Gender conscientization, social movement unionism, and labor revitalization: a perspective from Mexico

Abstract

Since the 1980s, rates of unionization have been declining in Mexico, as they have in many Anglo- and Latin American countries, contributing to the marginalization of a once powerful political actor. It has been argued that labor revitalization in Mexico will require institutional reforms to the Federal Labor Law. This article suggests that important lessons for labor revitalization in Mexico can also be taken from discussions of social movement and citizenship movement unionism. Drawing on evidence from the decades long collaboration of union women with civil society organizations, I show that raising union women's gender consciousness can help to democratize union agendas and build alliances within civil society that can help broaden the struggle for institutional reforms.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the anonymous reviewers of Labor History for their helpful comments on an earlier version of this article.

Notes

^1. Author interview, May 14, 2007. Ortiz also served as an elected deputy in the Mexican congress from 2006–09.

^2. Burgess, “Mexican Labor at a Crossroads”; Williams, Social Movements and Economic Transition; Middlebrook, Paradox of Revolution; Garza Toledo, “Restructuring of State-Labor Relations.”

^3. Fairbrother and Yates, “Unions in Crisis,” 1–2.

^4. Schenk, “Social Movement Unionism,” 244–45.

^5. Fairbrother and Yates, “Unions in Crisis.”

^6. Nissen, “Concluding Thoughts,” 271.

^7. Schenk, “Social Movement Unionism”; Johnston, “Citizenship Movement Unionism”.

^8. Bensusán and Cook, “Political Transition”; Burgess, “Mexican Labor at a Crossroads”; Collier, The Contradictory Alliance.

^9. Bensusán and Cook, “Political Transition.”

^10. Burgess, “Mexican Labor at a Crossroads.”

^11. Instituto Nacional de Estadística, Geografía e Informática (INEGI), Mujeres y hombres en México 2009, 284.

^12. Blanke, “Género y trabajo en México”; Frundt, “Four Models of Cross-Border Maquila Organizing.”

^13. Such policies would guarantee things such as freedom from sexual harassment, freedom from gender and pregnancy discrimination, access to child care, pay equity, and access to opportunities for training and promotion.

^14. Heredia, “La agenda de género.”

^15. Shortly before publication of this article, the Mexican congress passed reforms to the Federal Labor Law. The reformed law has been criticized for failing to address the anti-democratic nature of the Mexican labor sphere. Moreover, although the reforms addressed some important issues of gender equity, such as recognizing the problem of sexual harassment, there remain concerns about how effective the legislation will be in protecting women workers from discrimination. The PRD and independent unions have vowed to challenge the new labor law (Mexican Labor News & Analysis, Vol. 17, No. 11). In light of these reforms, the need to focus on labor revitalization as discussed in this article is as important as ever.

^16. Middlebrook, Paradox of Revolution; Collier and Collier, Shaping the Political Arena.

^17. Collier and Collier, Shaping the Political Arena, 51.

^18. Lear, Workers, Neighbors, and Citizens, 342–43.

^19. Ibid., 51–52.

^20. Cook, The Politics of Labor Reform in Latin America, 153–54.

^21. Burgess, “Mexican Labor at a Crossroads”; Collier, The Contradictory Alliance.

^22. Quintero Ramirez, “Unions, Labour Conditions and Collaboration in Mexican Maquiladoras.”

^23. Hathaway, Allies Across the Border.

^24. Collier, The Contradictory Alliance, 54–63.

^25. Ibid.; Middlebrook, Paradox of Revolution.

^26. Collier, The Contradictory Alliance.

^27. Middlebrook, Paradox of Revolution; Collier, The Contradictory Alliance; Garza Toledo, “Restructuring”; Aguilar García, La población trabajadora y sindicalizada en México; Levy and Bruhn, Mexico, 76.

^28. Levy and Bruhn, Mexico, 70; Avritzer, Democracy and the Public Space, 94.

^29. Carrillo, “Women and Independent Unionism.”

^30. Levy and Bruhn, Mexico, 89.

^31. Ibid., 101.

^32. Middlebrook, Paradox of Revolution, 293–99.

^33. Where employment was growing – in the service, commerce sector and export sectors – there were traditionally lower rates of unionization. See Williams, Social Movements and Economic Transition; Garza Toledo, “Restructuring,” 208–10; Weeks, “Wages, Employment and Workers” Rights in Latin America’.

^34. Burgess, Parties and Unions; Middlebrook, Paradox of Revolution; Collier, The Contradictory Alliance.

^35. Bensusán and Cook, “Political Transition,” 233.

^36. The global recession also led to a 9.2% drop in Mexico's GDP and steep declines in trade (30%) and foreign direct investment (45%). See World Bank, “International Bank for Reconstruction and Development Program Document for a Proposed Economic Policy in Response to the Global Economic Crisis Development Policy Loan in the Amount of US$1.504 Billion to the United Mexican States.”

^37. Bensusán and Cook, “Political Transition,” 249–51.

^39. UNT, “La reforma social y democrática del estado Mexicano.”

^38. Ibid., 245.

^40. Mexican Labor News & Analysis, “Calderón Pushes Labor Law Reform and Meets Resistance.” See http://unt-mx.info/ for current UNT responses to proposals for LFT reform.

^41. Bensusán and Cook, 232.

^42. Guaranteeing workers freedom to affiliate with unions of their choice and vote for leaders who will represent them is an important part of union revitalization if exclusion clauses are eliminated. Without the compulsory guarantees of membership provided by the exclusion clauses, there is a risk that unionization rates will decline unless labor leaders are effective in courting and responding to the needs of workers (Bensusán and Cook, “Political Transition,” 252–54; Rodríguez Fuentes, “Libertad sindical”).

