Abstract
This chapter analyses the main political and institutional factors in Mexico explaining the development and decline of labor unions during the twentieth century. The chapter includes an historical analysis of the main political and economic transitions that created a group of conditions in which organized labor flourished and declined. The corporatist structure and the hegemonic PRI party, merged within the institutional framework, defined the role of labor unions in various spheres. The political system experienced crucial transformations during the last decades of the past century while labor organizations struggled to adapt to this new context. They have survived the democratization and neoliberalization processes, although with diminished power and influence.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Bibliography
Barba, H. (2004). La contratación colectiva en México. In A. Bouzas (Ed.), La reforma laboral que necesitamos (pp. 123–150). Mexico: IIE-UNAM.
Bensusán, G. (2004). A new scenario for Mexican trade unions: Changes in the structure of political and economic opportunities. In K. Middlebrook (Ed.), Dilemmas of political change in Mexico. London: Institute of Latin American Studies; San Diego, CA: Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies, University of California.
Bizberg, I. (1990). Estado y sindicalismo en México. el Colegio de México.
Bizberg, I. (1993). Modernization and corporatism in government labor relations. In N. Harvey (Ed.), Mexico: Dilemmas of transition. London: ILAS and British Academic Press.
Bizberg, I., & García, A. (2004). ‘El sindicalismo en Mexico’. Seminario Permanente de Estudios del Trabajo. Mexico: STyPS.
Burgess, K. (2003). Mexican labor at a crossroads. In J. S. Tulchin & A. Selee (Eds.), Mexico’s politics and society in transition. Rienner: Boulder.
Burgess, K. (2004). Parties and unions in the new global economy. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.
Camacho, M. (1980). La clase obrera en la historia de México: el futuro inmediato. México: Instituto de Investigaciones Sociales, UNAM.
Camp, R. A. (2007). Politics in Mexico: The democratic consolidation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Caulfield, N. (1998). Mexican workers and the state: From the Porfiriato to NAFTA. Texas Christian University Press.
Centeno, M. A. (1994). Democracy within reason: Technocratic revolution in Mexico. University Park, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press.
Collier, R. B. (1992). The contradictory alliance: State-labor relations and regime change in Mexico. Berkeley: International and Area Studies, University of California.
Cook, M. L. (1995). Mexican state-labor relations and the political implications of free trade. Latin American Perspectives, 22(1), 77–94.
Córdova, A. (1976). La política de masas del Cardenismo. Mexico: Ediciones Era.
Cornelius, W. A. (2003). Politics in Mexico. In G. A. Almond et al. (Eds.), Comparative politics today: A world view (pp. 469–520). New York; London: Longman.
Cosío Villegas, D. (1972). El sistema político mexicano. Mexico: Mortiz.
De la Garza, E. (2003). La crisis de los modelos sindicales en Mexico y sus opciones. In E. De la Garza & C. Salas (Eds.), La situación del trabajo en Mexico, 2003 (pp. 349–377). Mexico: Plaza y Valdez.
De la Garza, E., & Melgoza, J. (1991). Los sindicatos frente a la productividad: telefonistas y electricistas. El Cotidiano, (41).
Demmers, J. (2001). Neoliberal reforms and populist politics: The PRI in Mexico. In J. Demmers et al. (Eds.), Miraculous metamorphoses: The neoliberalisation of Latin American populism. London: Zed Books.
Escobar, S. (2006). Los trabajadores en el siglo XX. Sindicato, Estado y sociedad en México: 1907–2004. México: STUNAM.
Fairris, D. (2005). What do unions do in Mexico. Working Paper, University of California, Riverside.
Fairris, D., Popli, G., & Zepeda, E. (2008). Minimum wages and the wage structure in Mexico. Review of Social Economy, 66(2), 181–208.
González, F. E. (2008). Dual transitions from authoritarian rule: institutionalized regimes in Chile and Mexico, 1970–2000. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Granados Chapa, M. A. (1995, July 27). Plaza Pública / Nueva cultura laboral. Reforma.
