Mexican unionism could go through strong turbulence. Contrary to the processes of democratic participation that union groups have experienced, the group historically led by Alejandra Barrales operates to cut off the democratic spirit in the election of the General Secretariat of the Aviation Flight Attendants Union Association (ASSA).
This sector is currently going through a perfect storm: airlines face financial instability, loss of routes and evident job insecurity; and in that context it is that the Barralista group enters the scene to divide the union, with the intention of recovering it as political loot and from there hitting the Government of President Claudia Sheinbaum; And they tell us Barrales has not finished assimilating the defeat suffered in 2018, when he competed for the head of Government of CDMX.
For this reason, in recent days the electoral process for flight attendants has become a field of dispute. Ricardo del Valle—who handed over historical rights under the excuse of the crisis—is trying to pull the strings again through Beatriz Mejía, a candidate with no union experience.
Sources within ASSA assure us that Ricardo del Valle’s intention is to challenge an eventual defeat of his favorite candidate, which would be a major problem for the federal government, since any union destabilization in this context could affect the image of governability and the efforts to regain confidence in the airline sector, especially in view of the negotiation of the T-MEC.
In this context, the group related to Alejandra Barrales began a campaign on social networks where they point to Beatriz Mejía as the virtual winner; to which Leticia Varela, presiding magistrate of the sixth chamber of the Federal Court of Conciliation and Arbitration, has lent herself, which constitutes a clear conflict of interest, since in her capacity as assistant to the unions in the processes of electing their leaders, she cannot be judge and party.
We will have to ask Cristóbal Arias, presiding judge of the Federal Court of Conciliation and Arbitration, if he is aware of and approves of the activism carried out by Judge Varela to favor a candidate for the General Secretariat of ASSA.
There is a lot at stake, because what the flight attendants decide these days will not only mark the destiny of a union, but also the direction of free unionism in Mexico.
BOOST TO MEZCAL
Campo Marte was the setting for Mundo Mezcal which, over the weekend, brought together more than 400 agave producers from eleven states in the country, with the aim of taking this drink to the place it deserves on the global map of distillates.
The initiative, promoted by Marisol Rumayor, Ricardo Desachy and Víctor Paredes, seeks to professionalize the sector, open international doors and consolidate agave distillates as a strategic industry that currently generates more than 55 thousand direct jobs and produces more than 11 million liters per year, with Oaxaca as the epicenter of 90 percent of that production.
@JuanMDeAnda