^43. Bensusán and Cook, “Political Transition,” 229–30.

^44. Ibid., 254–56.

^45. Robinson, “Neo-liberal Restructuring and U.S. Unions”; Nissen, “Alternative Strategic Decisions”; Shenck, “Social Movement Unionism.”

^46. Seidman, Manufacturing Militance; Scipes, “Understanding the New Labor Movements in the ‘Third World.’”

^47. Nissen, “Alternative Strategic Decisions”; Schenk, “Social Movement Unionism”; Robinson, “Neo-liberal Restructuring and U.S. Unions”; Turner and Hurd, “Building Social Movement Unionism”; Johnston, Success Where Others Fail.

^48. Schenk, “Social Movement Unionism,” 248, 254.

^49. Nissen, “Alternative Strategic Decisions”; Schenk, “Social Movement Unionism,” 248.

^50. Nissen “Alternative Strategic Decisions.”

^51. Schenk, “Social Movement Unionism,” 253; Fletcher, Jr. and Hurd. “Is organizing enough?.”

^52. Schenk, “Social Movement Unionism,” 249.

^53. Johnston, “Citizenship Movement Unionism,” 237.

^54. Ibid., 241–42.

^55. Burgess, “Mexican Labor at a Crossroads,” 101.

^56. Centro de Investigación Laboral y Asesoría Sindical (CILAS), Memorias de la tercera conferencia syndical nacional, 15–16.

^57. On elections, see Avritzer, Democracy and the Public Space; on human rights, see Keck and Sikkink, Activists Beyond Borders; on indigenous politics, see Eisenstadt, Politics, Identity, and Mexico's Indigenous Rights Movement; on LGBT rights, see Dehesa, Queering the Public Sphere in Mexico and Brazil.

^58. Baldez, “Primaries vs. Quotas.”

^59. Cruz Jaimes, “Por quinta vez se presentará iniciativa sobre trabajo doméstico”; Comisión de Derechos Humanos del Distrito Federal Informe 2009.

^60. Mariana Norandi, “Rechazan mujeres reforma laboral de AN.”

^61. INEGI, Mujeres y hombres, 284, 291–92; Economic Commission on Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), Statistical Yearbook for Latin America and the Caribbean. Approximately 28% of women are active in the informal sector, which can include domestic service and other work in the service sector (www.estadistica.inmujers.gob.mx).

^62. Quintero Ramirez, “Unions and Social Benefits in the Maquiladoras,” 288–92.

^63. INEGI, Mujeres y hombres, 303; Brickner, “Union Women and the Social Construction of Citizenship in Mexico.”

^64. Lamas, “The Role of Women in the New Mexico,” 130; Cruz Jaimes, “Protegen contratos colectivos derechos de trabajadoras.”

^65. Blanke, Género y trabajo.

^69. Author interview, Mexico City, May 4, 2007.

^66. Porter, Working Women in Mexico City.

^67. Author interview with former banking sector unionist, May 25, 2007.

^68. Author interview with former banking sector unionist, May 8, 2007.

^70. Healy, Gendered Struggles against Globalisation in Mexico.

^71. Author interview with telecommunications sector unionist, February 28, 2003.

^72. Author interview with former utility sector unionist, May 18, 2007.

^73. Author interview with transportation sector unionist, May 15, 2007.

^74. There is a substantial literature on NGOs’ collaboration with women workers along the US-Mexico border. See Bandy and Bickham Mendez, “A Place of Their Own?.”

^75. In addition to women workers' rights under the Mexican constitution and LFT, NGOs emphasized the UN Declaration of Human Rights, the UN Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women, and International Labor Organization Conventions 100 (equal remuneration) and 111 (non-discrimination in employment).

^76. Carrillo, “Women and Independent Unionism.”

^77. Author interview with founding member of the RMS, November 20, 2003.

^78. Talamante, author interview, January 20, 2003; Villaescusa, author interview, December 19, 2002.

^80. Grupo de Educacion Popular con Mujeres (GEM), Memorias, 50.

^79. Brickner, “Union Women and the Social Construction of Citizenship in Mexico,” 163–73.

^81. Brickner, “Union Women and the Social Construction of Citizenship in Mexico,” 174.

^82. Brickner, “Mexican Union Women and the Social Construction of Women's Labor Rights.”

^83. Author interview with former banking sector unionist, December 10, 2002.

^84. Author interview with former telecommunications sector unionist, February 2, 2003.

^85. González, author interview, May 8, 2007; Lovera López, “Iniciarán operias de Volkswagen capacitación de género.”

^86. Rosario Ortiz, author interview, May 14, 2007.

^87. Svenja Blanke, author interview, May 10, 2007.

^88. Inés González, author interview, May 8, 2007.

^89. See López, González, and Lau Jaiven (eds.) Deconstruyendo paradigmas del poder sindical.

^90. López, author interview, May 4, 2007.

^91. Author interview with former university sector unionist, May 17, 2007.

^92. Author interview with domestic workers' organizer, May 22, 2007.

^95. González, author interview, May 8, 2007.

^93. Author interview with domestic service worker organizer, June 5, 2007.

^94. Author interview with transportation sector unionist, May 15, 2007.

^96. Blanke, author interview, May 10, 2007.

^97. González, author interview, May 8, 2007.

^98. Cruz, author interview, July 16, 2008.

^99. López, author interview May 4, 2007.

^100. Maquila Solidarity Network, “The crisis and its effect on Mexico's textile and apparel industry.”

^101. Bandy and Bickham Mendez, “A Place of Their Own?.”

^102. Heredia, author interview, May 15, 2007.