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RR RUEHCD RUEHGA RUEHGD RUEHHA RUEHHO RUEHMC RUEHMT RUEHNG RUEHNL
RUEHQU RUEHRD RUEHRS RUEHTM RUEHVC
DE RUEHME #2948/01 2771923
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 031923Z OCT 08
FM AMEMBASSY MEXICO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 3470
RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHINGTON DC
INFO RUCNCAN/ALL CANADIAN POSTS COLLECTIVE
RUEHXC/ALL US CONSULATES IN MEXICO COLLECTIVE
RHMFIUU/CDR USSOUTHCOM MIAMI FL
RUEAUSA/DEPT OF EDUCATION WASHINGTON DC
RHMFISS/DEPT OF HOMELAND SECURITY WASHINGTON DC
RHEHAAA/NSC WASHINGTON DC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 MEXICO 002948 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DRL/AWH AND ILSCR AND WHA/MEX, USDOL FOR ILAB 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ELAB ECON PGOV PHUM PINR SOCI MX
SUBJECT: STATE LEVEL TEACHERS UNIONS PROTEST EDUCATION 
 
REFORM AGREEMENT 
 
REF: (A) MEXICO 2877 (B) MEXICO 1540 
 
¶1.  Summary:  In recent weeks there has been growing 
discontent among the state level Locals of the National 
Teachers Union (SNTE) against the &Alliance for Quality 
Education8 agreement signed this past May between the GOM 
and the union,s national leadership (Ref B).  The discontent 
has resulted in protests marches, strikes that have closed 
schools for extended periods and increasingly large 
demonstrations in nearly half of Mexico,s 31 states.  The 
dissident groups within the SNTE Locals assert that they are 
protesting against an agreement imposed on them by the 
union,s national leadership and the GOM without their 
consent.  In addition, the dissidents claim they are seeking 
to defend such legitimate labor rights as the right to freely 
determine the leadership of their state level Locals.  These 
noble assertions notwithstanding, numerous press reports site 
the GOM, the SNTE national leadership and even statements by 
the dissidents themselves which indicate that the protestors 
are really seeking to undo the provisions of the Alliance for 
Quality Education (ACE) that would require prospective 
teachers to take an entrance examine for hiring and 
promotions (Ref A) and which would prohibit current teachers 
from selling their positions or passing them on as an 
inheritance.  The longest running and most intense protests 
are taking place in the state of Morelos.  The protests in 
Morelos have been going on for over six weeks and the 
dissidents there are insisting that the state government 
unilaterally reject implementation of the ACE.  Both 
Morelos, governor and the GOM,s Secretary of Education have 
rejected the idea that a state can legally withdraw from an 
agreement that is now a part of the national education 
system.  End Summary. 
 
 
THE DOWNSIDE OF EDCUATION REFORM 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶2.  On May 15, 2008 the Mexican government,s Secretary of 
Public Education (SEP) and Mexico,s National Teachers Union 
(SNTE) launched an agreement to reform the country,s system 
of public school education (Ref B).  The goal of the 
agreement, called the &Alliance for Quality Education8 
(ACE), was to improve the level of Mexican public education 
by, among other things, investing in school infrastructure, 
enhancing teacher skills, and using a competitive public exam 
when hiring and promoting teachers.  Although there were some 
reservations expressed about the agreement, in general it was 
roundly hailed as a significant step forward in improving the 
poor state of public school education in Mexico.  Most of the 
reservations about the agreement centered on whether the 
country,s large (estimated at 1.5 million members) and 
powerful National Teachers, Union and its leader, Elba Ester 
Gordillo, would live up to their end of the terms of the 
accord. 
 
¶3.  In looking at the various elements of the ACE the SNTE,s 
willingness to begin using competitive public exams in a 
timely fashion for hiring new teachers was viewed as a real 
test of the union,s commitment to the reform agreement.  To 
their credit, Gordillo and the SNTE leadership worked 
cooperatively with the Secretary of Education to develop and 
organize the administration of a public exam and then, as 
promised, arranged for nearly 90,000 people to take it before 
the start of the 2008-2009 school year.  This was the first 
such exam of its type ever administered in Mexico and both 
the SNTE and SEP were pleased that its development proceeded 
with few if any problems. Alas, the sense of accomplishment 
over the new exam was short-lived and soon replaced by 
something akin to mild astonishment. 
 
