22 September, 2011After 23 months of resistance, the Mexican Electricians' union SME, that staged for over 7 months a protest camp at the central plaza in Mexico City, the "Zocalo", won it's show-down with the government of Calderon in the run-up to Mexico's Independence day, September 16, Mexico's most important national holiday.
MEXICO: On September 13 the government agreed to negotiate with the SME over outstanding grievances and to find a solution for more than 16,000 laid-off members to return to work, in exchange for the dismantlement of SME's protest camp in the Zócalo.
The government finally recognized the legitimacy of the union's elections of SME Secretary General Martin Esparza delivering the "toma de nota" to the 26 elected union leaders, "unfreezing" 21 million pesos (US$1,626,000) of the union's funds, and thereby publicly retracting on its allegations against Esparza for "illegally trying to access the union's property."
The conflict between the government and the SME began in October 2009, when the publicly owned and SME-organized Power Company Luz y Fuerza del Centro (LFC) was liquidated with its 44,000 employees and the task of delivering power to Central Mexico was handed over to the equally publicly owned power company CFE, organized by a union with a reputation for passivity and corruption. Since then, the remaining 16'500 SME union members, who rejected severance pay and continued to fight for their jobs, have demanded that the government finds a "substitute employer" as stipulated in Mexican law.
The aim of the ongoing negotiations between SME and the government is now to resolve the employment issue by November 30. The union has presented three possible solutions and is open to other proposals from the federal government. Priority demands include speeding up the judicial proceedings to release 12 detained SME members.
SME stays on its toes. On September 13, before over 50'000 protesters in the Zócalo, SME leader Martin Esparza told union members that they needed to keep up the pressure on the government: "This signed agreement is part of our struggle but we need to keep mobilised to ensure it becomes concrete; we do not trust this government, we trust in the capacity of the workers to mobilise and to win this struggle."
The government finally recognized the legitimacy of the union's elections of SME Secretary General Martin Esparza delivering the "toma de nota" to the 26 elected union leaders, "unfreezing" 21 million pesos (US$1,626,000) of the union's funds, and thereby publicly retracting on its allegations against Esparza for "illegally trying to access the union's property."
The conflict between the government and the SME began in October 2009, when the publicly owned and SME-organized Power Company Luz y Fuerza del Centro (LFC) was liquidated with its 44,000 employees and the task of delivering power to Central Mexico was handed over to the equally publicly owned power company CFE, organized by a union with a reputation for passivity and corruption. Since then, the remaining 16'500 SME union members, who rejected severance pay and continued to fight for their jobs, have demanded that the government finds a "substitute employer" as stipulated in Mexican law.
The aim of the ongoing negotiations between SME and the government is now to resolve the employment issue by November 30. The union has presented three possible solutions and is open to other proposals from the federal government. Priority demands include speeding up the judicial proceedings to release 12 detained SME members.
SME stays on its toes. On September 13, before over 50'000 protesters in the Zócalo, SME leader Martin Esparza told union members that they needed to keep up the pressure on the government: "This signed agreement is part of our struggle but we need to keep mobilised to ensure it becomes concrete; we do not trust this government, we trust in the capacity of the workers to mobilise and to win this struggle."