New trade union bureaucracies or rank-and-file workers’ power? Lessons of the Matamoros workers’ rebellion: Part one
Two months after workers launched wildcat strikes in the Mexican city of Matamoros, 89 “maquiladora” factories, mostly in the auto parts, electric, and metallurgical industries, have agreed to workers’ demands for a 20 percent raise and a bonus of 32,000 pesos (US$1,655)—half of the average yearly salary. The strike wave has become known across Mexico as the “20/32 movement.”
Mexico: Metalworkers, universities join strike wave as 90,000 Walmart workers threaten to walk out
Dozens of maquiladora plants that agreed to the “20-32”—a 20 percent raise and a bonus of 32,000 pesos (US$1,700)—demanded by workers in Matamoros, Mexico, are escalating their reprisals against the historic wave of strikes that began in the city on January 12. This has included thousands of firings.