CNTE Marches in Chiapas to ‘Keep Up the Pressure’ for Repeal of Education Reform and ISSSTE Law

ByElio Henríquez

This article by Elio Henríquez originally appeared in the June 15, 2026 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper.

San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chis. Thousands of teachers from Section 7 of the National Union of Education Workers (SNTE), which belongs to the National Coordinator of Education Workers (CNTE), marched this Monday in Tuxtla Gutiérrez to demand the repeal of the education reform and the Law of the Institute of Social Security and Services for State Workers (ISSSTE).

Sebastián Méndez Jiménez, a member of the political leadership, said that the mobilization also has the goal of “continuing to apply pressure” so that President Claudia Sheinbaum sits down at the table with the Single National Negotiating Commission (CNUN).

In a press conference before the demonstration began, which went from the eastern part of the state capital to the central park, he also added that “the march taking place today is to continue strengthening the national struggle. We compañeros from Chiapas are in the national sit-in and the activity is for its strengthening.”

He called “on the compañeros to keep mobilizing and to keep strengthening the struggle, and in that framework we insist that the dialogue table headed by the CNUN be presided over by the president, so that a solution can be sought and a sure way out can be given to the workers.”

Méndez Jiménez reiterated that in Section 7 “we are going to continue generating the conditions to continue sustaining the struggle, the strike, and the national and state sit-in” that the teachers have been maintaining since June 1.

Since the start of the struggle, he said, “two concrete proposals have been raised. On June 2 they presented us a proposal on the education reform. In its analysis, the state representative assembly of Section 7 declared that the responses are insufficient, since our proposal is to eliminate from the Constitution the labor issue, embedded in Article Three, paragraphs 6 and 7. That labor administration pass completely to Article 123. That is the CNTE’s demand.”

He noted that regarding “the second response, on the repeal of the 2007 ISSSTE law, it was also resolved that it is insufficient because what is proposed is the strengthening of a public institution administering the issue of individual accounts. Our proposal is the restoration of solidarity-based and intergenerational retirement, that is, the elimination of individual accounts so that the IMSS scheme is set up as a guarantee mechanism for workers who, after serving in education, can retire with dignity.”