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Mexican Unions Formerly Affiliated with PRI are now with MORENA
President Sheinbaum has rejected corporatism and the bussing in of supporters, yet charro unions maintain a massive presence at government events in the Mexico City’s Zócalo.
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Land of the Godínez: Work, Obedience & Dispossession in Contemporary Mexico
José Baroja’s satire is, in reality, pure sociology: the expression of an economic order & labour regime in Mexico that normalizes long hours, insufficient wages, constant evaluations, identity loss and the sacrifice of a personal life.
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Clara Brugada: Zarco Not Dismissed at Railway Workers Museum
Mexico City’s head of government announced the locomotive mechanic, trade unionist, communist and founder the Railroad Workers Museum will receive a tribute in May.
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Cananea Strike Against Tycoon Germán Larrea Ends After 18 Years on the Picket Line
Severance pay, social security, and pensions for unemployment and widowhood are guaranteed for the miners in Sonora.
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Christmas Without a Bonus for 13.7 Million Workers
Mexico’s Scrooge-like employers evade their legal obligation because most employees are informal workers.
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A Bosses’ Trap?
Mexico’s much-touted 40 hour workweek reform does not bring about a real reduction in the working day; on the contrary, it will become a more effective tool of exploitation and is an initiative designed for the benefit of employers and against the dignity of workers.
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The Needed Debate on Mexico’s Informal Economy
Millions of people in Mexico work outside the legal framework and without social protection, in activities that don’t appear in formal statistics yet sustain much of the country.
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A New “40 Hour” Workweek… With Six Days?
Mexico has an opportunity to reimagine working hours & well-being: instead, President Sheinbaum’s proposal offers a symbolic reduction that leaves intact a 6 day work week & opens the door to 12 hour days.
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A French Precedent for Mexican Workers
La France Insoumise’s popular proposal to nationalize France’s largest steelmaker can inspire Mexican workers to force the government to make strategic decisions in support of the workers’ struggle.
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President Sheinbaum Proposes Her Timeline for Mexico to Reach 40 Hour Workweek by 2030
95 years after the International Labour Organization adopted 40 hours as a standard, Mexico, whose workers work the most among OECD countries, will finally adopt it.
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Mexico Raises Minimum Wages for 2026: 13% & 5%
President Claudia Sheinbaum announced the increase, which will bring the daily wage from $278.80 to $315.04 pesos and from $419.88 to $440.87 in the northern border zone.
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Bill Proposes Six More Vacation Days for Mexican Workers
This is the ninth initiative in the current legislature seeking to expand the list of holidays for workers in Mexico, one of the countries with the fewest mandatory days of rest.
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Rapid Response Labor Mechanism to Review Freixenet de México Union Busting
Workers accuse the highly profitable Spanish wine company in Querétaro of harassment, unfair dismissals, and refusal to recognize their union rights since 2023.
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A Mexican Steel Company Died… Workers Followed
Privatization, corporate looting, neglect & a bosses’ union destroyed Altos Hornos de México, stranding its workforce without pay & prospects; since its closure more than 70 workers have died, now survivors petition the Mexican government to make good on former President AMLO’s promise of social justice.
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CNTE Will Strike, Protest in 2026 so President Sheinbaum Keeps Promise to Repeal Calderón’s ISSSTE Law
The teachers union will mobilize to ensure the Mexican President honours her 2024 campaign promise.
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Mexican Legislators Approve Protection for Public Sector Union Autonomy
“Today marks a turning point for the guarantee & progressivity of the labor rights of workers in the service of the State by safeguarding the right to free unionization and elevating union autonomy to the level of law.”
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Minimum Wage Dialogue Begins
While Mexico’s minimum wage has increased substantially in years, it has yet to reach the purchasing power it had in 1976.
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Domestic & Caregiving Work Exceeds Contribution to Mexico’s GDP of Manufacturing & Trade
INEGI estimated that the economic value of domestic and care work performed by the population aged 12 and over was approximately 8 trillion pesos.
