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P 142151Z MAY 07
FM AMEMBASSY MEXICO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 6880
RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHDC
INFO RUEHXC/ALL US CONSULATES IN MEXICO COLLECTIVE
RUEHXI/LABOR COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 MEXICO 002388 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR DRL/AWH AND ILCSR, WHA/MEX AND PPC, USDOL FOR ILAB 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ELAB ECON PGOV PINR PHUM SOCI MX
SUBJECT: INTERNATIONAL WORKERS, DAY CELEBRATIONS HIGHLIGHT 
THE DISUNITY IN MEXICO,S ORGANIZED LABOR MOVEMENT 
 
REF: (A) 06 MEXICO 6038 (B) MEXICO 1358 
 
 ¶1.  SUMMARY: In most countries May 1, (International 
Workers, Day) is viewed as a date to commemorate labor 
unity.  That said, public events proclaiming the goal of 
worker unity were not much in evidence this year in Mexico. 
Instead, the most obvious display to come out of this year,s 
May 1 celebrations was a marked demonstration of the disunity 
that exists in Mexico,s organized labor movement.  Moreover, 
for the first time in modern history, the Mexican Government 
completely and formally severed its ties to the country,s 
Labor Day celebrations.  Now, for all practical purposes, 
Mexico,s organized labor movement is divided into three 
separate factions.  The factions have similar goals (i.e. 
pension and fiscal reform, job creation, higher minimum 
wages, combating child labor, and more effective labor laws), 
but political party affiliations, personal ambitions and 
different definitions of those overall labor goal will make 
it difficult to achieve specific objectives anytime in the 
near term future.  END SUMMARY. 
 
 
WORKERS OF THE WORLD UNITE! 
--------------------------- 
 
¶2.  In Mexico, as in many other parts of the world, May 1 is 
International Workers, Day (IWD).  The date is an official 
GOM holiday when schools, government offices and most 
businesses are closed.  Traditionally Labor Day festivities 
in Mexico are marked throughout the country by parades, mass 
gathering, and speeches proclaiming the goal of worker unity. 
 The largest of the IWD celebrations always took place in 
Mexico City and often ended with a mass rally in the 
&Zocolo8, the city,s largest square.  More often than not 
Mexico,s president would be invited to attend the rally at 
the Zocolo as the guest of honor. 
 
¶3.  During most of Mexico,s modern history, when the country 
was essentially ruled by a single political party, the 
Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), May Day celebrations 
were also an occasion for party leaders and the party 
faithful to declare their solidarity with Mexico,s workers. 
Until relatively recently almost all elements of the 
organized labor movement in Mexico were closely tied to the 
PRI as the ruling government party. One of the common 
criticisms of Mexico,s organize labor at that time was that 
it frequently acted in the party,s, as opposed to the 
workers,, best interests. During these times, for better or 
for worse, there was real labor unity in Mexico in that the 
unions and the government/party supported each. 
 
 
THE TIMES, AND LABOR UNITY, MOVE ON 
----------------------------------- 
 
¶4.  The good old times of labor unity, between the government 
and organized labor, and among labor unions themselves, ended 
with Mexico,s 2000 presidential elections when the PRI was 
defeated for the first time in its history (Reftel).  Almost 
from the time of the PRI,s 2000, the Mexican government, now 
ruled by the National Action Party (PAN) began distancing 
itself from the International Workers, Day celebration 
hosted under the auspices of the country,s organized labor 
movement.  At first the government declined to attend the IWD 
celebrations but normally invited the leaders of the 
country,s largest labor unions to some highly publicized 
event, normally held at the official residence, &Los Pinos8 
(the Mexican White House). This year, Felipe Calderon, the 
president of Mexico,s second successive PAN government 
formally declined to associate himself in any way with the 
IWD events.  Los Pinos issued a public statement 
congratulating the workers for the occasion of IWD but the 
statement also indicated that President Calderon considered 
it inappropriate for the government to take a place of 
prominence on a day that belonged to the workers. 
 
¶5.  With the PRI,s fall from power, the labor movement 
elements tied to it saw a rapid acceleration of a number of 
debilitating factors (increased part-time hiring, 
outsourcing, the growth of the informal economy, job lost due 
to global competition and mass migration to the US) that had 
already begun to take a toll.  Over the past 10-15 years the 
factors negatively impacting the unions caused them to lose 
membership and resources.  This lost of members and funds 
prompted the different elements of Mexico,s organized labor 
movement to reassess their relationship with the PRI and with 
each other.  This divergence of interests was on stark 
display in this year,s International Workers,/Labor Day 
 
MEXICO 00002388  002 OF 003 
 
 
festivities on May 1. 
 
 
LABOR UNITY IS NOW A LABOR TRINITY 
---------------------------------- 
 
¶6. One of the most telling indications of the current 
weakened unity of Mexico,s organized labor movement was the 
fact that they could not even work together to organize a 
joint Labor Day celebration. This year,s main International 
Workers Day parades in Mexico City were in fact celebrated in 
three separate events.  Which union organized and attended 
which event was mostly determined by that union,s 
affiliation with a particular political party (and partially 
by the personal aspirations of the union,s national leader). 
 
¶7.  The first of these events (attended by post,s Labor 
Counselor) took place in the Zocolo under the auspices of the 
Congress of Labor (CT), an umbrella association of labor 
unions.  The CT is mostly composed of unions affiliated with 
the PRI and grouped together in the Confederation of Mexican 
Workers (CTM). The CTM was the official labor wing of the PRI 
in the times of single party rule.  It was, and remains, the 
single largest labor association in Mexico although its power 
and membership are much diminished from what they once were. 
Of all the labor organizations in Mexico the CTM maintains 
the strongest ties to the PRI.  At the same time, it has 
established a respectful, if not exactly close, relationship 
with the current ruling PAN government of President Felipe 
Calderon (Reftel B). 
 