¶4.  Once the results of the exam were in both the SEP and the 
SNTE were unpleasantly surprised to see that nearly 
two-thirds of the over 71,000 prospective teachers who took 
the exam had failed (Ref A).  Not only that, but an 
additional 17,648 previously hired but as yet untenured 
teachers also took the exam and all but 7,150 of them failed 
the test as well.  The SEP, with the concurrence or at least 
the acquiescence of the SNTE national leadership, declared 
that there would be no make-up test for perspective teachers 
who failed the exam.  That said, the SEP indicated that those 
who failed the exam this year would be welcomed to take it 
again next year.  Moreover, the SEP is planning to institute 
 
MEXICO 00002948  002 OF 004 
 
 
a training program that will allow currently employed 
teachers to upgrade their job knowledge and skills.  This 
training would presumably be for the hired but untenured 
teachers who failed the exam. 
 
 
MORE UNEXPECTED PROBLEMS FOR EDUCATION REFORM 
--------------------------------------------- 
 
¶5.  In addition to the problem of having massive numbers of 
prospective and untenured teachers fail their hiring exam the 
SNTE national leadership and SEP are now facing another 
explosive problem related to the ACE.  This problem has its 
roots in the fact that the SNTE, in addition to being the 
single largest union in Mexico, is also viewed as one of the 
country,s more corrupt labor organizations.  One of the many 
criticisms leveled at Gordillo and the union,s national 
leadership is that they have over politicized the SNTE and 
done nothing to halt, much less reverse, blatant corruption 
in the union.   For the SNTE, its critics claim, educating 
Mexico,s youth is always a low ranked item on its list of 
priorities. 
 
¶6.  The SNTE has been accused of such things as buying and 
selling teaching positions, misuse of union funds, demanding 
sexual favors in order to be hired or tenured to mention just 
some of its alleged transgressions.  No objective observer 
could deny that the SNTE is a very political union but, to be 
fair, it was a highly politicized organization before 
Gordillo and the current national leadership rose to power. 
It would probably be more accurate to say that the current 
national leadership adroitly took full advantage of a 
pre-existing situation to amass considerable wealth and 
political power.  The most insidious of the disreputable 
practices engaged in by the SNTE at virtually all levels of 
the organization is the selling of teaching positions. 
 
¶7.  The selling of teaching positions is so pervasive within 
the SNTE that teachers throughout Mexico have come to believe 
that it is their undisputed labor right to sell their 
(taxpayer funded) appointments or pass them on to family 
members as some sort of inheritance.  Under the terms of the 
ACE the practice of selling teaching positions would come to 
a sudden and definitive halt since job openings at any level 
would now have to be refilled via the public exam process 
that the SEP and SNTE national leadership agreed to.  The 
realization that teaching positions would no longer be the 
property of the current occupant to dispose of as he/she saw 
fit has sparked growing discontent and increasingly serious 
protests by the SNTE,s state level Locals across Mexico. 
 
 
COUNTRYWIDE PROTEST BUT MORELOS IS THE WORST 
-------------------------------------------- 
 
¶8.  Once currently employed teachers grasped that the ACE 
would prohibit them from disposing of their positions as they 
saw fit state level SNTE Locals began to loudly express their 
total opposition to the agreement.  This opposition has 
resulted in protests marches, school closing strikes and 
increasingly large demonstrations across the country in 
nearly half of Mexico,s 31 states.  The worst protests have 
been in the central Mexican states of Morelos and Guerrero 
but there have also been serious and ongoing demonstrations 
and acts of civil disobedience by teachers in the states of 
Chiapas, Tlaxcala, Mexico State, Puebla, Guanajuato, 
Michoacan, Baja California, Oaxaca, Durango, Quintana Roo, 
Zacatecas and others.  These protests and demonstrations have 
been in defiance of the ongoing efforts of the SNTE national 
leadership who have repeatedly made clear their strong 
support for the ACE. 
 
¶9.  According to the dissidents within the SNTE Locals they 
are protesting the implementation of the ACE in defense of 
what they say are legitimate labor rights.  The Locals claim 
(probably correctly) that they were not consulted by the SNTE 
leadership before the union entered into the educational 
reform agreement with the SEP.  They assert that an agreement 
as far reaching as the ACE should have been discussed with 
the entire SNTE membership.  The dissidents also aver that 
they are protesting in order to be able to choose their own 
state level leaders rather than have senior level union 
officials imposed upon them by the national leadership.  The 
 
MEXICO 00002948  003 OF 004 
 
 
complaint about Gordillo and her supporters in the national 
leadership imposing senior union officials on the state level 
Local organizations is probably a valid grievance.  That 
said, these impositions are not new occurrences in the SNTE 
and up until now they have not been offensive enough to the 
state Local to spark nationwide protests within the National 
Teachers Union. 
 
