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Workers at Women's Institute Organize, Set Strike Date, Seek Solidarity
In July, 2002, the 200 predominantly women workers at the Women’s
Institute in Mexico City initiated an organizing campaign through the
services union which is affiliated with the Frente Auténtico
del Trabajo (FAT). After winning a legal battle, they have now set a
strike date for August 7th. They are asking that letters of solidarity
be sent to the Mexico City government, urging settlement of their contract.
At the request of the Union at the Women’s Institute, the United
Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) sent a letter
to Lic. Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Mayor of Mexico City.
The Union at the Women’s Institute urgently requests that you
send the similar letter which appears below (translation and background
follow), or draft your own.
TAKE ACTION
Send letter in support of the Union to the mayor of Mexico City, Lic.
Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Lic. Luz Rosales Esteva
Directora General del Inmujeres-DF.
BACKGROUND: WORKERS AT WOMEN’S INSTITUTE ORGANIZE, SEEK SOLIDARITY
The Instituto de las Mujers, D.F. or Women’s Institute was formed
in 1998 as a result of pressure by the women’?s movement and the
international commitments of the Mexican government to improve conditions
for women, to eradicate violence, and to promote public policies to
provide for equal opportunity, the full exercise of rights, conditions
which make the absence of discrimination possible, and equitable participation
by women in the social, economic, political, cultural and family arenas.
It is the only organization of its type in Latin America, providing
direct services to women including legal and psychological assistance
in cases of divorce or domestic violence and group services and trainings
to assist women in learning about and exercising their rights.
In July, 2002, the 200 predominantly women workers at the Women’s
Institute initiated an organizing campaign through the services union
which is affiliated with the Frente Auténtico del Trabajo (FAT).
They encountered a serious legal barrier when the Mexico City labor
board held that it did not have jurisdiction over their case. However,
the union appealed, and in May 2003 won a resounding legal victory,
clearly giving workers in their situation (a decentralized local entity
which receives funding from both the government and other sources) the
right to organize under the protections of part A of Article 123 of
the federal labor law, under the jurisdiction of the local labor board.
The local then filed a notice that they were prepared to strike on
July 2, in the event that they were not able to agree upon a contract,
but agreed upon a postponement in order to participate in the Labor
Board’s conciliation process.
However, after having participated in five conciliation sessions, on
July 28th the workers issued the following press release :
TO ALL WOMEN
TO ALL ORGANIZATIONS OF CIVIL SOCIETY
The women and men who work at the Women’s Institute of Mexico
City have filed a strike notice with respect to this decentralized institute
which is part of the public administration of the Mexico City government,
asking that it should sign a collective bargaining agreement. The strike
notice was originally for the 2nd of July, but was postponed due to
the conciliation hearings (before the labor board), and is now set for
the 7th of August at 10:00 a.m.
The administration of Inmujeres, D.F. received notice from the Local
Conciliation and Arbitration Board on the 23rd of June, as a result
of which the two sides have engaged - since June 25th - in five conciliation
hearings, in which the Negotiations Committee (composed of Angeles Hernández,
Yina Méndez, Julia Escalante, Mary Carmen Sánchez, Imelda
Camargo, and Angélica Sierra) have brought to the table the good
will and proposals of the workers of Inmujeres D.F.
This consists of a proposal for a collective bargaining agreement which
guarantees job stability, bilateral relations, and the recognition of
our right to unionize; all of this with the conditions which we actually
have at present - that is to say, with present benefits, such as wages,
vacations, days off, bonuses, eight hour day including lunch, maternity
leave, sick leave. In that this should not represent an additional budgetary
cost with respect to the 220 workers who are considered part of the
work force, and without modifying the actual structure of Inmujeres
D.F., the General Director Lic. Luz Beatriz Rosales Esteva committed
to requesting the necessary funding from the appropriate authorities.
Despite the fact that the process of negotiations which we have engaged
in has demonstrated the commitment to conduct negotiations to improve
and institutionalize the Institute for the benefit of the women of this
City, the authorities, represented by the Director General and by the
Director of Coordination for the 16 offices of the Institute in each
political district, Lic. Claudia Dominguez, have warned that this movement
which claims our labor rights puts at risk the longevity of the Institute,
since for the Government of this City it is not considered a priority
and that it could disappear if it should become a political problem
for the leaders of the government.
