A three-month strike shutting down one of Mexico’s top universities lays bare class schisms, the López Obrador government’s tepid response to inequality, and organized labor’s limitations in building solidarity across class divides.
The shutdown of Bolivia’s state-run textile company calls into question the alliance between President Evo Morales and the Bolivian Workers Central at a crucial political and economic juncture.
Since July 23, workers have been on strike at Colombia's private railway company FENOCO demanding better salaries, improved work conditions, and more social investments in areas of coal production. The strike may have serious implications on coal supply and prices in international markets, considering that Colombia is among the world’s largest coal exporters.
Colombian oil workers resumed their protests in Puerto Gaitan last week, once again confronting security forces. The new protests come after the Colombian government and the Canadian oil company Pacific Rubiales failed to fulfill promises made during last month’s oil workers’ strike.
Last week, in perhaps the largest recent strike in Colombia, 10,000 workers walked out of several multinational oil companies in the Department of Meta. The strikes came in response to recent layoffs and the dismal working conditions in Meta, which over the last few years has become the epicenter of the country’s oil production.
