Glassworkers Organizing Outside of State-Run Unions in Mexico

by Eduardo Soriano-Castillo

On Saturday May 3rd, a delegation of US labor and community interests were invited to Mexico City to be a part of a delegation of Latino U.S. Labor representatives, comprised of labor activists from throughout the US.

This was the 55th year the Mexican government and the IME hosted this conference, and the first year that U.S.  unions, community based labor interest groups, and worker centers were invited to attend.

U.S.  labor represented a wide variety of trades and community groups including the Philadelphia chapter of Jobs With Justice of which I am a member.

On the second day of our visit, U.S.  labor representatives and community allies were informed by Country Program Director, AFL-CIO (Mexico) of several examples of labor/human rights abuses currently being faced by Mexican independent unionists.  That same night, we attended a separate discussion hosted by LCLAA  (Chicago Metropolitan Labor Council for the Advancement of Latin Americans) and the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center with Mexican workers/independent unionists of SUTEIVP at the Vidriera Potosi (bottle manufacturing plant workers in San Luis Potosi, Mexico).  We discovered that Grupo Modelo, (producer of Corona), has launched an all-out assault on the independent union at its Vidriera Potosí bottle-making plant in San Luis Potosí, Mexico.

Grupo Modelo’s main shareholder is Maria Asunción Aramburuzabala, who’s estimated net worth is $2 billion, according to Forbes, making her the richest woman in Latin America. She also just happens  to be the wife of the U.S.  Ambassador in Mexico, Tony O.  Garza Jr.  Since January 2008, the company  fired some 300 workers, including the leadership of the independent union SUTEIVP (Sindicato Unico de Trabajadores de la Empresa Industria Vidriera del Potosí, S.A.  de C.V.), in violation of the collective bargaining agreement, as well as Mexican and international law.  These layoffs affect over 1,500 women, elderly and children.  The company also gave a pro-employer union, the CROC ( Confederation Revolucionaria de Obreros Campesinos or Revolutionary Confederation of Workers and Peasants), unfettered access to the workplace. On May 9, with less than 48 hours’ notice to the union, the Federal Labor Board called an election between the CROC and the SUTEIVP.  While CROC leaders were able to hold captive audience meetings with workers inside the plant, the fired SUTEIVP workers were not allowed in, and the plant was surrounded by some 200 heavily armed federal police.

The independent democratic worker led union became a political problem for the owners of Corona, the government of San Luis Potosí, the Mexican federal government, the leaders of the company run unions, and the major corporations, because word traveled quickly among Potosí workers and across the country that this worker led organization had recently become democratic and independent of the CTM (Confederation of Mexican Workers).

The independent union had also succeeded in substantially bettering working conditions and raising salaries an average of 19% in its first year of activity.  The SUTEIVP became an example for many Mexican workers, and because of their successes in creating a democratic voice for the workers, the bosses of the corporations, government officials, and leaders of co-opted unions decided to destroy it.

In solidarity with the independent unionists of SUTEIVP in Potosi Mexico, Philadelphia Jobs With Justice, Mexican Solidarity Collective, Temple Student Labor Action Project and the defenestrator hosted a hip hop benefit show “Industrial Revolutions” in August that riased enough funds to keep the SUTEIVP union hall open for 9 months.

For More Information Contact:

Eduardo Soriano-Castillo
Philadelphia Jobs With Justice
1315 Spruce St. Room 331
Philadelphia, PA 19107
w 215-670-5857 c 520-403-1135
eduardo@phillyjwj. org

Francisco Retama
SUTEIVP
Margarita Castro, no. 233,
col. Ricardo B. Anaya,
San Luis Potosi
S.L.P. Telefono (01-444) 1630116
pancho_pos@yahoo.com.mx

some organizers and performers ready for trouble