The Cyberunions Podcast Episode 62: The Growth Industry: Exporting Labo(u)r ‘Reforms’

• 14 November – General Strike and Day of Action against austerity in Europe
• Stephen manages to prevent a Romneyshambles
• Stephen embarks on a drinking and bug squashing campaign. Eww!
• Last show before Stephen goes to Brazil – we hope to report from there

• Walton discovers Cyanogenmod - roots his phone, installs new software and satisfies his need for novelty
• Déjà Dup is a great way to backup a system

• Transparency clause was taken out so the PRI is happy with the reform.
• In July, PAN defeated PRI in the elections
• Background on the Mexican labo(u)r movement – in the 1920s, the radical CTM union was formed, influenced by the IWW and Third International (Communists)
• Nationalists in the state seized control and purged anarchist and communist influences
• The electrical union, formed in 1913, managed to maintain its independence
• Influence of anarchists in Mexican politics – Ricardo Flores Magnon, Tierra y Libertad and the Zapatistas
• The state undermined the electrical workers’ union by shutting down electrical utilities – so the union became a social movement as its members were unemployed
• In the 1970s, the UNT was formed as an alternative, left wing alternative confederation to the CTM, which was dominated by the PRI
• However, the UNT became bureaucratised, centrist and corrupt – much like the CTM
• What will the labo(u)r law reform mean?
• Outsourcing is legalised, making it easy to replace unionised workers with part time and agency workers with few rights
• Allows employers to hire people by the hour, instead of by the day – so you can work anything from a half hour to a 12 hour shift, depending on what suits your boss
• Mexico has three different minimum wages, based on geographic regions from A to C
• PRI are against the reform, but mostly for the wrong reasons – because the transparency clauses and secret ballot will undermine their power
• There is a real problem with corruption among top union leaders in the CTM
• Introduction of individual contracts and erosion of the right to strike
• Bad news for workers

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (66.9MB) | Embed