Mexican Workers Say No to Social Security Privatization

May 21 (LPAC)--Sectors of Mexico's National Workers Union (UNT) went out on strike May 21, demanding revocation of the reform passed last March, which privatizes pensions of public-sector workers affiliated with the Mexican Social Security and Services Institute (ISSSTE). The 12-hour strike effort was led by Agustin Rodriguez, head of the trade union of Mexico's National Autonomous University (STUNAM), who will be holding a joint internet webcast/conference with Lyndon LaRouche on June 14 directed against social security privatization, under the rubric "Globalization = Fascism."

Organizers had hoped to involve the entirety of the UNT in the strike, but this apparently didn't happen. Nonetheless, the strike succeeded in shutting most UNAM classes in the Federal District, as well as in 17 other states where the UNAM has campuses, according to El Sol de Mexico . Strikers blocked main streets into the Federal District, and gathered late in the day at the downtown Zocalo plaza, to warn that they will not accept the ISSSTE reform. Rodriguez warned that the government rammed through the reform "without consulting us," and that if it remained in place, would represent a gross violation of "individual and constitutional rights of all workers."

The Calderon government justified the reform as a way to "cleanse" ISSSTE's finances, modernize medical services and hospitals, and guarantee better pensions. In reality, the reform is a warmed-over version of what the Pinochet dictatorship did in Chile in 1981. Calderon has created private retirement accounts, and raised the retirement age by ten years for 2.6 million school teachers and federal employees. The boondoggle even includes "recognition bonds," which supposedly compensate workers for contributions already made to the public system. Chilean workers also received recognition bonds, which turned out to be another part of the Pinochet swindle that robbed them of their pensions. Calderon reportedly was able to get his privatization scheme through in March by buying off key unions -- offering them "control" over their privatized pension funds.