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Sheinbaum: 40 Hour Work Debate & Vote Delayed til February 2026
Delays and increased business demands have provoked some unions, who initially agreed with the 2030 timeline, to demand an immediate implementation of the 40 hour workweek.
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Unions Want 30% Minimum Wage Increase in 2026
The raise would finally bring the purchasing power of the minimum wage up to the level it had 50 years ago in 1976, as workers have experienced decades of neoliberalism and superexploitation by foreign capital.
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“Life isn’t just about work”: Why the 40-Hour Week Can’t Wait
Mexico’s National Front for the 40-hour Workweek marks its second anniversary with nationwide mobilizations demanding an immediate reduction in working hours, in a country that works the most in the OECD.
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Unions Across Mexico are Demanding Immediate Approval of the 40 Hour Workweek
Thousands of trade unionists gathered outside Mexico’s Chamber of Deputies to deliver the message that the union movement will not allow the reform to be diluted or for the business sector to impose conditions that limit its scope.
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CNTE Sets Up Protest Outside Mexico’s Chamber of Deputies
The CNTE teachers’ union leadership pointed out that the federal government “has only offered delaying tactics; its statements are far from the reality experienced by thousands of teachers throughout the country.”
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Over 11,000 Labour Complaints Registered on Mexico’s New Platform
The most frequent complaints filed by workers in Mexico concern unpaid wages, minimum wage, Christmas bonus, working hours, partial or non-payment of profit sharing.
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Class Resistance Against Uncertainty & Resignation
It is time to prepare and organize strength in every center and community. To think about the class and not just the trade. The working class in these times has no option to emigrate.
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Mexico’s Ban on Outsourcing Revealed Massive Profit-Sharing Evasion
For years, corporations in Mexico used outsourcing to evade financial obligations to workers, pocketing tens of billions, until a 2021 outsourcing ban closed their lucrative, exploitative loophole.
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Six Structural Barriers Hinder Gender Equality in Mexican Workplaces
Equality is not a concession or a favor, it is an act of justice. As long as women’s work remains invisible, there will be no economic justice.
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November is a Key Month for Work Week Reduction Reform
90 years ago, the ILO defined the 40 hour workweek as an international standard. Mexico still has, in 2025, a 48 hour workweek, one of the longest in the world.
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Grupo México Loses Appeal to End Strike at San Martín Mine
Los Mineros obtained a new ruling in its favor so that the mine in Sombrerete, Zacatecas, can continue a strike that has already lasted 18 years.
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High School Teachers Demonstrate, Demand Salary Equalization
Outside Mexico’s National Palace, they called on the federal government to “not fall into the game of passing the buck”, for President Sheinbaum to listen & comply with their 2023 agreement or they would implement a national work stoppage.
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CNTE Teachers Thwart Right Wing Party Assembly
Teachers from Valles Centrales disrupted a political event orchestrated for a new party being formed by ex-governor of Oaxaca Ulises Ruiz Ortiz , responsible for repression against teachers in 2006 which led to 20 murders & multiple disappearances.
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Mexico Launches Deforestation-Free Avocado Export Program
The new program will also move to regularize employment conditions for agricultural workers, along them to access social security benefits.
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Wrangler Mexico & Surplus Value Extraction
Although value is produced in Mexico and Central America, it is only realized in the United States and Europe, where the final products are consumed.
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The Power of International Alliances
Mexico and other countries face powerful resistance to approve necessary reforms such as the reduction of the work week, which must be made a reality.
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Mexican Senators Propose Pay Transparency
Senators highlight that without salary transparency, it’s virtually impossible to file a claim for unfair pay, thus perpetuating the gender pay gap.
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16 Proposals for 40 Hour Workweek in Chamber of Deputies
With nothing coming from the President, proposals for a 40 hour work week continue to emerge in the Chamber of Deputies, along with calls to stop postponing the debate.
