Chapingo University Workers Demand Mexico’s Agricultural Secretariat Intervene to Guarantee Wages

ByJared Laureles and Alexia Villaseñor

This article by Jared Laureles and Alexia Villaseñor originally appeared in the March 4, 2026 of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper.

Mexico City. Members of the Chapingo Autonomous University Workers’ Union (STUACH) are protesting outside the Secretariat of Agriculture and Rural Development (SADER) in Mexico City, demanding its intervention to address their demands for improved working conditions.

Jorge Ibarra Sánchez, general secretary of the administrative workers’ union, pointed out that one of their main demands is that the university authorities regularize five salary levels in their pay scale, since they are currently below the general minimum wage.

This situation causes “a discrepancy”, because while this year the minimum wage increased by 315 pesos per day, at the Autonomous University of Chapingo (UACh) a custodian earns 254 pesos per day, he indicated.

In an interview with La Jornada, the union leader asked SADER (Secretariat of Agriculture and Rural Development) to provide budgetary support for the university institution, in order to guarantee the full payment of the year-end bonus for 2025, which is intended to compensate for the loss of purchasing power and December expenses.

Octavio Altamirano, Secretary of Organization of STUACH, accused the Rectorate of the UACh – which has its headquarters in Texcoco, State of Mexico – of claiming that there are no resources and only intends to grant them 10 million pesos, which Altamirano rejected since the institution did not have a budget cut and must give them the 28 million pesos as happened every year for 1,900 unionized workers.

“The university authorities argue that they don’t have the budget to grant us this measure; we believe that as long as there are no budget cuts, this isn’t a valid argument. They only want to give us 10 million pesos, and this was authorized by the Treasury.”

In front of the SADER building, where some 20 trucks carrying unionized administrative staff had arrived, the leader of STUACH proposed that the agency intervene to prevent the strike scheduled for March 20.

“They tell us that the end-of-year bonus will not be granted until there is a University Council meeting and the budget is checked, but we are getting bogged down,” he stressed.

Also, as part of the contract review, the workers are requesting the application and implementation of the 2 percent increase in benefits; this includes the institution defining and providing “certainty” on which items of the collective agreement the increase will impact.

A commission from STUACH and university authorities entered Sader, where a negotiation table will be set up shortly.