Translated by Red Phoenix Staff (Find the original here.)

The Worker’s Strike of Matamoros involving thousands of workers is making history. The economic demands for increased wages and annual bonuses are clearly demonstrating the conditions in which millions of workers in Mexico live.

One measure such as increasing the minimum wage to double of the border region has been put in place in favor of the employers which eliminate employee bonuses and standardize wages which are barely sufficient to survive in increasingly unfavorable conditions.  

Matamoros, like the rest of the country, is built on our backs, the 20 million dollars lost by the companies which the president of the Maquiladora Association of Matamoros speaks about, during the 4 days of worker strike, is a clear example of all that they produce, like the multimillion-dollar profits which remain in the hands of a few families. 

Yet they still say that it is not viable to increase wages?

They say it is not viable, and that they would leave Matamoros because they intend to exploit and pay wages much lower to workers of other states or of other countries; threatening workers who go to work at other companies, intending to break the movement by means of personal negotiations, looking to “reward” those who work and to punish those who defend their basic rights, who learn their contracts, and those who ask for better wages, like the federal government had announced.  

The entrepreneurs fear the outbreak of strikes as its character broadens and amplifies in the region and in the country; because they know disorganization is fundamental to secure increased profits.  From the workers of Matamoros to the migrants of Honduras, we have the same needs and the same conditions, we produce the wealth, and while we fight among ourselves as workers, the real criminals get richer.  

Of course the businesses increase profits by lengthening work hours and reducing our wages, they will also struggle for that, seek more overtime, less benefits, and, wherever possible, to have the government pay, with our own taxes, to compensate. Thus:

Is it really possible to earn an improved salary and forget about the movement?

Obviously it is possible to to win an increase in our salaries of 20% and a compensation bonus, if we persist, fortify our unity, the organization, and raise the level of the strike in all companies in the region; what is not possible is to settle for crumbs and return to work, when we have workers fired, persecuted, and marked; this will continue if we do not stop the repression or stay organized.  

Is it possible for the government to intervene and reconcile our interests with the entrepreneurs?

The legal apparatus, the courts, the unions of the CTM, conciliation and arbitration boards of the all of the government, are built to sustain the conditions of exploitation in which we find ourselves. All we can rely are the forces of the workers and oppressed peoples; because even the government of the fourth transformation, today implements measures such as the Youth Program Constructing the Future, which instead  of giving decent employment to youth,uses money from our taxes, to “train” for a year in business; in reality they work free and without benefits, while the business gets to earn more profits firing contracted workers and bringing in scholarship recipients; with this example, we must be vigilant, the governors will not delay in aiding the employers with the use of public force, against the workers, who, today, according to the new changes can be left in charge of the army through the National Guard.  

Without a decree, the real union is the organization that is brewing around the strike, an organization that is the real sense of why unions and collective agreements emerged, to meet and solve our demands together. Let us unify the struggle!

The 80,000 workers of Matamoros, we fight for higher wages and for more! For a decent living, the strike goes on!

REVOLUTIONARY POPULAR FRONT

UNION OF THE REVOLUTIONARY YOUTH OF MEXICO

COMMUNIST PARTY OF MEXICO MARXIST-LENINIST

Categories: International, Workers Struggle