contract...
...attack on collective contracts...
...Many corporate unions have no to unionize even further...
...days, that used to be standard...
...They are also bringing for help...
...contracts” in which the company makes a deal with a the pAn has closed ranks with some of the most corrupt corporate unions of the prI, particularly the national teachers Union...
...The companies, in their desire that sense, working people’s welfare is only a discourse, to compete, have sacrificed many benefits, like paid sick not a reality...
...At the beginning of the decade, when Vicente Fox was Workers don’t have time to listen to this discourse...
...dAnieL rodríguez SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2008 Mexico’s “New Labor Culture”: An Interview With Union Leader Benedicto Martínez report: mexico ii NACLA’s senior analyst...
...There are independent unions and been demonstrating, educating workers, and defending there are corporate unions, many of which have pledged them from this law, which would circumscribe the right their loyalty to the PAN...
...Today it’s clear, for groups to look for help, but in many cases they simply example, that we can’t fight against Monsanto on the end up switching from one corporate union to another...
...Under those conditions, the firm decides lots, and flight attendants—basically the unions that founded everything...
...been put up for a vote, there is a fear that in the next session of the legislature it will be presented...
...pany decides according to its own needs...
...In this context, how would you democratize and fight for the independence of describe the current state of workers’ wellthe country’s trade union structure...
...would also allow for virtually indefinite series of temporary, probationary, and training work contracts, all This “climate of insecurity and fear” must be driving of which would leave workers in a totally unprotected the explosive growth of migration...
...I also think the alliances from beare many abuses here...
...rights they have already won...
...The Lozano law insecurity and fear...
...In ment have been temporary...
...Half the labor force is now working in one country to another...
...Among other things, workers calling duction, and in the auto industry, for example, there for a collective contract would have to publicly identify have been some plant shutdowns and layoffs...
...So there is a serious problem...
...workers, nothing more, not to discuss, just to inform them that the collective contract has been modified...
...We still report: mexico ii erally better off if they belonged to a union, no mat- worse than the earlier version of labor legislation proposed ter how corrupt that union happened to be...
...Rural strong, but the employers are moving ahead with their areas are being abandoned because government help and designs for labor flexibility, and in that sense, while the resources no longer exist, so the younger generations are law hasn’t been reformed, daily practice is incorporatno longer interested in remaining in the countryside...
...In cases like The struggle of the FAT, since its founding, has been to these, the workers have no way to defend themselves from democratize the Mexican workplace and to democratize these abuses...
...But as you suggest, of this, in fact, goes against the letter of the law, but it not only campesinos are migrating to the Unit- is being implemented in the spirit of the law ed States...
...ponents of both PRI and PAN economic polAlthough the PRI is currently out of power, cor- icy...
...question of grains without international allies...
...work contracts more informal, and employment Martínez spoke to Rosen by phone from the FAT more precarious...
...Much They can no longer live with dignity...
...We in the independent union movement are on the defensive, trying to avoid situations in which workers lose movement...
...Now that Now Calderón’s secretary of labor, Javier Lozano, has they are in power, they have closed ranks with some of proposed further anti-labor reforms that would make it the most corrupt corporate unions of the PRI, particueven harder to organize...
...So there from the grass roots...
...They come to us or to other be links at the international level...
...They have left it a legitimate union...
...You seem by Abascal...
...I think tion is hard, there are groups of workers that decide to that’s the only alternative we really have...
...We can help them organize themselves, but that is the parties...
...Nonetheless, although the situa- low have to stretch across national boundaries...
...When workers get together and together of social organizations...
...This economic policy that’s and firings...
...On top of themselves beforehand, leading to the easy formation this, the PAN government is trying to make it harder for of a “blacklist” of pro-union workers who could be workers to defend their rights...
...While his anti-labor reforms never beherence to labor laws, and a greater control of the work came law, they must have had an effect on the mood process by employers...
...Article 123 of the Mexican Conthe informal sector, without benefits or protections...
...So far, with all But I don’t have very much confidence in the political a situation now where these big companies blackmail workers in various countries...
...So the UNT has There’s a distinction here...
...And with in which workers have lost parts of their benNAFTA and the opening of the economy, efits and part of their wages...
...has, and the workers will be left with nothing more than their wages...
...It has also permitted the evasion of to the good will of the employers, who can basically do constitutional labor responsibilities through subconwhatever they want...