For this reason we publicly request that the Head of the Government
of Mexico City, Lic. Andrés Manuel López Obrador reaffirm
his commitment to the women of this City, including those who collaborate
and contribute so that this government should truly be the Government
of Hope.
Unique in structure and innovator in Latin America, Inmujeres D.F.
was born out of PROMUJER during the administration of Cuautémoc
Cárdenas, and was reinforced with the arrival of Rosario Robles
as head of Government.
At the same time there exists a legal framework and international treaties
adopted by Mexico which mandate that those who govern this country legislate
regarding matters of prevention, sanction and eradication of discrimination
and violence against women as well as the promotion, and dissemination
which guarantees the free exercise of their rights through the creation
of public policies and affirmative actions in favor of women for their
full development under conditions of equal opportunity. From this, also,
came the creation of Inmujeres Nacional as well as those which have
been established in the interior of the Republic.
This great accomplishment is the fruit of a struggle of more than 30
years by the feminist movement, the broad movement of women and socially
conscious and supportive organizations, and from this stems the importance
of its permanence. Because of this and because most of the women and
men who work at InMujeres D.F. participated in this struggle, and consistent
with the principles and values which generated its creation, we have
made the decision today to reclaim our rights, after more than 4 years
after the creation of this organism, together will the possibility that
the law provided to us after the approval on the 28th of February, 2002,
through which InMujer D.F. was converted from a decentralized entity
within the Secretary of Social Development to InMujeres D.F., a Decentralized
Organism, located in the Secretary of Government, with autonomy of action
and administration, budget, and its own facilities and juridical character.
The movement since last November has gone through a legal process before
the Local Labor Board which first declared that it lacked jurisdiction
to hear the case and turned it over to the Federal Conciliation and
Arbitration Tribunal which also declared that it lacked jurisdiction,
and so it arrived at the Sixth Collegial Tribunal on Work Matters of
the First Circuit (Federal Judicial Authority) which under the jurisprudential
thesis XXV/98 which can be found at page 122 of Volume VII, of the Judicial
Weekly of the Federation and its gazette of April,1998, Ninth session
which held that: decentralized organisms of a local character, their
labor relations are governed by Part A of article 123 of the constitution..,
pursuant to which it was declared that the Local Board was competent
to hear our case.
This meant that we won the appeal and would be recognized by the Local
Board as workers who were members of Local VI of the Sindicato de Trabajadores
de Casas Comerciales, Oficinas y Expendios, Similares y Conexos del
DF, whose registration had been issued by the same entity. Thus, on
May 8th our legal representative received notice of our right to file
a strike notice in support of our demand for a collective bargaining
agreement, recognizing with this: its competence to consider our case,
the legality of our union’s registration, and our relationship
as workers of INMUJERES D.F.
We have now participated in five conciliation hearings without the
authorities of the Institute presenting a counterproposal to that which
we presented which contains the minimal conditions which the law requires
in order to have job security and recognition of our rights concerning
freedom of association. What they did present before the Board was a
proposal for a Process of Integration and Assertive Communication within
INMJUERES DF. There exists a profound difference with respect to the
proposed collective bargaining agreement. Although this contains proposals
which were made by the union in the month of November, it also contains
situations that the institute itself should resolve within its own institutional
framework (operations manuals, procedural manuals, internal rules of
INMJUERES DF, etc.), and at no time does it include the principal demand
of the movement: job security, better working conditions, benefits,
absence of discretion, etc.
The next hearing will be the 28th of July in the Local Conciliation
and Arbitration Board, and we hold out hope despite the fact that the
Director has said in the hearings and before personnel at the Institute
that she does not have the duty to sign an agreement, nor has she put
forward a counter proposal in order to resolve the conflict prior to
our strike date. In the framework of the last hearing we were able to
get representatives from the central government, from the departments
of oficilia, contraloria and gobierno, to obtain a meeting for us with
Lic. Alejandro Encinas, about which the authorities had spread the word
that they would also attend, although this had not been negotiated at
the conciliation table.
