CNTE Teachers Will Hold National Strike March 18th to 20th; Sit-in at Mexico City’s Zócalo

ByLaura Poy Solano

This article by Laura Poy Solano originally appeared in the March 16, 2026 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper.

Thousands of teachers from the National Coordinator of Education Workers (CNTE) in 20 states are preparing for a 72-hour national strike on March 18, 19, and 20, as part of their National Day of Struggle for the repeal of the 2007 law of the Institute of Security and Social Services for State Workers (ISSSTE) and the so-called USICAMM law, which regulates the teaching career, which they consider affects their working conditions, promotion, and entry into the teaching service.

In an interview with La Jornada, Pedro Hernández Morales, general secretary of the dissident teachers’ union, section 9, emphasized that unlike last year, “this time there will be a strong response in the states, where 80 percent of the base will be deployed, while 20 percent will be concentrated in the nation’s capital.”

He explained that this Wednesday, contingents from various states, mainly from Oaxaca, Chiapas, Guerrero and Mexico City, will gather at the Angel of Independence, where they will hold a press conference, and then march to the Zócalo in the capital, where they will set up a protest camp.

“Our core demands remain the same: the repeal of the 2007 ISSSTE law and the education-labor law, which negatively impacts our working conditions. Another priority is resuming dialogue with President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo and various federal government agencies. We hope to be heard and that the National Single Negotiation Commission will be received.”

He added that the teachers’ contingents “have been preparing for months; we have an action plan to carry out various acts of protest in the country, in addition to setting up state sit-ins in Oaxaca, Guerrero and Chiapas, apart from the one that will be established in the capital of the country.”

Hernández Morales explained that another agreement reached at the National Representative Assembly (ANR) is that on the afternoon of March 18, members of the CNTE will make “courtesy visits” to various embassies to express their rejection of “the genocide against the Palestinian people and the war unleashed by the United States and Israel in the Middle East.” He noted that the permanent ANR will be convened that same evening.

The dissident teachers will also seek to establish a dialogue with legislators in order to promote “a solution to repeal the 2007 ISSSTE law, since of the 3.5 million beneficiaries, only 750,000 workers are protected by transitional article 10, which means that by 2034, practically all state workers will be in individual accounts and condemned to have poverty pensions.”

Therefore, he urged unions and workers to join the protest actions to demand the repeal of the 2007 ISSSTE Law, and for the defense of a social security system that “provides us with health services and decent pensions.”