...It has promoted old-style “protection workers...
...In addition, It’s a combination of things...
...Little by little, employers —big ones as well as small ones—have been reducing And what do workers think about this contradiction benefits to cut costs...
...More stitution establishes a series of conditions of welfare for than half the new jobs created by the Calderón govern- the working class, but it is not being complied with...
...Martínez spoke about the current state of labor in Mexico and about the attempts of the Well, over the long period you mention, there Fred Rosen is current ruling party, the National Action Party has been a worsening of working people’s con(PAN), to implement legislation that would ditions accompanied by the ceding of work37 MArio vázquez de LA torre / Mvt / LAtinPHoto.org NACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS electrical workers install power lines in toluca...
...They are not particularly the defense of a broader alliance with the campesinos and concerned with the welfare of the workers...
...In practice there are “training contracts” that simply state that you are working in a company that is offering you some on-the-job training and therefore paying you less...
...offices in Mexico City...
...many companies have not been prepared for What’s worse is that the government is coma competition of the order of magnitude that’s now go- bining the new discourse about individual rights with ing on...
...People from the cities are also migrat- that follows from the reform of the “new labor ing because the problem of jobs and wages is culture...
...I think the challenge will come from a coming serious problem we have...
...What does that mean in practice...
...report: mexico ii living...
...The labor reform that began to take tracting and outsourcing many jobs...
...All this has made shape during the Fox administration, named after Abas- employment more precarious...
...That’s even worse than a normal cor- workers, social security workers, university employees, piporate contract...
...The assembly has been called to inform the Has the electoral situation been discouraging to you...
...today more than ever, unemployment haunts the dreams But at the same time, the cost of a basic basket of goods of workers as the global labor market moves jobs from just about doubled...
...between discourse and reality...
...How can the FAT and the UNT help workers in that its internal discord, the PRD has been unable to play kind of situation...
...Citizens have to prestry to organize, the company responds with repression sure for change from below...
...We have The problem is the lack of knowledge that would be useful and helpful in really changing their work situation...
...For example, just recently a worker came to us the confederation about 10 years ago...
...There has been a compatible with the administration’s neoliberal ecoconcerted attack on independent unions, a retreat in ad- nomic model...
...The FAT was founded in 1960 to provide Since the 1980s, keeping wage inflation low workers with a democratic and independent al- and making the country an attractive lowternative to Mexico’s “corporate unions”—that cost production site for export-oriented is, unions that were incorporated into the then transnational companies have been key comruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI...
...work situation...
...Last year, the first People live defensively, trying to figure out how to earn year of Felipe Calderón’s government, the minimum wage enough to live on, how to complement their wages...
...A strong party on the left would be very helpful to this struggle...
...ing many measures to make labor more flexible...
...In 1998, the group became part process, they seem to have cemented their of the larger, more powerful UNT, which has at- reputation as institutions whose first loyalty tempted to form an autonomous movement to is to their political party rather than to their promote workers’ rights and interests, and to members...
...by Fred rosen eration, the Authentic Workers Front (FAT) and union organizing and collective bargaining and, IMexico’s militant, independent labor fed- that would weaken workers’ ability to engage “cultur cultur labor “new a have of leader longtime Martínez, Benedicto n july, nacla’s fred a rosen interviewed bring called about what some members e”—a of the PAN in e” vice president of the broader independent labor in general, make labor relations more “flexible,” alliance, the National Workers Union (UNT...
...So given the difficult situation workers are being carried out to benefit just a few has to be changed living through, there’s a fear of losing their jobs...
...There are also contracts a new dynamic to the companies...
...And things are not getting better...
...Many workers are working under “protection contracts,” in which not even they know The strongest unions are those that represent telephone that they have a union...
...The opposition to the Lozano reforms has been Yes, but there is another factor behind migration...
...And the UNT has also come to real presence in the workplace...
...They used to administer Mexico’s labor laws...
...argue for a democratization of labor relations...
...There have to organize and look for help...
...Now more than ever the UNT expresses the demands of have a long way to go, establishing common demands the workers and the independent unions, and is in the about wages, social security, and minimum standards in forefront of opposition to the Lozano Law, which is even all countries...
...very serious...
...This creates a climate of fired before any union was in place...
...40...
Vol. 41 • September 2008 • No. 5
