Mexico
Content about workers' struggles and events in Mexico.
Mexico: 250 Corona bottle makers fired for forming an independent union
More than 250 employees of a factory that manufactures beer bottles for Corona (amongst others) in San Luis Potosí have been fired for associating with a legally recognised independent union. The factory's owners are also purging the factory of sympathisers of the sacked workers.
Almost two years of unionising activity had resulted in workers ousting the corrupt, mainstream Confederación Revolucionaria de Obreros y Campesinos (CROC) union from the shopfloor of the Industrial Vidriera Potosí (IVP) glass factory and replacing it with the independent Sindicato Único de Trabajadores de la Empresa IVP (SUTEIVP).
Mexico City metro workers in work stoppages
Workers in the Sistema de Transporte Colectivo (STC) in Mexico City - the underground train service - have announced a series of 10 and 15 minute service stoppages in response to government stalling on a list of demands submitted way back in November.
The stoppages will start next Wednesday (12th), with the majority of the 12,000 employees of the service expected to observe it.
Mexico: violence at university workers strike in Mexico City
A tense strike and occupation at the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana (UAM) in the southeast of Mexico City today enters its 31st day despite the picket line being attacked by hostile students.
Students have also interrupted negotiations between union leaders and the university authorities.
Investigative journalists face harassment in Mexico
Juan Trujillo Limones (a La Jornada and Ojarasca contributor) and Raúl Romero Gallardo, reporters for the Narco News electronic bulletin, have been subjected to spying and unlawful entry into their Mexico City apartment.
The journalists, who have been heavily involved in covering the activities of regional independent indigenous movements, saw two break-ins to their homes at the end of last month and the beginning of February.
Mexico: A Victory for Miners in Cananea
A victory for striking miners in Cananea as a judicial panel ruled their six month strike legal. This reversed an earlier ruling in January which had led to brutal attacks by the police.
On February 14 the Mexican Consejo de la Judicatura Federal reversed an earlier ruling, declaring that the six-plus month strike of unionized workers in Cananea, Sonora may continue.
The panel had previously ruled on January 11, 2008 that the strike was illegal, due to a technicality. This ruling lead to a brutal attack by Mexican federal police later that same day.
Mexico: Oaxacan teachers occupy secondary school
Schoolteachers affiliated to the Sección 22 branch of the education union SNTE (Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores en Educación) - the main protagonists behind the Oaxaca revolt of 2006 - have occupied a secondary school in eastern Oaxaca under the control of the Sección 59 scab union branch.
The occupation started as of yesterday (15 February) and is a preliminary attempt to reclaim all the schools organised by the 5,000-strong Sección 59, created by the PRI (Partido Revolucionario Institucional) Oaxacan state government and the SNTE leadership in Mexico City in an attempt to defeat the strikers in Sección 22 and thereby the 2006 uprising.
Mexico: miners strikes in Sonora and Guerrero
A long-running miners' strike in Cananea, Sonora continues despite strikers being repressed by police and military and a judge declaring it illegal. In Taxco, Guerrero however, the bosses respond to striking miners by closing down the site permanently.
The 1100 workers in Cananea have been out since 31 July, demanding improved hygiene and security, and show no signs of abating, despite the picket line being attacked by a combined force of 800 police (including the hated Policía federativa preventativa [PFP] who crushed the Oaxaca revolt in 2006) and milita
Mexico: Maquiladora factory closed after workers change union
The Vaqueros Navarra factory in Tehuacán, Puebla will never make another pair of jeans again following the victory of the leftist Frente Auténtico de Trabajo (FAT) over the corrupt unions in workplace elections.
Employees became suspicious when upon returning from a Christmas break (which management had extended to 21 January without offering extra pay), they were locked out, told that the factory's doors had not been ordered open. Two days later, the workforce - comprising of at least 450, the majority of whom are indigenous women - learnt of their universal redundancies.
Mexico: Garment workers vote in the independent union, but still face uncertain future
![The FAT-affiliated [i]19 de Septiembre[/i] union won the workers' vote](http://libcom.org./files/imagecache/teaser/images/news/gruponavarra2.jpg "The FAT-affiliated [i]19 de Septiembre[/i] union won the workers' vote")
Workers vote for representation by the leftist FAT (Frente Auténtico de Trabajo) union in the Grupo Navarra garment factory in Tehuacán, Puebla, Mexico, but doubts remain over the effectiveness of the organisation and the status of 45 fired workers.
The elections follow a long campaign of letter-writing and lobbying by various international anti-globalisation non-governmental organisations in conjunction with the FAT.
Mexico: Arrests in Cuidad de Oaxaca at Día de Muertos commemoration
Up to 40 arrests were made when police attacked a traditional ceremony in memory of the lives lost in the state's popular struggle against the local authorities.
Around 50 people had gathered at the Cinco Señores intersection with Avenida Universidad from 6am onwards on November 2 to begin preparations for the day's event. The commemoration was one year to the day after the Oaxacan movement's victorious battle with police attempting to retake the city's Universidad Autónoma de Benito Juárez.
