Protest supports Mexican electrical workers

Local labor union members and officers, along with members of the San Francisco Labor Council, the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement and community supporters, picketed and spoke outside the Mexican Consulate at noontime Jan. 29 in downtown San Francisco.

Sponsored by the SFLC, LCLAA and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 10, the organizers took action to support the Mexican Electrical Workers union (SME) in its struggle against privatization, union busting and layoffs in the Mexican electrical industry. After forming a group representing the labor organizations present, the group went inside the Consulate to speak to Mexican officials there.

Since Oct. 10, more than 44,000 Mexican electrical workers have been locked out of their jobs by the administration of Mexican President Felipe Calderon, who is attempting to privatize the public energy corporation, Luz y Fuerza del Centro, and destroy the SME in the process. Federal Preventive Police and the Mexican Army have occupied the power plants while untrained and inexperienced replacement workers — once called “scabs” — are trying to do the electrical workers’ jobs. Some are getting accidentally killed in the process.

The SME needs all the support from the labor movement it can get, along with that from community and progressive political organizations and activists across California and the U.S.