For many days I have had on my desk an impressive manuscript of a work by Dr. Aleida Hernández Cervantes** titled "The Transformations of the State and Law in the Context of Economic Globalization". The worst part is that I do not know why the author herself gave it to me. I thought it might be a doctoral thesis, but clearly that is not the case because the author already holds the doctorate and is also a professor at the Graduate Division of my Law School.
I started reading as a matter of discipline but certainly the work interests me more and more, even though the economic principles are difficult for me to understand. But the writing is very clear, and the support that she gives for her primary thesis has allowed me to enjoy reading.
Dr. Hernández Cervantes argues that alongside the law of each country, based on sovereignty, global economic circumstances have created a new discipline in economic matters. Its main protagonist would be the globalization that is hidden in the founding agreements of international agencies, including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
Without the least doubt and bypassing national sovereignty, these agencies have created a legal system conducive to globalization that is nothing more than the result of a set of international standards for regulating the economic life of the world, superseding national decisions. In other words: it has created, factually, a superior Legislative Authority that, without seeking formal obedience, is imposed on each country by the necessary presence of international agencies that regulate economies over national legislation.
Obviously, this has to do with the recent and painful reform of the Federal Labor Law (LFT) presented to us by a Congress in which the PAN [National Action Party] imposed the new rules of the game--obviously with an absolute business sense--that dissolve the protective nature in favor of workers in order to replace it with a clear pro-business protection that today runs throughout the assembled world in clear violation of the constitutional norms that still govern us.
MV Note: The labor reform was proposed by President Felipe Calderón of the PAN, but only passed in November 2012, in the closing days of his administration, by the new Congress that had been elected in July and taken office in September. The legislation also had the support of Enrique Peña Nieto of the PRI, then president-elect, who was inaugurated on December 1, 2012.
Mexico, of course, has complied with international standards governing labor relations. As a result, laws are reformed, as we have done in the country or, simply, the provisions of international organizations are fulfilled, even though it may be to the detriment of the treaties that the International Labor Organization made possible and whose binding force in Mexico cannot be put in doubt.
Unfortunately, we are in the presence of a conflict of laws in which compliance with external rules-- now embedded in the new Federal Labor--dominates. This compliance thus breaks with a tradition started by the original LFT and confirmed by the 1970 and 1980 reforms. It is clear that this has been possible starting with both the PRI [Party of the Institutional Revolution] and the PAN governments, which have been characterized by their deep sympathy with the right and, therefore, with the corporate world. The main channels have been the administrative and jurisdictional agencies charged with enforcement of labor standards, in particular the Secretariat of Labor and Social Welfare and the boards of conciliation and arbitration, whose business orientation nobody can question.
The new Federal Labor Law is the best proof of this. But the result is unfortunate. What once ran the risk of contradicting labor law is, today, satisfied by obedience to the rules of international trade: globalization first.
The new Federal Labor Law is the best proof of this. But the result is unfortunate. What once ran the risk of contradicting labor law is, today, satisfied by obedience to the rules of international trade: globalization first.
It goes without saying that I hope Dr. Hernandez Cervantes will publish her work. It will spotlight the reasons why our labor tradition will pass into the dustbin of history unless we achieve a democratic unionism rather than the corporate rubbish we have suffered for so many years. Democratic unionism would uphold the rights of workers that have been lost with the Federal Labor Law reform. Fortunately there are still unions, such as mining and electricians, that have the ability to put things in order. Spanish original
*Néstor de Buen Lozano is an attorney specializing in labor law. He earned the Doctor of Law, with honors, from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). Born in Seville, Spain, he is a naturalized Mexican citizen. A renowned professor emeritus of the UNAM, Nestor de Buen is a recognized expert in the field of labor law and has published extensively.
**Aleida Hernández Cervantes holds the Doctor of Law from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) with honors. Thesis topic "Transformations of State and Law in the Context of Economic Globalization." She is a professor in the Division of Graduate Studies of the Faculty of Law at UNAM where she teaches Contemporary Legal Theory, History of Philosophy of Law, Epistemology and Legal Methodology. She has published in the areas of social security and labor.