Merida, Yucatan — For International Worker’s Day, some 600 members of various collective trade unions marched in the Centro, from Santiago to the Government Palace, to demand respect and better working conditions.
They also demanded that jobs go to Mexicans, not migrants from Central America.
But the thrust of the May Day demonstration was worker conditions. Elda Cohuo stressed that there continue to be abuses against workers by government authorities who seize private land and exploit labor, they said.
Among the guilds were the Telephone Operators, El Barzón, the National Teachers University, the National Union of Agricultural Workers (UNTA), as well as parents
A demonstration was also organized from the Remate of the Paseo de Montejo to the Monument to the Fatherland. Workers at parque Eulogio Rosado, south of the main square, honored workers who have died in the struggle.
At La Plancha, the railroad yard where a baseball diamond for a union workers’ league is under threat, a ceremony alluded to workers in that industry.
“We see that farm work is still synonymous with exploitation, because all the promises to improve their working conditions have not been fulfilled as usual. And that is why we raise our voices,” said Claudia Cob of the Frente Amplio Campesino.
