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R 271529Z NOV 07
FM AMEMBASSY MEXICO
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INFO RUEHXC/ALL US CONSULATES IN MEXICO COLLECTIVE
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RHMFIUU/CDR USSOUTHCOM MIAMI FL
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UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 MEXICO 005936 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR DRL/AWH AND ILSCR AND WHA/MEX, USDOL AND ILAB 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ELAB ECON PGOV PINR PHUM MX
SUBJECT: UNIONS AND JALISCO STATE GOVERNMENT SIGN AGREEMENT 
TO IMPROVE LABOR ENVIRONMENT 
 
 
¶1.  SUMMARY: In late October the local offices of several 
national labor confederations and the government of the 
western Mexican state of Jalisco signed an agreement aimed at 
improving the state,s overall labor environment.  The 
agreement called for the unions and the state government to 
work together to reduce the number of threatened strikes. 
Mexico,s constitution guarantees freedom of association and 
the right to strike.  However, in order to exercise the right 
to strike Federal Labor Law establishes various 
administrative requirements, the two most important being (1) 
only legally established unions can call for a strike and (2) 
before a strike can be considered legal a union must receive 
approval of a strike notice from the appropriate labor 
authorities.  The agreement between the unions and state 
authorities is Jalisco is a well-intentioned effort to deal 
with a situation in which the threat of a strike is 
increasingly used, often by bogus unions, to extort money 
from businesses.  Still, it is doubtful that this state level 
agreement will produce significant concrete results.  The 
roots of this dilemma stems from abuses of Federal Labor Law 
and ultimately it will require changes at the federal level 
to address the problem of fake or threatened strikes.  END 
SUMMARY. 
 
 
STATE LEVEL GOVERNMENT AND UNIONS TAKE ON NATIONAL PROBLEM 
--------------------------------------------- ------------- 
 
¶2.  On October 31, the government of the western Mexican 
state of Jalisco and the local offices of several national 
labor confederations signed an accord aimed at improving the 
state,s overall labor climate.  The accord, called &The 
Agreement for Labor Stability8, is an attempt to reduce the 
number of threatened strikes, often called by bogus or 
unscrupulous unions for reasons that have nothing to do with 
defending worker rights.  According to statements by both 
state government and union officials, Jalisco is facing a 
situation in which the threat of a strike, as opposed to an 
actual strike, is harming the business climate and 
discouraging foreign investment.  Spokesmen for the state,s 
private sector claim that the threat of a strike is 
increasingly being used by labor unions to extort money from 
businesses that often willingly pay up in order to avoid any 
labor conflicts or disputes that might disrupt their 
operations. 
 
¶3.  The agreement was signed on the state government,s side 
by Jalisco,s governor Emilio Gonzalez Marques and its 
Secretary of Labor, Ernesto Espinosa Guarro.  The union 
 
SIPDIS 
representatives who signed the agreement included the state 
Secretaries General of three national labor confederations. 
 
SIPDIS 
Representing Mexico,s largest national labor federation, the 
CTM (Confederation of Mexican Workers), was Rafael Yerena 
Zambrano. The next most important labor leader to sign was 
Antonio Alvarez Esparza of the CROC (Revolutionary 
Confederation of Workers and Peasants), Mexico,s third 
largest national labor federation. (Comment: The CROC is a 
divided union in Jalisco and Alvarez represents the smaller 
and weaker portion of the union.) Finally, there was 
Crescensio Farias of the COR (Revolutionary Workers 
Confederation), one of Mexico,s smallest national level 
labor organizations.  Both the Jalisco government and the 
union officials pledged to take action to reduce the number 
of strikes or threatened strikes in the state but this 
phenomenon is very much a national problems that may be 
resistant to state level action. 
 
 
THE ROOTS OF THE PROBLEM 
------------------------ 
 
¶4.  Mexico,s constitution guarantees freedom of association 
and the right to strike.  The statutes that codify these 
rights are contained in Mexico,s &Federal Labor Law.8  In 
order to exercise the right to strike, Federal Labor Law 
establishes various administrative requirements, the two most 
important in this case being: (1) that only officially 
recognized unions can call for a strike and (2) before a 
strike can be considered legal a union must receive approval 
of a strike notice from the appropriate labor authorities. 
There are no provisions in Mexican law for state level 
authorities to suspend these two administrative requirements 
although state labor authorities can adapt their 
 
MEXICO 00005936  002 OF 003 
 
 
implementation in order to conform to local conditions. 
 
