CNTE Defines its Political Course for Repeal of 2007 ISSSTE Law

This article by Laura Poy Solano originally appeared in the May 17, 2026 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper.

The National Coordinator of Education Workers (CNTE) faces one of the “most important decisions in recent years, given the refusal of the current federal government, headed by President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, to listen to the demands of teachers and repeal the 2007 ISSSTE Law, and the entirety of the Peña Nieto education reform,” acknowledged leaders of the Coordinator.

In an interview with La Jornada, prior to the installation of the work of their National Representative Assembly (ANR), the general secretaries of section 7 of Chiapas, Isael González Vázquez, and of section 9 of Mexico City, Pedro Hernández Morales, acknowledged that “we are beginning a central debate, not only to define the date of the outbreak of the national strike, but also the political and tactical direction of the movement in the face of the evidence that we not only face the refusal of an administration, but also the interests of national and foreign capital that see our pensions only as a lucrative business for their pockets.”

At the session, to which representatives from all teachers’ unions across the country were summoned, we will take stock, Hernández Morales indicated, of the previous actions, including the 24, 48, and 72-hour strikes. “What we have observed is a willingness among our colleagues, and not just members of the CNTE (National Coordinator of Education Workers). We see a growing discontent among farmers, transport workers, mothers searching for their missing children, students, and young teachers who are realizing that if we don’t fight now to change this 2007 ISSSTE (Institute for Social Security and Services for State Workers) Law that condemns us to a precarious old age, there will be no future.” He pointed out that the national strike “is not an end in itself, but a means to achieve the right of every worker to spend their final years, after a lifetime of service, without suffering poverty.”

We will define the best time for this action, the union leaders explained, but also the strategy in the face of a scenario that we consider very different from that of other years, and in which “we see that President Sheinbaum is increasingly engaging with the owners of big capital, such as BlackRock, the world’s largest investment and asset management company, which manages workers’ pension funds and with whose CEO, Larry Fink, she held a meeting.”

They acknowledged their concern that the fight for decent pensions “is no longer just a national struggle; we are in a battle against financial forces that refuse to be challenged. We know a major fight is coming, and we will have to build bridges with many organizations affected by pensions.”

González Vázquez emphasized that within the CNTE, “it must be clear that the enemy is not here, but outside, with the owners of capital, and that as teachers and union leaders we must also remember the long road we have traveled in these 46 years of struggle to build a more just and democratic society.” At the time of publication, the ANR’s work was still underway, and it is expected that the teachers’ resolutions will be announced at a pressconference today.