Research Paper on:
Labor Unions in Mexico

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
strike was over legitimate complaints that, in the US and elsewhere, would have had labor unions up in arms against management -- cockroaches in cafeteria food and physical abuse from  supervisors -- however, the union for these workers, the Revolutionary Federation of Workers and Farmers (CROC) refused to pay attention to workers complaints. Furthermore, CROC was implicated in the illegal  firings, which galvanized the workers into action to demand "legitimate, independent union representation" (Kastelein, 2001, p. 25). It can be argued that this situation is analogous for Mexican labor unions  as a whole. It exemplifies the manner in which the old, authoritarian union that held a firm grip on labor until 2000 and the election of Vincente Fox, still is  a powerful force in Mexico. However, just as the successful resolution of this strike and the fact that the workers complaints were heard indicates the other side of this coin,  which is that things are changing. An examination of Mexican labor unions demonstrates how the old is giving way to the new and with it a new purposefulness is invigorating  the Mexican labor movement. Mexican labor unions are primarily representative of workers living in urban areas. The majority of unions are  affiliated with the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI), through the Confederation of Workers of Mexico (CTM), which is associated with some independent unions and federations in an umbrella organization known  as the Congress of Labor (Congreso del Trabejo -- CT) (Library of Congress, 1996). The CT is considered to be the labor sector of the PRI and consists of more  than thirty organizations, which represent roughly 85 percent of unionized labor (Library of Congress, 1996). While the CT mediates between labor and the government, it also gives the government a