The Truth About Union Transparency

Obama’s victory spurs democracy on

The National Miners’ Union is a long-standing organisation in the Mexican workers’ movement, and since its founding 78 years ago it has developed a politics characterised by its genuine devotion to union autonomy. Faced with the changing circumstances of life in Mexico, the miners’ union, founded in the city of Pachuca in 1934, maintained and developed the different values and principles of independent and democratic unionism.

Autonomy is not a simple abstract concept, it is an active reality. It means freedom of association for unions, the defence of collective labour contracts, the right to strike, autonomous management of union internal elections for the selection of leaders and those people who represent the union in the various branches of its influence, the responsible and autonomous use of the  economic resources that affiliated workers give to the union organisation to support its fight and for administrative, legal and political functions, as well as complete transparency in the management of those resources. This transparency is demonstrated every day but the organisation demonstrates particular accountability every two years when workers meet at the biannual general meeting.

Felipe Calderón’s labour reform proposal, with its obvious intention to benefit employers, will be a political mistake for the immediate future, one that contains a special chapter about transparency and accountability for all Mexican unions. On this topic, Calderón and the PAN (Nation Action Party)’s proposal is a trap into which all ministers and senators have fallen because they fail to understand that with it this government is set on showing itself as a defender of democracy and union transparency. Nothing could be more false.

A significant piece of information for the Miners’ Union is that, although since its beginning the union has always practiced accountability and transparency, Calderón has pursued it to an extent never seen before. This reveals that his declared support of union democracy is underpinned by a total lack of consistency and plenty of doublespeak. The union statutes clearly establish that the only people whose responsibility it is to understand these issues are the member workers themselves, and it is by no means the business of third parties, be they civil servants, politicians, government or companies, because mine workers are neither naïve nor are they new to political or social life. Calderón and the PAN specifically mean to break the principle of union autonomy in this part of their proposal. And it is precisely this principle that certain Leftist and PAN legislators support, although they fail to appreciate that PAN as well as PRI members of congress have, with 80 percent support in the chambers, approved one of the most harmful reforms ever to affect Mexican workers.

If we definitively accept Calderón’s labour reform proposals, together with the attack on union autonomy, Calderón and the PAN would gain a victory that is underserved and unethical. They are asking unions to be obediently accountable to them and to what they call society, but at no point have they asked companies or government to be similarly accountable or practice this transparency in everything they do, so that the country also is kept informed about their business.

Their hypocrisy hides the deceptive nature of this proposed reform. According to its authors, only workers’ organisations, between which no distinctions are drawn,  operate outside the law. On the other hand, the unions’ accusers and pursuers from antisocial companies and the conservative government show off how morally perfect they are and how their actions are always inscribed in absolute legality. They claim that they consequently have no need to expose themselves to external public scrutiny because the practices of corruption and impunity that they employ are simply to be applauded rather than punished. We should not presume that there are laws and budgetary authorities that govern this kind of accountability, because it has always been evident that the most powerful companies are the ones who evade their legal and budgetary responsibilities to the greatest degree, on top of their paying reduced rates of tax to the treasury. Even governments let them off their multimillion dollar debts and give them tax rebates every year. Where in Calderón’s proposal is there even the slightest attempt to level the playing field between company bosses and unions?

Right-wing governments, unscrupulous politicians and some company bosses have been acting for decades like the defenders of big capital and the ruthless pursuers of all those of us who have been upstanding in our opposition of this unfair politics, in both union and social spheres. Now that Calderón is fortunately on his way out of presidential office, the time has come to intensify his attack. They want labour reform accompanied by a union counter-reform that puts legitimate workers’ organisations, and the people who work on behalf of them and their families, into the same category as organisations whose corruption meant they ceased to be authentic unions defending the rights of their members decades ago.

Legislators are not even aware of this, and they are joining the employers’ attempt to nullify all unions. But the Right knows what it is doing: establishing a huge concentration camp to irrationally exploit Mexican workers, without a trace of any organisation that might defend them.