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SME Asks Supreme Court to Review Decree Disbanding Luz y Fuerza Electrical Utility
Marking the 16th anniversary of former President Felipe Calderón’s order to abolish the utility, electrical union members claim it violated their human and labour rights.
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Day of Mobilization at Supreme Court
Among the protesters will be the SME electrical workers union, demanding a review of the dissolution of the Luz y Fuerza del Centro public utility.
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Strategic Minerals & Mexico’s Future
We cannot leave everything in the hands of private investment, as it is essential to protect our national heritage, writes Napoleón Gómez Urrutia, head of the National Miners’ Union.
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Mexico City Mobilizes on 2nd Anniversary of Al-Aqsa Flood, Against Genocide of Palestinians
Thousands marched in support of Palestinian national liberation, demanding Mexico break relations with the genocidal state of israel.
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Volkswagen Puebla to Decide This Month On Possible Layoffs of Over 1,000 Workers
The German automaker is contemplating layoffs, despite receiving more than 197 million pesos in 2025 in support from the state of Puebla.
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Volkswagen Begins Push for Mass Layoffs in Puebla
The German car manufacturer has announced long weekends and staggered workdays, only weeks after a recent contract negotiation netted its union a modest 4% annual increase, leading to condemnation from the CTM union federation.
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CTM Warns 4% Increase at Volkswagen Will Impose Ceiling on All Auto Companies
Leobardo Soto Martínez says the recent agreement reached by SITIAVW with the company sets a damaging precedent for the automotive sector in both Puebla & the country
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Mexican & Canadian Labour Coordinating USMCA Approach
In September, delegates from the Frente Auténtico del Trabajo and the National Miners’ Union of Mexico traveled to Canada to meet with local unions to strengthen their ties and demand an active role in the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
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Annual Bonus Bill Stalled
Morena Deputy Napoleón Gómez Urrutia’s bill to double the annual bonus received by workers appears to be MIA for 2025, along with any reduction in the 48 hour workweek.
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Trade Union Specialist Asks Government to Modify Digital Platform Worker Reform
Of the 1.2 million gig workers added to the IMSS by the new reform, only 133,178 met the threshold required to access social insurance policies such as medical care, daycare, retirement savings & disability pensions.
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What Propels Us Into the Streets for Gaza?
An interview with José Luis Hernandez Ayala of the Mexican Union of Electricians (SME) on the Mexican trade union movement in solidarity with Palestine, its organizing and demands.
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Morena Proposes Equal Pay, Salary Transparency Law
The law takes aim at the gender pay gap, with a mandatory application for all businesses and public institutions and would limit employers from inquiring about a job applicant’s salary history.
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Golden Parnassus Cancun Workers Strike
Hotel workers cited non-payment of savings funds, withheld wages and tips, undistributed food vouchers, and the failure of the company to meet its other legal obligations as reason for the strike.
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40 Years After the 1985 Earthquake, Working Conditions for Seamstresses Remain Unchanged
During the earthquake of September 19, 1985, 600 seamstresses were trapped under the rubble. After they formed unions and cooperatives, but nothing changed: working conditions remained horrible, & dozens of seamstresses were trapped in the 2017 earthquake.
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Mexican Unions Demand Government Sever Relations with Israel over Genocide
A coalition of nearly 300 unions demand that the Mexican government sever diplomatic relations with israel, cancel the Mexico-Israel Free Trade Agreement and prohibit the purchase of israeli military & police security products and services.
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Only 1 in 10 App Workers Able to Access Social Security
The majority remain excluded from key rights such as general medical care, childcare, retirement savings, or disability pensions, despite the government citing enrollment numbers to celebrate job growth.
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Brugada Makes 13,000 Mexico City Public Workers Permanent
Mexico City’s Head of government celebrated the step as an act of labor justice: workers will now have social security, benefits, and peace of mind of formal employment.
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Immigrant Options: Deportation or Deportation
Caught up in the ICE wave of arrests, migrant farmworker organizer Lelo Juarez knew that once detained, his only options were deportation — or deportation. An interview with the Familias Unidas por la Justicia co-founder.
