CNTE Will Strike, Protest in 2026 so President Sheinbaum Keeps Promise to Repeal Calderón’s ISSSTE Law

ByMexico Solidarity

This article originally appeared in the November 25, 2025 edition of Sin Embargo.

Mexico City. The National Coordinator of Education Workers (CNTE) assured on Monday that it will demonstrate “at all events where President Claudia Sheinbaum is present , in order to demand compliance with its demands.

At a press conference, Yenny Pérez, leader of Section 22 of Oaxaca, said that the mobilizations of last weekend will be replicated during the start of the Plan Lázaro Cárdenas program, headed by Sheinbaum Pardo, in the municipality of San Pedro y San Pablo Teposcolula, in the Mixteca region.

Yenny Pérez, CNTE Section 22 leader

“We will continue to demonstrate as agreed by the National Representative Assembly in every space where the president appears to demand a solution to our central demands, and we are not just four, we are thousands of teachers who are taking to the streets to fight at the national level,” she declared.

It is worth remembering that the CNTE continues its protests primarily against the repeal of the 2007 ISSSTE Law implemented during Felipe Calderón’s six-year term, which entails the following:

  • The amount of the teacher’s pension will depend on the balance accumulated in their AFORE account [privatized pension account, modeled on fascist Chilean dictator Pinochet’s reforms – editor] and this will be updated annually according to inflation.
  • By purchasing a lifetime annuity, the teacher is guaranteed a predetermined pension payment for life.
  • The teacher must purchase a Survivor’s Insurance policy that will allow his beneficiaries to receive a pension upon the death of the pensioner.

In this regard, the union leader accused the National Palace of trying to downplay the teachers’ movement and project an image that everything is resolved, since in addition to the above, the CNTE demands that a larger budget be allocated to education, health and social security for teachers; that the central table between the National Single Negotiation Commission (CNUN) be reinstated; as well as the repeal of the Education Reform promoted by the Government of Enrique Peña Nieto in 2013.

For his part, the secretary of Section 9 in Mexico City, Pedro Hernández, announced that the teachers’ union will carry out a 72-hour work stoppage that could take place in February 2026, following a planned demonstration in January of the same year.

President Claudia Sheinbaum had promised to repeal the 2007 ISSSTE Law during her campaign for President in 2024.

“We agreed that we are in a stage of growth in the struggle, that we will have an intense brigade starting in January and that the 72-hour strike will take place after this brigade,” he said.

“All CNTE representatives will be present in Mexico City as part of the 72-hour strike, and the fundamental demand, which is the repeal of the ISSSTE Law, educational reform, and demands specific to each section, is what is determining that this struggle continues,” added the CNTE representative.