Teachers In the Streets
All the teachers’ demands are justified, and repeal of the ISSSTE would not just benefit all public sector workers, but all workers, says teacher Ángel Custodio Guadarrama in this interview.
All the teachers’ demands are justified, and repeal of the ISSSTE would not just benefit all public sector workers, but all workers, says teacher Ángel Custodio Guadarrama in this interview.
The Morena government is refusing to fulfill its campaign promise to repeal Calderón’s 2007 ISSSTE Law and is seeking to confine the issue of pensions, handed over to private banks under the predatory Afore model, to a weak and very provisional scheme.
Striking teachers burned photographs of controversial union leader Alfonso Cepeda Salas, head of SNTE, who was last year appointed a plurinominal Senator by the Morena government, which is negotiating with striking teachers.
Trade unionist Jeffrey Hermanson says that conditions in the maquiladoras that flooded Mexico since NAFTA have somewhat improved, but in this “new” USMCA period, multinational corporations still receive favorable treatment from the government to continue their exploitation of workers and land.
Teachers have been occupying Mexico City’s Zócalo for over 20 days, seeking to finally end neoliberal education reforms and privatized pensions.
The CNTE maintains the Mexican government is refusing to negotiate, making the same proposal over and over again to striking teachers.
San Luis Potosí workers at a GM plant are looking to organize but a rival union, allegedly being assisted by GM management, is complicating the drive.
The national strike, initiated by the CNTE but joined by other public workers, is not a mobilization of workers against a political party, but against the neoliberal model that is still unfortunately in good health.
The government’s offer to striking teachers did not include repealing the 2007 ISSSTE law, although today President Sheinbaum found time to meet billionaire Carlos Slim, who this week proposed scrapping the pension system and retirement age.
“The average real salary of a teacher is between 14 and 15 thousand pesos per month ($725-$775USD), which is totally insufficient to support a family.”