Mexico has become one of the countries with the lowest wages in the world and in 2013 workers are being given "puny" increases; thus, the National Workers Union (UNT) will propose that the Executive [Peña Nieto] undertake a national "program of wage recovery" that includes mechanisms for halting the decline in the purchasing power of Mexican workers.
The proposal, for example, considers that the minimum wage is now no longer a factor for control of inflation. [This policy] has already been extremely negative for workers, since it has restricted their salary increases, while the prices of commodities, of services and of the entire market have continued to rise. Moreover, the policy of indexing the payment of fees, taxes, mortgage and everything else to the minimum wage has ruined the income of workers who do not have a collective bargaining agreement.
The wage recovery program also includes a review of the relationship between the domestic market, wages and generation of employment. This review is necessary due to a disconnect between policies, which gives rise to the paradox that, for example, the Secretariat of Economy might approve a group of products for duty-free entry, which increases imports, but domestic products remain in the warehouses. As is true with sugar [imports], these policies displace domestic jobs; they not utilize our national workforce and, hence, workers do not have better income.
The leader of the Workers Union at the National Autonomous University of Mexico [UNAM], Agustín Rodríguez, said that once the program is reviewed by the UNT, they will seek a meeting with the Chief Executive [Peña Nieto] to present it, as the current salary level of the country's workers is pitiful. The intent is to get a commitment from the federal government to review the country's income range and economic development, and to recognize that [government policies are] creating a generation of poor Mexican workers without possibilities for improving their income, when it is possible to develop the domestic market in order to create jobs and improve workers' wages.
[The UNT] also argued that the minimum wage is currently not even enough to buy thirty-five percent of commodities, so the policy by which it is set should be revised, so that the basic needs of workers are met.
To the wage improvement program is added a review of subsidies and strengthening of social programs [safety net]. But more than scholarships or supplies, it is proposed that resources be injected into strategic rural areas, since it is impossible to compete when the land continues to be cultivated with [horse-drawn] plow in much of the country.
Another key point is to establish performance requirements for foreign investment; for example, fast food establishments import all their supplies and use cheap labor for big profits. There are also companies whose entire merchandise is imported, so it is a fantasy that they may arrive with big capital, when [the reality is that] they generate extremely high revenue, but it is taken out of the country.
CTM Demands Food Aid
Meanwhile, the Confederation of Workers of Mexico (CTM) indicated through [supportive] lawmakers in both chambers, that they will propose establishment of a mechanism or scheme by which workers may be paid for productivity, which is already stated in the labor reform. Similarly, [the CTM] will demand implementation of the food aid program that was approved over a year ago, but that is now a dead letter.
The UNT stated that it is a shame that Mexico has the lowest wages in the world and that it has become a nation of cheap labor, cheaper than Asian countries. To avoid this becoming a social problem, the decline in labor income must be addressed, which is currently of such magnitude that it has even brought much of the labor sector to suffer from hunger. Spanish original