General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Obama Levels Cheap Shot At Unions - Again [View all]nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)that was a huge one for Ford that got strikes regularly, because they tried (and continue to) not follow the Labor contract fully. They got those about twice every five years, now they are down to one a decade. The rest of the new car manufacturers are making sure to get weak contracts from the get go.
They also made the equivalent of the NLBR not labor friendly but management friendly. The Central de Trabajadores de Mexico, the CTM, it went from the main ally of the PRI during elections to an enemy, almost a dog with mange. They started to play unions one agains the other. Like we have been doing in the U.S. For decades.
The problem Mexico still has (if you are business) is that membership is still pretty high, and then there are the reforms started under Calderon (PAN) but signed under Pena Nieto, that normalize temporary work for the first time in Mexican history. They are going after the full time workers, err associates, that Wal-Mart, among others, wants to make part time so they do not have to pay full rights including the Christmas bonus.
Now if workers in the North American region started to organize across borders....but that is a fully different discussion.
But the reforms, are part of the we are getting ready for TTP, just like they did with nafta. The changes and less rights are a consequence of what these treaties demand. In the U.S. We barely notice because labor is already pretty weak, and the NLBR is nowhere close to the 1950s.
It is no coincidence that the last national strike in the U.S. Happened in 1952. I will not be too shocked if the unrest in Mexico leads to a national strike, or outright revolt. Right now it is simmering, at times flowing out of the vessel, but that pressure is growing. The state is counting on lack of memory, which in Mexico is far less prevalent. When that fails, people go missing. And if you got a troublesome labor leader you dig out all the skeletons and prosecute. Skeletons, that mind you, were put in there in the first place by previous administrations. This is what happened to the head of the national teachers union. No, she was not that squeaky clean, but a lot of that came from previous agreements.
If that fails, people still wake up at the side of the road without a head. Those old tactics are new again.
And when you talk to people in the street...people know. They have no idea of the latest tmz scandal, but they know of these reforms and how it affects them. They also know that the vote (alone) will do squat and have gotten to the same state of zen I have come with US elections. It matters little who occupies Los Pinos...it really does not. The difference is, while some do advocate a boycott of the elections, people know that just voting will get them nothing. They need to do a lot more...it is the last point that people who advocate get out the vote in the. U.S. miss. So no, I really don't give a shit who is in the WH. In the era of citizens united my vote is not going to influence a thing.
Ed spelling