Strikes and Demonstrations in Guadalajara and Mexico

Teachers are a huge part of every society and every community in the world.  Teachers can inspire children to do their best and in some cases be the one stable person in a child's life.  Here in Mexico, the teachers have been affected by new reform laws that the president is trying to pass. 

Road blocks put up my teachers on the main streets of Oaxaca.

The laws are quite simple, they don't change much except for two very important areas. 

1)  Like in most places, being a teacher in Mexico is not one of the highest paid jobs you can decide to take on.  The new reform wants to cut all summer vacation pay for all teachers in public schools in the country, no matter what level of education they are teaching.  This change would obviously drastically reduce wages for teachers, and make the profession even less desirable for younger generations as well as cut benefits. 

The strikes in Guadalajara

2)  The reforms also require that all teachers no matter how old or how long they have been teaching take a comprehensive education test.  This wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing, sometimes these tests are good to keep teachers current on what they are teaching and different teaching methods.  Here, however, the older teachers are afraid that these tests will be used against them in a way where those who don't score high enough will be fired and lose all retirement benefits only a few years before they are eligible for retirement.

 Its been a very interesting situation around here with traffic and marches and protests.  So far all of them have been peaceful.  On September 4th, the day these pictures were taken, we had one of the biggest marches in GDL.  Over 1,600 teachers, students, family and community members marched in protest of these reforms.  There were also over 60 city and traffic police on hand to help with the marches and keep everyone safe.  The protestors walked for 2 hours from one side of the city to the other, and then stopped in front of these bleachers to have public speeches.  It was very interesting to be a part of these manifestations.