Grayson, G. (1989). The Mexican labor machine: Power, politics and patronage. Washington, DC: The center for strategic and international studies.
Hamilton, N., & Kim, S. (2004). Democratization, economic liberalisation, and labor politics: Mexico and Korea. Comparative Sociology, 3(1), 67–92.
Harvey, D. (2005). A brief history of neoliberalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Hathaway, D. (2000). Allies across the border: Mexico’s authentic labor front and global solidarity. Cambridge: South End Press.
Hodges, D. C., & Gandy, R. (2002). Mexico, the end of the revolution. Westport, CO: Praeger.
Hogenboom. (2004). Governing Mexico’s market democracy. In J. Demmers et al. (Eds.), Good governance in the era of global neoliberalism: Conflict and depolitisation in Latin America, Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa. London: Routledge.
Huntington, S. P. (1991). The third wave: Democratization in the late twentieth century. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.
Kohout, M. (2008). The new labor culture and labor law reform in Mexico. Latin American Perspectives, 35(1), 135–150.
La Botz, D. (1995). Democracy in Mexico: Peasant rebellion and political reform. Boston: South End Press.
Leal, F. (1986). Las estructuras sindicales. In F. Leal (Ed.), El obrero mexicano 3. Organización y sindicalismo. Mexico: IIS-UNAM.
Levy, D., & Bruhn, K. (2006). Mexico: The struggle for democratic development. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Magaloni, B. (2006). Voting for autocracy: Hegemonic party survival and its demise in Mexico (Vol. 296). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Medina, I. (2001). Sindicalismo Mexicano en transición. Universidad de Guadalajara (21).
Meléndez, M. (2007, October). Former leader of the CTM. Personal Interview, Mazatlán, Sinaloa.
Meyer, L. (2006, February). Academic scholar, El Colegio de Mexico. Mexico City.
Minns, J. (2006). The politics of developmentalism: The midas states of Mexico, South Korea and Taiwan. Basingstoke: Palgrave.
Morton, A. D. (2003). Structural change and neoliberalism in Mexico. Third World Quaterly, 24(4), 631–653.
Munck, R. (2003). Contemporary Latin America. Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Murillo, M. V. (2001). Partisan loyalty and union competition: Macroeconomic adjustment and industrial restructuring. In Ch. Candland & R. Sil (Eds.), The politics of labor in a global age. New York: Oxford University Press.
Pastrana, D. (2004, December). La CTM: ¿más viva que nunca? La Jornada, 12.
Patroni, V. (2001). The decline and fall of corporatism? Labor legislation reform in Mexico and Argentina during the 1990s. Canadian Journal of Political Science XXXIV, 2, 249–274.
Rother, L. (1989, January 12). Battleground of Mexicans; president takes aim at the unions’ power. The New York Times.
Schmitter, P. C. (1974). Still the century of corporatism? The Review of Politics, 36, 85–131.
Skidmore, T. E., & Smith, P. H. (2005). Modern Latin America. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Steger, M. B., & Roy, R. K. (2010). Neoliberalism: A very short introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Teichman, J. (1997). Neoliberalism and the transformation of Mexican authoritarianism. Mexican Studies / Estudios Mexicanos, 13(1), 121–147.
Vazquez-Anderson, A. (2004). Democracia en Mexico: transición hacia un corporativismo social. Espiral, X(29), 11–44.
Whitehead, L. (2002). Democratization: Theory and experience. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Xelhuantzi, M. (2000). La democracia pendiente: la libertad de asociación sindical y los contratos de protección en México. Sindicato de Telefonistas de la República Mexicana.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Zepeda, R. (2021). The Rise and Decline of Labor Unions in Mexico: Political and Institutional Factors. In: The Decline of Labor Unions in Mexico during the Neoliberal Period. Governance, Development, and Social Inclusion in Latin America. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65710-9_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65710-9_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-65709-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-65710-9
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)