Teaching Comparative Government and Politics

Thursday, October 04, 2012

Reform or more of the same old?

Mexico's president elect is working with the incumbent to bring some reform to labor laws. The PRD and the "dinosaurios" in the PRI oppose the changes (for very different reasons). Will the incoming president take office with a victory or a failure?

Mexico workers protest labor overhaul bill

Peña Nieto

[I]ncoming… President-elect Enrique Peña Nieto… promised broad reforms to stimulate the economy but… may encounter in the workers and their unions an insurmountable challenge.

Many workers say they fear that the so-called labor reform law would be abused to curtail the few protections they have. And the dinosaurian, notoriously undemocratic unions have long had a cozy, mutually beneficial relationship with Peña Nieto's Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, and they will resist change that could cut into their power…

[A]lready there were signs that the PRI wants to water down efforts to reform the unions, and leftist politicians oppose several parts of the bill that they said would weaken workers' rights…

If consensus is not reached, the bill could go down in flames, an embarrassing setback for Calderon but especially for Peña Nieto, who would already have failed in a key campaign promise before he takes office…

There is broad agreement in Mexico for the need for some kind of labor reform. Experts say unwieldy unions, like those representing workers from the state oil conglomerate, end up holding back the economy and stunting Mexico's ability to compete as many employees toil for substandard wages or are driven into a vast, informal workplace with little protection…