Thousands of Mexican Workers Protest Proposed Labor Law Reforms World Socialist Web Site
go to original September 25, 2012

The Zócalo, Mexico City’s historic central plaza, was the scene of a protest last week by thousands of workers who marched and rallied against a set of labor law reforms proposed by outgoing president Felipe Calderón. The proposal is subject to approval by the Chamber of Deputies (lower house of Congress) Labor and Social Security Commission on September 27.

Calling the reforms “Felipe Calderón’s infamous proposal” that would subject Mexican workers to “vile exploitation,” the protesters urged that the changes to the Federal Labor Law should be rejected.

The mobilization was attended by members of the Regional Confederation of Mexican Workers (CROM) and other unions, representatives of peasant organizations and delegates from the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), the Workers Party (PT) and the Citizens Movement. Contingents of the National Regeneration Movement (Morena) and the Yo Soy 132 student movement were also present.

The official rationale for the proposed reforms is to make the Mexican economy more competitive and attractive to foreign investors. They would increase the use of contract labor, facilitate firings, accelerate the pace of privatization and relax labor laws in line with similar pro-business measures taken in other Latin American countries in recent years.

Additionally, Reuters notes, “The bill aims, among other things, to make public the accounts of trade unions, which have long been viewed as corrupt and prone to self-enrichment.”

The union bureaucracies have traditionally been aligned with the Institutional Revolution Party (PRI), the party of Enrique Peña Nieto, who will succeed the National Action Party’s Calderón on December 1. Peña Nieto has come out in support of the reforms, and commentators predict that his incoming administration will be a “litmus test” of the PRI in terms of both its image and its relationship to the union bureaucracies.

A smaller mobilization took place in Yucatán, where members of the National Workers Union (UNT) protested in front of the State Congress.

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