It is a bad sign for a government that any government agency goes on strike, and it is paradoxical that the government demands working conditions that it itself does not comply with. Already with López Obrador, there was the terrible history of the state news agency NOTIMEX, which was on strike since February 2020 for more than 1,400 days due to labor demands, until its extinction in December 2023. Although it stopped operating as a news agency since June 2020, Sanjuana Martínez remained as director to operate its closure and continued to exercise a budget item. It is suspected that there were diversions of funds promoted by the president himself. One more case of corruption. In the end, Sanjuana Martínez made a turn and publicly accused the Secretary of Labor of conditioning the payment of the settlements to the delivery of 20% of them to the Sheinbaum campaign. Today that painful episode of the closure of NOTIMEX is barely remembered.
But it came to mind with the partial stoppage of activities initiated last week by workers of the Tax Administration Service (SAT), although the nature of these two strikes is different. This SHCP agency has about 25,000 employees and workers. Until now they have carried out staggered strikes and “arms down” actions.
Many of the complaints are a consequence of the reckless cuts carried out in Q4. The SAT is not the only one that, due to lack of budget for the maintenance of facilities and equipment, maintains deplorable conditions. For example, just look at the sorry state of the bathrooms in any government office.
It is not known if this conflict could escalate, but for now it is a guarded forecast. For now, it is shameful that the government cannot offer and guarantee legal and decent working conditions to its own workers.