¶5.  In Jalisco, as in most other parts of Mexico, the 
unintended consequences of the two above-mentioned 
administrative requirements are a shockingly large number of 
filings for approvals of strike notices.  As of the end of 
October, Jalisco,s labor authorities had received 15,495 
applications for approvals of strike notices.  Of this number 
only 4,061 were finally approved and, of those filings 
approved, only 162 ultimately resulted in an actual strike. 
 
¶6.  Many to the over 15,000 applications for approvals of 
strike notices were attributed to unscrupulous or paper 
unions which exist because of abuses of the constitutional 
guarantee of freedom of association.  Under Federal Labor Law 
a union can be formed with as few as 20 employees. 
Unfortunately, Mexican labor authorities (at both the federal 
and state levels) are often lax when it comes to verifying 
whether the employees of a particular workplace actually 
exist or, if the workers do exist, whether they are aware 
that someone filed for legal status as their union 
representative.  Once a union has been officially recognized, 
whether or not there really are any workers in the union, the 
documents establishing the union can be used to file an 
application for approval of a strike notice.  Approved strike 
notices are then presented to business owners who are 
extorted to make the problem go away.  The business owner 
could refuse to pay and risk a strike but the cost of handing 
over the pay-off is usually less than the cost of challenging 
the legal status of one of these paper unions and/or the 
legality of a strike. 
 
 
THE DETAILS OF THE AGREEMENT 
---------------------------- 
 
¶7.  In order to address the growing problem of paper labor 
unions using the threat of a strike to extort money from 
businesses the Jalisco agreement commits the state government 
and the unions to: 
 
Working together jointly to reduce the number of strikes 
statewide; 
 
Verify the legal status (at least on paper) of any union 
filing an application for approval of a strike notice; 
 
Deny any application for approval of a strike notice that is 
not signed by the union,s Secretary General; 
 
Verify the signature of the union Secretary General on any 
application for approval of a strike notice. 
 
 
NOT ALL UNIONS APPROVE OF THE AGREEMENT 
--------------------------------------- 
 
¶8.  The unions which signed the agreement with the government 
of Jalisco represent some 60 percent of all unionized workers 
in the state.  The other 40 percent of Jalisco,s unionized 
workers are represented by the FROC (Federation of 
Revolutionary Workers and Compassions) and the CROM 
(Revolutionary Confederation of Mexican Workers).  The FROC 
is the larger and stronger portion of the CROC in Jalisco and 
the CROM there is affiliated with Mexico,s fourth largest 
labor federation. 
 
¶9.  The two labor organizations who pointedly refused to sign 
the agreement with the government of Jalisco claimed they did 
so in order to protect the worker rights.  In their view, the 
agreement both attempts to supercede the administrative 
provisions of Federal Labor Law and to deny workers their 
constitutionally guaranteed right to strike.  Moreover, 
spokespersons for these two unions opined, the recently 
signed agreement was no different from a similar accord 
reached several years ago by the previous state government 
administration.  That accord, the spokespersons averred, 
provided excellent photo opportunities but produced little in 
the way of concrete results. 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
 
 
MEXICO 00005936  003 OF 003 
 
 
¶10.  Despite their obvious good intentions of the union 
leaders and state government of Jalisco it is unlikely that 
&The Agreement for Labor Stability8 will produce any 
significant results.  At both the state and federal levels 
Mexico,s labor authorities have been reluctant to weed out 
bogus paper unions or actively restrain real but unscrupulous 
unions.  There is a chance that those in Jalisco seeking to 
abuse rights of free association and the right to strike 
codified in Mexican Federal Labor Law make restrain 
themselves now that they will be subject to closer scrutiny. 
However, without a change in federal law the moment the 
authorities let down their guard there will be no legal 
impediment to those bogus paper unions or unscrupulous unions 
going back to their old tricks. 
 
 
¶11.  This message was cleared with AmConsul Guadalajara. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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