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IPFS News Link • Mexican United States Relations

Mexico factory owners plead for president to intervene in border strikes

• https://www.latimes.com, By NACHA CATTAN

Index, as the group is known, published full-page newspaper ads and took to Twitter after workers at the maquiladoras — foreign-owned factories at the U.S.-Mexico border — demanded a 20% raise and a 32,000-peso ($1,662) bonus and walked off their jobs in January in the border city of Matamoros.

Since the leftist president took power Dec. 1, strikes have broken out in several states, including a blockade of trains by teachers in Michoacan that was unrelated to the maquiladora crisis. During his campaign, Lopez Obrador pledged to double the minimum wage nationwide over several years and to improve conditions for workers and their representation in unions.

Workers are dissatisfied, according to reports, because although the higher minimum wage would benefit the poorest of the workers, it's less than what many maquiladora workers in Matamoros make. And they believe their wages should increase to reflect the increase in the minimum wage.


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