Strike due to inconsistencies that violate labor rights: workers

César Arellano García and Iván Evair Saldaña

The newspaper La Jornada
Tuesday, August 20, 2024, p. 4

Workers of the Federal Judicial Branch (PJF), the majority of whom are trusted, who began an indefinite strike early Monday morning at the headquarters of San Lázaro, stated that the reform initiative presented by the Morena bench over the weekend has a series of inconsistencies that violate their labor rights; in response, the Supreme Court Minister Lenia Batres stated that their protest does not respond to a labor conflict, but is of political nature.

In a tour that this newspaper made of several PJF offices, among the protests of the workers it was stated that the draft opinion of the reform does not guarantee the professionalization of the personnel of federal courts and makes them assume the position through popular vote, but in addition the trusts will disappear.

They say that the amendment will not affect workers, that their labor rights will be respected, (but) it is a big lie.said Patricia Aguayo Bernal, secretary of the tenth collegiate court of the first circuit. The first labor right that will affect us is taking away our judicial career, something for which we are constantly studying, preparing, attending training and specialization courses, and which today they want to take away because it occurred to Mr. President (AMLO) that judges and magistrates should be chosen through votes, but that is a system that does not work anywhere in the world.

He said that 20 of the 32 judicial circuits in the country joined the work stoppage. There are around 55 thousand workers who have shown solidarity, from this headquarters we are 3,500 who have suspended activities.

Another of the effects, he said, is the disappearance of the PJF funds and trusts so that the federal Executive can have access to that capital. It’s our money, don’t say it’s not an infringement on workers’ rights.

He added that since no authority approached them to start a dialogue, they will deliver a document to the Chamber of Deputies.

They demand respect for the judicial career

The document basically says that we want the judicial career to be respected; that the judicial school and the competitive examinations to be able to ascend to the categories of judges and magistrates continue to exist; that our salaries are not reduced in any way, nor are the benefits that we have set out in the general working conditions.he said.

Judge Juan Alfonso Patiño Chávez, of the fifteenth collegiate court on labor matters in CDMX, who supports the strikers, mentioned that the forums for analysis of the reform were in vain, because The issue of the non-existence of the judicial career became worse and now promotions will be “through a system of meritocracy, which turns the administration of justice into a matter of popularity.

Now it turns out that our legal framework requires more requirements to be a typist or court clerk than to be a circuit judge according to the reform proposal. This of course goes against the interest of Mexican society.

At the Revolution headquarters of the PJF, workers warned that the federal government intends to value the Legislative Branch in order to decimate a democratic State, as well as the rights of all workers.

Yesterday, the protesters also closed the main entrances to the building and put up banners reading: Today I defend myself to defend you, #We are all the Judiciary, Protecting the Judiciary is protecting the people. Respect for the division of powers, judicial independence” or Respect for work autonomyThey also chanted slogans including: We are all one, we are all one.

Emergency guards

Juan Javier Jiménez Alcántara, secretary of the court of the first circuit, said that although the Judiciary suspended activities indefinitely, We are sensitive to social needs, we are in an activity of dealing with on-call matters for any emergency.

In her X account, Lenia Batres Guadarrama pointed out that the work stoppage is not a response to a labor conflict or violations listed in Article 123 of the Constitution, but rather to a mobilization to prevent the Congress of the Union from reforming the Constitution to modify the Judicial Branch.

Conclusion: This is an act of a political nature. Let it be clearwrote.