The teachers' demonstrations have slowed passage of Pena Nieto's education reform and the pace of his wider agenda of structural reforms, which seeks to reengineer some of Mexico's worst-run institutions, including the weak tax-collection system and underperforming state oil company.
The teachers are now trying to maintain pressure to protect their rights and privileges as the government puts the labor reforms into effect and reduce union control over teacher hiring and assignment. http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2013/09/2013913221252883327.html
Just like the UAW in the USA, unions have outlived their purpose, and become as corrupt as the corporations and companies that used to abuse workers.
Found on http://karakullake.blogspot.com/2013/09/mexican-riot-truck.html
amen
ReplyDeleteI am going to disagree with you on this. You are perfectly free to hate on unions if you wish but if it weren't for unions we would still be working 60 hour weeks, there would be few if any safety concerns in the workplace, and workers would be even more economically disadvantaged than they already are. In fact, the lessening of union membership and influence has been a large part of why middle class and working class Americans keep falling farther and farther behind. The tendency over the past 30-40 years has been to introduce laws and rules specifically designed to make it harder for employees to unionize; this has not happened in a vacuum, it has been the result of intense effort by the Chamber of Commerce and other lap dogs of the ruling class. As it happens teachers work in one of the few professions that can't be outsourced or relocated to China. Because of this teachers' unions are one of the few that have remained strong. Instead of complaining about how union employees make too much money, one would be better served by trying to raise the income levels of other professions.
ReplyDeleteYou are partly correct in my opinion. Though I'm "free to hate on unions" you don't let me, not without feeling you must lecture me on them. Point for me. Boo for you. Safety, in my opinion, is essentially a key factor in the productivity, and possibly would have been brought to our current standards as a matter of doing business in profitability.. as that is the prime motivation in every business. Profit. Better safety, better profits, especially considered in perspective of today, not 1880. Because Joseph, today matters and the past is something that can't be changed or day dreamed about in a "what if" when trying to reimagine what today would be like without the unions. You must not be aware of my labor day post that is pro-union, or you might have responded differently http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-reason-usa-takes-day-of-calls-it.html is the post, and being pro-union in your comment, it will be worth a moment of your time to look at that. You may learn more about union formation than you already know. Middle and working class are not falling behind because of union weakening, in my opinion, rather, due to the response to cheap out of country labor. Why is it cheaper everywhere else? Rational behavior. Only the UAW gets 55 an hour on average for it's workers. That is a bullshit amount of pay to watch robots do the work, to clean the factory, to tighten bolts. Nothing more than a high school education job paying 55 an hour? Simply ludicrous, and a cause of bankrupt companies. The companies are complicit in their bankruptcy of course, for many reasons including agreeing to pension and benefit packages that were patently un-achievable as the numbers of retired grew to outnumber the current workers. That was a forseeable fail, in my opinion. That fast food has never made a union raises questions I doubt you can answer, but they are screwed as their are always more high school drop outs to replace any fast food employee that quits. Rather than lecture me on union propaganda, check that story about Mexico again, look into it and see that the union is corrupt as most are today, and in Mexico to be outed as corrupt by the government is no small thing, agreed? Teachers in Mexico, not an easy road to walk, agreed? Well, when they are causing a 3 month traffic jam in a town center, instead of a full strike in peace (I laugh, a peaceful union strike hasn't happened in decades, I've seen several in person, and strikers are out of their effing gourd stupid when walking the line, not a convincing visage to publicize when taking a "professional worker" stand against employer contract disputes). I've pointed out several times in other posts that unions served a purpose, made decent changes in working hours, and then they lost their minds, and went corrupt, spent, embezzled and gambled away the pension funds. True? Agreed? Many of them. Now a union shop, rare but I've worked in a couple, are a farce of laughable posturing about who can do what, for how long, etc etc. Unions have earned respect for the earliest work, scorn for the majority of the last couple decades of scams, debacles, and scandals. MY labor day post firmly sets the history of their forming as positive, but it's all I can do to not puke over how they've become the enemy of workers in fact due to the out of control politics and money scandals.
DeleteI was going to write a lengthy reply to what you posted but decided why bother. You are not going to change how I view labor/management relations and I'm not going to change yours. One thing I will say is that if unions (actually not the unions but union leaders) have performed in a corrupt manner they should be investigated and charges brought, if warranted. Given the current attitudes that society seems to have re unions, it shouldn't be too hard to get convictions of corrupt union officials. In any case none of this exists in a vacuum, I certainly can't march into my boss's office and demand that I be paid "Y" instead of the "X" I make now. By the same token the UAW didn't unilaterally decide that auto workers would make $55/hour; that was negotiated with management. I'm sure that we both can agree that was a bad decision by management, short sighted and bound to be problematic in the future. Still, it isn't on the workers to give some of this money back, especially when it would likely just mean bigger bonuses for management and bigger dividends for the stockholders. For the record I do know quite a bit about labor unions and their history. I have a degree in American history and my father worked in a unionize chemical plant for 35 years. I can remember his union (ICWU) having to fight for everything they achieved; it certainly wasn't given to them by the goodness of the company's heart. Have a good day.
ReplyDeletedid you take a look at http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2013/09/the-reason-usa-takes-day-of-calls-it.html ?
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