AMLO aims to entice electrical workers

López Obrador says Alejandro Encinas would hire most SME electrical workers if elected governor of the State of Mexico

Mexico Weekly / April 15, 2011

Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Thursday made a lofty promise to thousands of unemployed electrical workers in exchange for their electoral support.

During a political rally, the erstwhile presidential candidate said the 15,000-plus members of the SME electrical workers union who have refused severance payments would be rehired as state workers if López Obrador’s preferred candidate, Alejandro Encinas, is elected governor of the State of Mexico on July 3.
This campaign promise came only three days after 11 members of the SME were arrested during violent protests carried out by the union in Mexico City. Union leader Martín Esparza has been summoned by police for questioning in a related incident.
For those not rehired under an Encinas administration, López Obrador said that if elected president next year, he would restore the Luz y Fuerza del Centro (LFC) power company and restore them to their jobs.
President Calderón dissolved the LFC in October 2009, citing inefficiency and high operational costs. The Federal Electricity Commission (CFE), the country's only remaining state-owned power company, absorbed LFC operations and now provides electricity to the capital and surrounding areas.

López Obrador did not explain if the promise to hire SME members was his own idea or Encinas’, nor did he specify if he had discussed the proposal with Encinas, Milenio reported.

Speaking On Behalf Of Encinas

This is not the first time López Obrador has spoken on behalf of Encinas, who will compete as the PRD, Labor Party and Convergencia candidate in the State of Mexico gubernatorial election.

In late March, López Obrador claimed Calderón personally had asked Encinas to accept the nomination of a PRD-PAN alliance.
Encinas partially denied the claim.

“I have had no direct interaction with [Calderón] or with any of his advisers,” Encinas said, according to the magazine La Revista Peninsular. “Members of my party … proposed that I lead the alliance, which I obviously rejected."
Although nearly a quarter million State of Mexico residents who participated in a referendum on March 27 voted in favor of a PRD-PAN alliance, the PRD National Committee voted against the alliance two weeks later.
The possible alliance was seen by some as a strategy to topple eight decades of PRI government in the State of Mexico.

—By Bronson Pettitt

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SME members clash with riot police

Protest by members of the electrical workers' union quickly escalates into anarchy

Mexico Weekly / April 11, 2011

Clashes between members of the electrical workers' union and riot police in central Mexico City on Monday left five cars incinerated and several people injured.

Television footage shot early Monday showed members of the SME electrical
 workers union (SME) confronting capital officers and riot police
 outside the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) headquarters. At least eight people were arrested.

The SME was holding demonstrations to mark the 18-month anniversary of the dissolution of the Luz y Fuerza del Centro (LFC) power company by President Calderón.

About 16,000 of the total 43,000 SME members have refused to accept severance payments. The CFE took over LFC operations to become the country's only state-owned power company.

In a nationally televised address on Oct. 11, 2009, President Calderón said the decree to disband the state-owned company was a result of its spiraling financial losses and its inefficiency.

However, the CFE might not be as efficient as the federal government claims.

According to a Chamber of Deputies study released earlier this year, the CFE generated less electricity in 2009 but spent more to purchase power from private companies.

'Vandalism Won’t Be Tolerated’

Following Monday’s clashes, SME members marched toward the Zócalo to demand that several members who were arrested in the incident be released.

Mayor Marcelo Ebrard said vandalism would not be tolerated.

“This was a very serious error and we aren’t going to allow this to happen in the city,” Ebrard said, according to El Universal.

City officials predict SME demonstrations will continue. SME-led protests and blockades in Mexico City have become a common occurrence since the LFC was dissolved, and are likely to continue indefinitely.

Electrical workers are not the only ones at odds with the federal government.

In 2007, the Miners and Metal Workers Union went on strike at the Cananea mine in Sonora allegedly over mine owner Grupo México’s refusal to remedy health and safety hazards. However, in June 2010 hundreds of federal and state police invaded the mine and ended the nearly three-year-long strike.

Both unions have been fractured amid internal power struggles.

SME members are fighting union leader Martín Esparza's grab for greater power, and the miners union is divided by Napoleon Gómez Urrutia’s leadership such that dissident unions have gained ground.

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