¶8.  This close relationship notwithstanding, the current 
national president of the PRI, Beatrice Paredes, prominently 
attended this year,s Labor Day CT event.  This year,s event 
began promptly at 0800 and was done by 0930 at which point 
the PRI affiliated unions swiftly departed the square to make 
room for the next event. 
 
¶9.  Once the PRI departed the Zocolo another gathering 
organized by the co-called &independent unions8 under the 
auspices of the National Workers Union (UNT) followed almost 
immediately.  At one time all of the associate unions that 
compose the UNT were as closely tied to the PRI as the 
organizations that now make up the Congress of Labor.  Since 
the CT unions were, at one time the GOM,s official unions, 
the UNT refers to its member organizations as &independent8 
because they are not officially linked to any particular 
political party.  Unofficially they could not be more closely 
associated to what is now Mexico,s main opposition party, 
the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD).  Because of its 
close ties to the PRD, UNT members are seldom genuinely 
interested in cooperating with the PAN government of 
President Felipe Calderon.  The UNT unions are more 
combative, openly declare their leftist inclinations and tend 
to favor public as opposed to private solutions to economic 
and social problems. The UNT is strongest in the Mexico City 
area and the southern parts of Mexico.  They often use their 
strength in the Mexico City area to launch protest 
demonstrations that have a reasonable record of winning in 
concessions from the GOM and the country,s various 
legislative authorities. 
 
¶10.  The third group of unions to hold their own separate May 
Day event (a short distance away from the Zocolo) was made up 
of labor organizations that juggle their allegiance between 
all three of Mexico,s major political parties.  At one time 
the three most prominent unions at this gathering were all 
closely associated with the PRI.  Two of those unions, the 
Revolutionary Confederation of Workers and Peasants/Farmers 
(CROC) and the National Union of Miners and Metalworkers 
(SNTMMSRM), formally state that they are still affiliated 
with the PRI.  In practice these two unions often flirt with 
the PRD. The third organization, the National Teachers, 
Union (SNTE) has officially left the PRI and formed its own 
political party, the New Alliance Party (PANAL).  In practice 
the SNTE, which is reportedly the largest union in Latin 
America, more often than not works in close association with 
Mexico,s ruling PAN party.  All three of these unions 
severed or substantially diminished their ties to the PRI 
because their national leaders wanted some type of (labor, 
political or civil society) position that the party refused 
to give them or because they felt the PRI did not support 
them on some critical (but highly personal) issue. 
 
 
CAN,T WE ALL JUST GET ALONG? 
--------------------------- 
 
 
MEXICO 00002388  003 OF 003 
 
 
¶11.  In their separate International Workers, Day events, 
all three factions of Mexico,s organized labor movement 
stated variations on the same themes.  To varying degrees and 
with differing levels of emphasis all of them reportedly 
called for the following: pension reform (although each had a 
different definition of what that would mean); fiscal reform 
(in which business and corporations would pay their fair 
share of taxes); increased job creation and higher minimum 
wages (to stem the flow of people with needed talents 
emigrating to the US); combating child labor (in particular 
child prostitution); and more effective labor laws 
(especially to prevent the formation of phantom unions that 
have no real members and which represent the interests of the 
employers and not the workers). 
 
¶12.  The person who called out most stridently for labor 
unity was the national leader of the CROC, Isaias Gonzalez 
Cuevas.  Gonzalez pointedly underscored the challenges facing 
Mexico,s organized labor movement and implored all concerned 
to join together for the good for their common good and for 
the good of the average Mexican worker.  Ironically, the 
CROC,s national leader all but withdrew from the PRI and 
then distanced himself from many PRI affiliated unions when 
they and the party failed to support his bid to be come the 
president of the Congress of Labor. Last year, in a fit of 
anger over being denied this position the CROC,s leader 
actively campaigned for the PRD candidate in Mexico,s 2006 
presidential elections.  The PRD candidate lost but only just 
and the election was without a doubt one of the most 
controversial ballots in Mexico,s modern history.  At no 
time during or since the May 1 celebrations has anyone 
publicly commented on the disconnect between the CROC 
leader,s rhetoric and his actions. 
 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
¶13.  For only the second time in its modern history, a 
political party other than the PRI is governing Mexico.  This 
change in the country,s political history is occurring at a 
time when Mexico is striving to improve its democracy and 
simultaneously expand its economy while, at the same time, 
facing sharp global competition from various other developing 
nations.  Almost every institution in the country has to 
adapt to these changing times and Mexico,s organized labor 
movement is no exception.  If the goals sought by all 
factions of Mexico,s labor organized movement are negotiated 
in a spirit of compromise and thoughtfully implemented, there 
is little doubt that they will significantly the entire 
country.  The desired changes (assuming common definitions 
can be agreed) could strengthen the economy, enhance 
government finances and improve general social welfare.  In 
their May Day declarations, all three factions of Mexico,s 
organized labor movement called for unity in order to improve 
both the country an the quality of life of the Mexican 
worker.  The months ahead will determine of any the major 
unions are prepared to act on the admirable principals of 
unity they so loudly proclaimed on International Workers, 
Day. 
 
 
Visit Mexico City's Classified Web Site at 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/wha/mexicocity and the North American 
Partnership Blog at http://www.intelink.gov/communities/state/nap / 
GARZA