Organized Industrial Labor in Contemporary Mexico

Abstract

Mexican organized labor represents a unique case in Latin America. The Mexican Revolution that began in 1910 absorbed or channelized the organizing efforts that had preceded it. Succeeding regimes integrated organized labor into the governmental structure as one of its basic supports. During the Cárdenas administration, 1934-1940, this arrangement was given its definitive form. Debate continues on how deeply corrupted this official system has become, how real its benefits to the workers are, and how broad and significant the resistance to it has been.