The relationship between President López Obrador and the Mexican Union of Electricians was endorsed this morning at the National Palace. More than twelve years after the decree that extinguished Luz y Fuerza del Centro was published, a compensation program for a fraction of the company’s workers was announced this Thursday. And with this, President López Obrador could be ensuring the support of the electricians’ union for the reform he is promoting.
The parastatal disappeared on October 11, 2009, after the government of President Felipe Calderón ignored its union leader MartÃn Esparza and published a decree that settled the extinction. A few days later, on the outskirts of San Lázaro, López Obrador accompanied the leader of the electricians at a rally and asked for an investigation into the company’s extinction. The act was also attended by some legislators such as Ricardo Monreal and Gerardo Fernández Noroña.
The Calderón government’s argument for the disappearance of Luz y Fuerza was based on the high costs it represented for the State. After the extinction, the PAN president promised an efficient and modern service for the center of the country, where Luz y Fuerza provided the service. The closure of the company left 45,000 workers unemployed, according to official figures.
Its extinction occurred in the middle of a presidential speech, which assured that a profound change was also needed in other sectors, such as education and telecommunications.
Now, the administration of President López Obrador intends to compensate for what it calls an unfair and unjustified decision taken “within the framework of neoliberal and privatization policies”: this Thursday it announced a benefit for 8,892 former parastatal workers who were about to retire in the time of the company’s demise.
The program intends that Luz y Fuerza workers with at least 19 years, six months and one day working in the company before its extinction, can access a pension that ranges from 3,200 to 63,000 pesos per month, according to what was said in the morning conference at the National Palace. The main condition is that they desist from any process initiated before the Conciliation and Arbitration Board and that they undertake not to open any other in the future.
The federal government would get rid of around 2,100 labor lawsuits initiated after the parastatal’s extinction, according to the official communication.
The negotiation of the measure seems to have brought this political force even closer to the federal government. In the communiqués issued in recent months, and in which the petitions are referred to, the Union speaks of its support for the presidential initiative that aims to change the dynamism of the market to favor the state-owned CFE.
One of the demands that the organization has is the labor reintegration of its workers to the national electricity company. The dissolved company provided the service to some 25 million people in Mexico City – then the Federal District – and the State of Mexico, Puebla, Morelos and Hidalgo. At that time, the state-owned CFE had the rest of the clients, around 75 million homes and businesses. After that, the second company, which today monopolizes the spotlight for the presidential reform, became the owner of the entire service.
“Mr. President, you can count on our strong support in rescuing Mexico’s energy sovereignty through the approval of your electricity reform initiative, which we will undoubtedly achieve,” reads one of the statements signed by Martin Esparza, the leader union. The Union, according to the information disseminated on social networks, has constantly held forums to talk about the electricity reform and the benefits that this, from its perspective, could attract.
The Institute to Return the Stolen to the People (INDEP), one of the organizations created by the president at the beginning of the six-year term and which is now leading the initiative, had already launched other favorable measures for the electricians’ union.
In September 2020, it announced the forgiveness of mortgage debts to 4,870 former employees of Luz y Fuerza. “Excited by this legal procedure that frees them from debts of 300,000 and up to 900,000 pesos, derived from their mortgage loans, the former workers and retirees, members of the Mexican Union of Electricians, endorsed their support for the president,” says the statement of that moment.