¶10.  Leaving aside for the moment the validity of the two 
complaints by the dissidents within the SNTE,s Local 
offices, few in Mexico are prepared to take their high-minded 
assertions at face value.  According to the GOM, the SNTE 
national leadership and even numerous statements by the 
dissidents themselves, the real aim of the protestors appears 
to be to undo the provisions of the ACE that require 
prospective teachers to take an entrance examine for hiring 
and which prohibits current teachers from selling their 
positions or passing then on as an inheritance.  A basic 
demand of the dissidents is that the ACE be completely 
revoked.  Both the SEP and various state governments have 
been negotiating with the dissidents in an attempt to address 
their concerns and end the strikes which have closed public 
schools for weeks now across Mexico.  Thus far the SEP has 
held firm on one point. Specifically the SEP has stated that 
teaching positions are funded with the taxes of all Mexican 
citizens and as such they are not and never have been the 
property of either the current teachers or the SNTE at any 
level to dispose of as they see fit. 
 
 
MORELOS AND GUERRERO ARE AT THE FRONTLINES OF THE FIGHT 
--------------------------------------------- ---------- 
 
¶11.  As previously noted the longest running and most 
confrontational protests are occurring in the states of 
Morelos and, to a lesser degree, Guerrero.  The dissidents in 
these two states have been the most insistent on the 
revocation of the ACE.  They are also the once most strongly 
wedded to the view that they have a non-negotiable &labor 
right8 to sell or otherwise dispose of the teaching 
positions they currently occupy in any way that they see fit. 
 In the case of Morelos the dissidents there are demanding 
that the state,s governor unilaterally withdraw from the ACE. 
 
¶12.  In his discussion with the dissidents Morelos, 
governor, Marco Adame Castillo, has been held firmly to the 
SEP view that taxpayer funded teaching positions are under 
the control of the GOM and are not the personal property of 
any individual or non-governmental organization.  The 
governor has received the full support of the SEP and the 
SNTE national leadership in his dealings with the dissident 
teachers in the union Locals.  Governor Adame Castillo has 
also made clear his view that neither he nor any other state 
governor has the authority to unilaterally withdraw from an 
agreement (like the ACE) that is legally established as a 
part of the country,s national education system. 
 
¶13.  In Guerrero the dissident teachers have not pushed as 
ardently for the state to withdraw from the ACE but like 
their fellow protesters in Morelos they have effectively 
closed the state,s public school system for at least six 
weeks.   The dissident teachers in Guerrero, like the ones in 
Morelos, have staged increasingly large demonstrations and 
have repeatedly occupied state and even federal office 
building to express their displeasure with the ACE.  Thus far 
the only other state to experience a level of civil unrest 
among unionized teachers somewhat comparable to what is 
happening in Morelos and Guerrero is the far southern state 
of Quintana Roo.  In order to calm the situation there the 
state government offered to pay any retiring teacher the sum 
of 120,000 pesos (approximately USD 12,000).  In effect the 
state government of Quintana Roo was offering to buy back 
from the teachers the positions they currently occupy. 
Initially the Quintana Roo dissidents agreed to accept the 
state government,s offer but then inexplicably withdrew from 
the agreement. 
 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
¶14.  At this point it is unclear how long the SNTE dissidents 
will continue to hold out for the revocation of the ACE. 
 
MEXICO 00002948  004 OF 004 
 
 
Thus far there is no indication that either the SEP or the 
SNTE national leadership are prepared to negotiate the 
ultimate disposition of teaching positions.  Most of the 
governors where protests against the ACE are occurring have 
held firm to the SEP position that state governments do not 
have the  authority to withdraw from an agreement that is, 
for all practical purposes, legally a part of the national 
education system.  There is no indication that either the 
dissidents within the SNTE state locals or the GOM, supported 
by various state governments and the union,s national 
leadership are in any way prepared to back away or 
significantly modify their publicly stated positions.  This 
means that there is no immediately visible resolution to the 
disagreement over the ACE and that public schools in numerous 
states throughout Mexico will remain closed.  If press 
commentary is any indication it appears as if public opinion 
in Mexico is firmly with the SEP and against the dissidents. 
It remains to be seen how long the dissidents can hold up 
against the GOM, their own (probably corrupt) national union 
leadership and the increasing displeasure of the Mexican 
general public. 
 
 
 
 
 
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 / 
BASSETT