Certain that our process is totally valid and legal, we denounce the
lack of political will with which the authorities have acted. We know
that they intend to push us to the edge of a strike. We also know that
the Local Conciliation and Arbitration Board can “receive the
line.”
Similarly, we know of the mechanisms of coercion that the authorities
can exert on certain organizations that are in the Program of Financing
and Coinvestment of the Instituto de las Mujeres del DF and other parts
of the Secretaría de Social Development.
Nevertheless, we understand the context in which all non-governmental
organizations live, both political and financial, and request your solidarity
to the extent which is possible, and if you are in the before-mentioned
situation, that you do so by staying to the side. Today we are the women
workers whose rights they intend to violate, tomorrow it may be other
sisters, irrespective of where they are.
We appreciate in advance your sisterhood, your attention, and that
you follow our process.
Sincerely,
OUTREACH AND PRESS COMMITTEES
TAKE ACTION
Send letters to the following decision makers:
Lic. Andrés Manuel López Obrador
with a copy to: Lic. Luz Rosales Esteva Directora General del Inmujeres-DF
,
and a blind copy to: Sindicato Inmujeres-DF
SAMPLE LETTER
Lic. Andrés Manuel López Obrador
Jefe de Gobierno del Distrito Federal
Estimado Lic. López Obrador:
Le escribo acerca de la situación que existe con respeto a Inmujeres-DF.
Sabemos que las trabajadoras del Instituto de las Mujeres del Distrito
Federal, congruentes con el objetivo del Instituto y dada la importancia
de la labor que realizan a favor de las mujeres de la ciudad, se han
organizado para mejorar las condiciones de trabajo actuales, formando
su asociación sindical para proteger la estabilidad en el trabajo.
Reconocemos la importancia de la creación del Inmujeres-DF en
Marzo de 1998, como resultado de los tratados y convenios internacionales
firmados por México y de la lucha del movimiento de mujeres.
Siendo el único en América Latina que tiene un modelo
de atención directa a las mujeres: realizando acciones que mejoren
la condición de vida de las mujeres, posibiliten la no discriminación,
erradiquen la violencia, y fomenten el ejercicio pleno de todos los
derechos de las mujeres y su participación equitativa en los
ámbitos social, económico, político, cultural y
familiar.
Reconocemos tambien el compromiso con el proyecto del Inmujeres-DF
de parte del Gobierno democrático que ha ofrecido mayores expectativas
para las mujeres de la Ciudad.
Por esto, pedimos la sensibilidad, congruencia y compromiso, con el
Instituto y con las mujeres que trabajan allá para negociar un
contrato colectivo con base de respeto y reconocimiento del ejercicio
pleno de los derechos laborales.
Atentamente,
[your name and organization
****************************
Translation:
Lic. Andrés Manuel López Obrador
Jefe de Gobierno del Distrito Federal
Dear Lic. López Obrador:
I am writing to you regarding the situation at Inmujeres-DF.We are
aware that the women at the Instituto de las Mujeres del Distrito Federal,
in accordance with the objectives of the Institute and given the importance
of the work that they perform on behalf of women in the city, have organized
in order to improve their conditions of work, forming a union in order
to protect their job security.
We recognize the importance of the creation of Inmujeres-DF in March
of 1998, as a result of the treaties and international conventions signed
by Mexico and of the struggle waged by the women’s movement. It
is the only entity in Latin America which has as a model the direct
attention to women: providing services which improve the lives of women,
and creating the possibility of an absence of discrimination, eradication
of violence and promotion of the full rights of women and their equal
participation in the social, economic, political, cultural and family
arenas.
We also recognize the commitment to Inmujeres-DF on the part of the
democratic Government, which has offered greater hope to women in Mexico
City.
Therefore, we ask for the sensitivity, consistency and commitment with
the Institute and with the women who work there to negotiate a collective
bargaining agreement based on respect and recognition of the full exercise
of labor rights.
Sincerely,
[your name and organization]
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