Politics: Radical teachers' struggle puts Sheinbaum government on the spot
While President Claudia Sheinbaum has been largely successful in curbing the impact of social protests, the radical dissident teachers’ movement is giving her a run for her money. The official National Teachers Union (SNTE), the largest labor union in Mexico and Latin America, despite its past affiliation with the PRI and seeing which way the wind is blowing, is now in Sheinbaum and Morena’s camp. But its 100,000-strong radical and dissident current, organized as the National Teachers Coordinating Committee (CNTE) isn’t inclined to rely on goodwill. While not rejecting a dialogue with the President, it continues to raise its own demands. These demands are backed by constant and massive militant protests, including sit-in encampments, blocking traffic on major thoroughfares, preventing access to the Chamber of Deputies and the Mexico City International Airport, and threatening a national strike.
The CNTE’s current demands center on annulling the 2007 Institute for Social Security and Services for State Workers (ISSSTE) Law with the aim of recovering the ISSSTE’s social character. Under what are called the “neoliberal” presidential administrations of the past, pensions were increasingly handled by Pension Fund Managers (Afores) as opposed to using public spending to cover their cost. More concrete demands involve seniority requirements for retirement and the amount of pensions to be paid.
Sheinbaum argues that the budget lacks sufficient funds to cover what would be a huge outlay to meet the CNTE's current demands. Indeed, doing so would exacerbate already fragile public finances. The government does not have the economic maneuvering room for major concessions. At the same time, considering the priority of attending to Trump’s tariff threats, Sheinbaum is not about to let a radical left-wing current derail the broad consensus backing her administration.
For now, Sheinbaum has shown a willingness to make concessions on the status of unpayable mortgage loans, freezing the minimum retirement age, and pledging that any ISSSTE legislation would not adversely affect workers’ interests or pocketbooks. But how long this difficult balancing act can continue is an open question.
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