Article published on August 6 in El Universal, Opinión [Opinion] section by Sabina Berman.
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Well, no, not that much, not yet, but the working class is on the rise after four decades of not having progressed even an inch, and noting this should change the narrative that we make in regard to our country.
– Never in 40 years – said to me Oscar de la Vega, labor lawyer – had I seen things change so much (in the labor arena) as in the last 5 years.
And the representative in Mexico of the ILAW Network, the global organization that promotes workers’ rights, lawyer Pablo Franco, confirmed this statement,
How did this happen?
Half of the answer is provided by social aids and remittances, which have reached their highest amount in these 5 years and have increased the income of the working class.
The other half, the most important one, because it makes the ascent sustainable, was the increase to salaries which, in turn, is explained by two conditions,
The minimum wage, on which 14 million people live, increased in 80% and, by the way, it will increase an additional 20% next year.
And the rebirth of union life due to the new Labor Law that forces a true democracy on them.
The most significant thing is that, according to the new law, arrangements reached at the upper echelons, in which union leaders agreed on collective bargaining agreements with the employers, were banned. Now workers must approve any significant agreement through their vote.
And charro [protection union] union leaders, who for half a century sold the interests of the workers in exchange for increasing their personal fortunes, are also blocked. The fall of the charro heads in unionism has been a celebration throughout these five years.
And what is coming is even better.
The abovementioned factors – social aids, remittances, a tendency toward the increase of salaries and the new Labor Law – plus the advent of Nearshoring, which will multiply job positions portends that the next six years will be even better for workers.
Nevertheless, Pablo Franco notes:
– There is still a need for an industrial policy that ensures that those large investments that arrive, arrive respecting working conditions. The government must verify that work is given its fair value.
The Mexican Opposition, locked in its repetitive account of a “six-year term of Destruction” and its vision of the “one-man country”, the President, “who can do and does everything” is not acknowledging this change that did not occur “in 40 years in Mexico” and this bonanza that will come from abroad.
And without a doubt this blindness will cost them in the nest elections.
Who will vote for the candidate whose only justification for asking for a votes is that we must save the country from “the Destruction perpetrated by the Left-wing”?
Nobody who lives the improvements that have taken place and still hopes for more improvement.
And for that same reason, the frank communicative constipation of the Left wing is puzzling.
In turn, encapsulated in its own presidentialist narrative and in replying to the catastrophic narrative of the Right wing, our Left wing is not strutting around and boasting about the specific progress that has been made for the working class nor is it trumpeting the good things to come.
Bad communication?
Not bad, terrible.
In any case, the truth is that millions of Mexican workers saw an improvement in the lives during this six-year term and all of us should congratulate ourselves.
Postscript.
Dear readers, I pause my typing for a well-deserved rest. We will meet again with more true news and possible fables. Until next time.