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State Will Rescue Steel Plant Together with Workers, Says Sheinbaum
The President promised the recovery of the the Coahuila steelworks would prioritize justice and payment for workers first, over creditors.
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“Minimum wage will increase by 12% each year,” Promises Sheinbaum
“It’s a way to distribute wealth in the country and improve the living conditions of Mexicans,” President Claudia Sheinbaum emphasized during a working visit to Zacatecas.
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Labor Secretariat Launches Labor Rights Violation Portal
SIQAL allows individuals to report potential labor rights violations or accidents that occur in the workplace.
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Morena’s Monreal Rules Out Discussing Reduction in Working Hours in Next Legislative Session
Monreal contradicted earlier statements which said the move to a 40 hour work week would start this period, implemented by region and sector.
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Less Hours, More Life
There will be attempts to stop or dilute the push for a 40 hour work week, writes PT Deputy Gonzalo Gómez Alarcón, but the most important changes in Mexico’s history have emerged when organized people push from below.
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Delivering the Goods… Or Not.
Gilberto García of the International Transport Workers’ Federation says that workers possess enormous structural power: the potential to paralyze global trade.
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When Work Becomes a Crime
An interview with Dr. Maria Quintana on how making migration a question of legality evolved and how it puts all migrant workers at risk.
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Mexican Women Work More, But in Unpaid Labour
One of Mexico’s structural problems is that women spent twice as much time on unpaid work—66.8% of their total time—compared to men, who spent 33.2%.
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CNTE Says Funding Agreed Upon with Government Hasn’t been Delivered
The teachers say bureaucratic procedures have delayed funding as well as computers and projectors for schools, which have been needed since AMLO’s term.
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Michoacan Sugarcane Farmers Demand Decent Pension; They Live on 5,000 Pesos a Month
The sugarcane workers currently receive a pension of less than 60% of Mexico’s minimum wage, which places them in poverty and violates Article 123 of the Mexican Constitution and Mexico’s social security law.
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Chair Law Not Being Enforced in Mexico City, Two Months After Passing
Some of Mexico City’s least compensated employees, such as grocery baggers – retirees who work only for tips – are being denied their right to use chairs during their shifts.
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Nissan Workers Dissatisfied with CATEM Union
Workers say they have not been given what was promised, in addition to little support for deaths, and a high charge for union dues.
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Mexico City Workfare Will Offer Monthly Support to Parents Over 30
The program will be available for residents of neighbourhoods with high incidence of crime, who will be able to access a benefit of 8,500 pesos monthly for a year.
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App Worker Union Warns of Mass Exclusion in Social Security Program
Formalizing employment is a step forward, but the income threshold incentivizes platforms to throttle workers’ hours to avoid social security contributions.
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Supreme Court to Review Which Union Rightfully Represents Workers at Camino Rojo Mine
Mexico’s highest court will examine violations against workers from the Mineros’ union, committed by the Canadian company Orla Mining, which has pressured them to join a pro-company protection union.
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Song of the Stubborn One Thousand
An interview with Peter Shapiro on the Watsonville Canning Strike of 1985-87.
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Clicks August 3
Our weekly press roundup of Mexican political stories, including SINTTIA union loses GM plant vote, tarrifs, poverty reduction, electoral reform, Nissan plant closure, education policy, and right wing opposition collaborating with US imperialism.
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Mexican Government Reviews Working Conditions in Public Media
The President ruled out any financial problems or a lack of resources to pay workers’ salaries, refering to the delay in paying salaries to staff of the public TV station Canal Once.
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Morena Disappoints: Teachers Get No Security
An interview with Eligio Valdes, General Coordinator of CNTE Michoacan.
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Subcontracted Personnel Fell 89.4% Due to Outsourcing Ban
Prior to the changes implemented during AMLO’s administration, outsourcing, which in addition to registering workers with social security with lower than actual wages also represented a form of tax evasion for companies, was a growing practice.
