|
Teacher to teacher solidarity Six Mexican teachers fired from their positions for trying to form an independent, democratic union met with over 2000 union teachers gathered in New York City for the New York State United Teachers Representative Assembly, April 7-9, 2005. Click "Solidarity in the language of struggle" for a photo and article about their visit from the RA Reporter, Thursday, April 7. As part of its mission of cross-border solidarity, the International Project of New York State Labor-Religion Coalition coordinated the delegation of Mexican teachers. They are among 20 educators fired for attempting to organize the union named SITESABES in the state of Guanajuato in central Mexico. The International Project coordinated a visit by a group of New York teachers to the state of Guanajuato from January 13-17, 2005. For more information about the Mexican teachers and their union, scroll down. Also of interest is, "A tree grows in Mexico: Delegation promotes cross-border exchange" from New York Teacher, March 3, 2005. Interested in supporting the fired teachers? Please click here for a sample letter to print, personalize and mail. WHO ARE THE VISITING TEACHERS? There are six teachers/organizers from SITESABES visiting with NYSUT teachers from April 5-15, 2005. All have been fired from their teaching positions because of their union activities. Their names are: Raul Cisneros Porras WHAT IS SITESABES?
While he was governor of the State of Guanajuato, Vicente Fox (who is now President
of Mexico) created "The Advanced System for High School and Superior Education."
The acronym in Spanish is SABES. The objective of SABES is to provide education
at the high school and college levels in rural areas outside of cities in the
state of Guanajuato for the purpose of reducing the educational decline and reducing
migration, especially to the US. SITESABES is the Independent Union of Workers
and Employees of SABES. SABES began in 1996 with "Video High Schools" known by its acronym in Spanish, VIBA. In 1999, SABES began to work with ten groups through Interactive University and At a Distance from the State of Guanajuato, known by its Spanish acronym UNIDEG. SABES serves approximately 30,000 students in the state of Guanajuato, of whom approximately 3,000 participate in UNIDEG and 27,000 in VIBA. WHAT WAS THE PROBLEM AT SABES? The method of hiring was characterized under the system of labor relations as "civil" with the purpose of evading responsibilities: the payment of benefits, respect for seniority, job security, payment of the employer's contribution for Mexico's national health care and housing programs. In other words, the intention was to evade the requirements of the Federal Labor Law. (Note: Mexican Federal Labor Law is quite protective of the rights of workers and is under assault in the Mexican Congress and by President Fox. Also, Fox and his political party, the PAN, have vigorously promoted privatization of public utilities and services. It's instructive to observe that SABES foreshadowed these policies during Fox's term as governor in Guanajuato.) In response to this kind of treatment, the teachers of SABES decided to form an independent, democratically run union. This is often very hard to do in Mexico because the traditional union system is closely linked with the government and has worked as a grass-roots arm of the ruling party. The teachers called their new union SITESABES, the Independent Union of Workers and Employees of SABES. In
response to the formation of an independent union, SABES formed a "sindicato
blanco," or company union which was registered with the authorities and signed
a "protection contract" (the sort of contract which is signed behind
the backs of workers with the objective of avoiding a real union, and in this
way maintaining control over the terms in the collective bargaining agreement)."
www.ueinternational.org
will give you information about the work of the FAT (an independent labor
federation with headquarters in Mexico City) and the UE (United Electrical, Radio
and Machine Workers of America) in their Cross-Border Solidarity program. It's
fabulous. www.ips-dc.org (the Institute for Policy Studies site) contains much background on trade issues and the concerns about NAFTA on both sides of the Border. I also like the link there to Foreign Policy in Focus. www.americas.org (the Resource Center of the Americas site) is a great compilation of information from around the Americas and has good info on trade issues. And, please check out www.labor-religion.org if you don't already know about the International Project and our Border Witness delegation program. FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT
THE LABOR-RELIGION COALITION AND DELEGATIONS TO MEXICO Last Updated: 04/29/2005 |