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Source: WBAI Radio's Building Bridges: Your Community and Labor Report

Source: CIW

Source: CIW

Protest Against Mexican Government Anti-Labor Repression
“The experience of the past privatizations, including even those in the U.S., is that private owners invest their money to make a profit, not to provide a service. That affects the users of services, because the rates they pay go up while the quality of the services provided goes down. Investors only care about their profits. They don’t invest in maintenance or in the means by which the service is provided. High rates and deficient service, in other words.
“For workers, it means losing what we’ve achieved over decades of struggle. Things start going backwards. What we have now isn’t some kind of privilege, but rights that cost a lot to win. They are the minimum, which allow us to work with dignity, and support our families and ourselves.”
– Humberto Montes de Oca is the international secretary for the Mexican Electrical Workers (SME) union. Two years ago, its 44,000 members were all fired, when the Mexican government took over generating stations by force to set the stage for privatizing electricity. In a recent interview with David Bacon, Montes de Oca describes the role the union has played on the...