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Striking Teachers’ Salary Cuts Will be Reinstated in August
Deductions taken from the more than 12,000 teachers for participating in the recent national strike will be reimbursed in the second half of August.
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Protest at Labor Ministry Demands 40 Hour Work Week Immediately
Front members accused Morena of using the proposal to win votes in its 2024 campaigns and now wanting to use it again until 2030.
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Puerto Vallarta House to House Healthworkers Strike
35 workers from the Mexican government’s new preventative healthcare initiative struck after not receiving any wages for the entire month of June.
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Outsourcing Ban Improved Wages and Benefits
A study found Mexico’s ban on outsourcing increased workers wages and reduced precarity, despite ominous predictions from employers who resisted the reform.
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Marked by Violence, Promoting Peace
Migrant farmworker Maria Elena Valdivia is at the forefront of the fight against the US’ H-2A temporary visa program, a form of legalized human trafficking which provides the heavily exploited labor that creates American agribusiness profits.
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Passing It Down
An interview with Esmeralda Jazmín Alonso Guevara, coordinator of Casa Obrera del Bajío, where they organize to counter the historic attacks that capitalism has inflicted on Mexico.
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Over 14,000 Mexicans in USA Join IMSS as Independent Workers
In addition to medical, hospital, and pharmaceutical care, self-employed members receive benefits such as workers’ compensation insurance; financial support in the event of disability or death; retirement, old-age, and severance pay; as well as access to childcare and social benefits
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Canadian Trade Unionists Rally Against Orla Mining
Vancouver’s Orla Mining owns the Camino Rojo open-pit mine in Zacatecas, and has been conspiring with criminal elements to break Los Mineros union and attack its organizers.
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Court Orders Tizapa Mining to Pay 100% of Lost Wages to Striking Workers
Section 219 of Los Mineros have been on strike since April 2024, while the company has been accused of controlling and favouring a competing union FRENTE.
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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.
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STAGNANT WATERS
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.
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CETEG TEACHERS REDECORATE SNTE HQ
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.
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CUT & RUN GARMENTS
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.
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CNTE TO CONTINUE MEXICO CITY MOBILIZATION
Teachers have been occupying Mexico City’s Zócalo for over 20 days, seeking to finally end neoliberal education reforms and privatized pensions.
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IN DIALOGUE WITH TEACHERS, THE GOVERNMENT’S INTRANSIGENCE
The CNTE maintains the Mexican government is refusing to negotiate, making the same proposal over and over again to striking teachers.
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WILL MEXICAN GM WORKERS GET A FAIR UNION ELECTION?
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.
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NOT AGAINST A PARTY, AGAINST A MODEL
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.
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CNTE WILL RESPOND TO GOVERNMENT OFFER ON SATURDAY
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.
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CNTE BLOCKS ROADS IN MEXICO CITY
“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.”
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SHEINBAUM: DIALOGUE WITH CNTE IS PERMANENT
President Sheinbaum made the comments amid the striking teachers’ blockade of the National Palace prior to the morning press conference.
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STRIKING TEACHERS LIBERATE HIGHWAY TOLLBOOTHS
On the national strike’s fifth day, CNTE teachers opened toll-booths to drivers in San Marcos, Tepotzotlán, Tlalpan, Chiapas and Guerrero. They stated they are willing to engage in dialogue, but the government has not set a date.
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THE HOPEFUL WORK OF TEACHING
It is in times of uncertainty that we most urgently need education that effectively trains citizens capable of transforming their context.
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FIRST STRIKING TEACHERS ARRIVE AT ZÓCALO
The national strike is demanding the repeal of the 2007 ISSSTE Law and neoliberal ex-president Peña Nieto’s education reform.
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AN URGENT PLEA FOR SOLIDARITY
Jaime is a militant leader of the Los Mineros mineworkers’ union, who had been organizing workers at an open-pit mine owned by Orla Mining of Vancouver, BC, Canada. His life and the lives of his family are being threatened.