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“Independent” union betrays strike in Matamoros, México as it joins ruling party
After initiating a strike on Monday to demand a bonus of 10,157 pesos ($514) and a 15 percent wage increase, hundreds of maquiladora factory workers in Matamoros, México, on the border with Brownsville, Texas, have been fired or subjected to other reprisals once their movement fizzled out.
Striking Matamoros workers in January 2019 with banner declaring, The union and companies kill the working class
Based on local news and workers’ social media posts, strikes broke out at eleven plants. The strikers constituted small minorities of the workforce in all but one plant, Batory. While some companies agreed to pay the bonus and wage increases from 6 to 12 percent, none achieved the 15 percent.
Strikes in Matamoros, Mexico spread in face of threats by union, police and National Guard
On Monday, about 400 workers at nine maquiladora factories in Matamoros, Mexico, a major industrial city on the border with Brownsville, Texas, joined a strike to demand a 15 percent wage increase and a bonus of 10,157 pesos ($514).
The strikers gathered outside of most of the plants before daybreak and called on their co-workers to join them. Some chanted, “Join us! Join us!” At the furniture maker Kwalu and the car seat maker GDI International, the strikers decided to down their tools inside the plants.
Striking Matamoros workers in January 2019 with banner declaring, The union and companies kill the working class
Metalworkers carry out wildcat strike in Matamoros, Mexico, for higher wages
In Matamoros, Mexico, strikes are again breaking out to demand higher wages and safe working conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic. The work stoppages are emerging two years after the historic wave of strikes in the city, when workers organized strike committees and mass assemblies in a rebellion against the corrupt company unions.
Growing discontent among workers has prompted the so-called Independent Union for Industry and Service Workers (SNITIS), formed by labor lawyer Susana Prieto to contain opposition after the 2019 strikes, to file a formal announcement of a strike on January 25 at all
Death toll rises to 11 at General Motors plant in Silao, Mexico
Eleven workers at General Motor’s Silao complex in the Mexican state of Guanajuato have died of the coronavirus, according to workers at the plant who spoke to the
World Socialist Web Site Autoworker Newsletter. These deaths are the outcome of the reopening of Mexican manufacturing plants by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (or AMLO as he is commonly known) in May, giving a blank check for transnational corporations to sacrifice workers’ lives for profits.
GM’s Silao complex
However, the death toll at the plant may be even higher. Management at the plant, together with the gangster-ridden union, the Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM) and health authorities, are concealing the true extent of the virus. GM is also pressuring workers to remain at work even after testing positive. It recently fired Sergio Contreras, with 26 years seniority, after he tested positive at his own expense and quarantined to