Support Mexico’s Electricians’ Union

In October of last year, the Mexican police and military occupied the Mexican state-owned electric company, Luz y Fuerza del Centro (LFC) displacing 44,000 employees in an attempt to break Mexico’s oldest union, the Sindicato Mexicano de Electricistas (SME). The occupation of the LFC and displacement of the workers was done in the name of privatization and liquidation of a government run energy company. This is another example of “neoliberal reforms” that have weakened unions and hurt workers throughout Mexico over the last decade and a half. During the last seven months, the SME has been attempting different forms of civil disobedience to keep the Mexican government from privatizing the LFC. Currently, 10 women who are members of the SME have begun a hunger strike in front of the offices of the high commissioner of the United Nations Organization in an attempt to bring international pressure against the President of Mexico, Felipe Calderon.

Alliance for Global Justice urges you to contact the United Nations Human Rights Office at [email protected] and the Mexican National Administrative Offices’ Secretariat of Labor and Social Welfare at [email protected] in order to put international pressure on the Calderon administration to allow these people to go back to work and allow them to peacefully protest. The following is a sample letter:

To Whom It May Concern:

I urge your organization to pressure the Mexican government to reinstate the workers of Luz y Fuerza del Centro (LFC). As a member of the international community, we must speak out against the strike breaking activities that have been occurring against the Sindicato Mexicano de Electricitas (SME) throughout Mexico, which are in direct violation of the North American Free Trade Agreements (NAFTA) side accord the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation (NAALC). The first labor principle protected by the NAALC is the, “Freedom of association and the protection of the right to organize” (Commission for Labor Cooperation 1994 Annex 1: Labor Principles). These rights are being violated by the Mexican government and must be protected by the international community. Please urge the Commission for Labor Cooperation to demand that the Mexican government allow people to protest peaceably.

Thank You,
Your Name
Your Country

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