The National Coordinator of Education Workers (CNTE) announced this Tuesday a new two-day national strike – 13 and 14 November – to demand, among other things, the abolition of the current pension plan and education reform. This strike represents the resumption of the mobilizations that began on May 15th and which, after 24 days, were suspended at the beginning of June after obtaining some concessions from Claudia Sheinbaum’s executive. “The federal government has violated the agreements signed with the CNTE”, the teachers underline in the statement. The Executive has not yet expressed its opinion on the matter.
At the end of the protests there was a slogan announcing the possibility of new mobilisations: “We are not tired or failed, we are on pause”. They had been on strike for several weeks, but failed to achieve their ultimate goal, the repeal of the ISSSTE law passed by the former president. panist Felipe Calderón in 2007, who privatized part of the pension system and created an individual savings system that abolished the lifetime pension. It is the statement that they have taken as their primary objective. In the last strike they obtained some concessions, such as freezing and reducing the retirement age or increasing wages by 10%.
The teachers defend that the increase they received “did not correspond to what was announced”. Among the demands of the new strike, they also highlight the repeal of the education reform, which is why they ask for the recovery of the philosophical character in education, as well as the work exception regime or the recognition of educational levels, such as physical, special and indigenous populations education. They also ask for an increase in the education budget: they ask for the allocation of 12% of GDP compared to the 4% suggested by the 2026 Spending Law.
The CNTE claims that the government is “lying” about the agreements signed after the negotiating tables in May and June. And they say that, contrary to what the Executive stated, the presidential decree does not respond to the needs of workers. Sheinbaum repeated several times during the last strike that he was in favor of the demands of teachers, traditional allies of the 4T movement, but that the lack of budget prevented reversing the system which now depends on the Administrators of Pension Funds (Afores), the private funds that manage the savings of state workers.
The document inviting Section XXII of the National Union of Education Workers (SNTE) indicates that its members will attend two modalities, the national one (in which 20% of its members will participate) and the state one (80%). Participants in the nationwide strike plan to surround the National Palace at six in the morning, demonstrate during Sheinbaum’s usual morning lecture, a march to the Union Congress and a sit-in, although they did not specify the location. The state-owned company plans to take over government offices and transnational companies.
