Section 22: Trade Unionism or Education?

Gloria Zafra
Instituto de Investigaciones Sociologicós U Autonónoma de Benito Juárez de Oaxaca

The National Education Workers’ Union (SNTE) is one of the most important labor groups in Mexico. Section 22, the Oaxaca branch of SNTE, has taken numerous important actions in the past two decades in the name of union democracy. Although Section 22 has been in existence for 26 years, only now have its struggles transcended state and national borders. What began as a yearly mobilization has become a popular movement (APPO) intent on removing the state’s governor from office.

After seven months of conflict, the governor has not resigned, a new teachers’ union in Oaxaca has been recognized by SNTE and APPO, without Section 22, is struggling to have its prisoners released. We are only now beginning to understand the power struggles that took place during the “Oaxacan affair” and their effects. What is clear is that among the biggest losers were the children of Oaxaca; among the biggest winners were certain members of the teachers’ organizations. I focus my commentary here on the history, ideology and actions of Section 22.

Union Successes

In 1980, 30,000 education workers in Oaxaca who were demanding salary increases and union democracy formed a group called the “Movimiento Democrático.” Although this faction was opposed by the national leadership of SNTE, it succeeded in gaining control of Section 22. The group, now called the “Teachers’ Democratic Movement,” currently has 70,000 members. Section 22 has applied pressure to obtain its goals over the years through tactics such as sit-ins, occupations of streets, and marches to state and federal capitals. The Teachers’ Democratic Movement and its allies have maintained control of Section 22 through a complex system of rewards and punishments.

Section 22 has been able to negotiate with state governments without going through the national executive committee of SNTE, which in theory is responsible for bargaining for Mexico’s 1,300,000 educational workers. Achievements of Section 22 include: a large Christmas bonus; while teachers in most of the country receive 40 days’ pay, Oaxaca’s teachers receive pay for 90 days; a productivity bonus which started at five days’ pay in 1999 and reached 19 days’ pay in 2005; the possibility of retired teachers’ passing on their positions to their sons and daughters; union approval of supervisors and school presidents; and the establishment of an internal judicial system which allows the teachers’ union to be both judge and jury with respect to complaints against its members.

Educational Challenges

These union successes have not led to improvement in the education of the more than 1.3 million students in the state. Students in Oaxaca receive an average of six years of schooling; the national average is eight years. Both boys and girls perform poorly on tests of reading, writing and comprehension. Some state officials blame these deficiencies on uncommitted, often absent, teachers. Section 22, in contrast, attributes these problems to both an education model imposed by the Secretary of Public Education and time lost during protests when state and federal authorities turn down their demands for higher salaries and better working conditions.

The leader of the National Education Workers Union (SNTE in Spanish), Enrique Rueda Pacheco (C), marches alongside thousands of teachers in Oaxaca on June 16, 2006, demanding the resignation of Governor Ulises Ruiz after some 2,000 police burst into the town’s main square, wielding clubs and firing tear gas at the protesting teachers who had been camping out there for 22 days calling for cost-of-living adjustments in Oaxaca. Photo courtesy of STRINGER/AFP/Getty Images

Section 22’s mobilization, organization and discourse have been profoundly influenced by the 20 guiding principles of a union rulebook written in 1982 and approximately nine ideological tenets. The former establishes how teachers must behave if they wish to keep their union rights; the latter provides militants with a discourse based on class struggle. These principles and tenets have helped Section 22 achieve an iron-clad corporate structure. Although it is unclear which factions will control Section 22 in the future, the teachers were, as usual, economically successful in their latest actions. They won a promise to raise their base pay, a significant salary increase, and pay for ten weeks of the school year when no classes were taught because of the union’s strike.

Since the failed attempt by the government on June 14 to dislodge protestors from the zócalo, both internal and external critics of Section 22 have been largely silent. It is crucial now that the teachers, local authorities and parents’ organizations come together to discuss the future of public education in Oaxaca.

Gloria Zafra is a professor and former head of the Instituto de Investigaciones Sociologicós Universididad Autonónoma de Benito Juárez de Oaxaca. She has conducted research for many years on education in Oaxaca. Leah Leone translated the original draft of this commentary from Spanish to English.