National Education Workers' Union
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| Full name | National Educational Workers Union |
|---|---|
| Native name | Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación |
| Founded | 1943 |
| Members | 1.4million |
| Affiliation | EI |
| Key people | President and Gen. Sec.: Prof. Juan Díaz de la Torre |
| Country | Mexico |
| Website | SNTE.org.mx |
Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación (National Educational Workers Union, SNTE) is a trade union which represents teachers in Mexico. Its current Secretary-General and President is Prof. Juan Díaz de la Torre
With over 1.4 million members, it is currently the largest teachers' union in the Americas and the largest union in Latin America. Formed in 1949, the SNTE is composed of local sections in each of Mexico's states. For much of its history, the SNTE has been a corporatist union allied with the long-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and has been accused of having government-appointed charro leaders and anti-democratic tendencies. This resulted in a movement in the late 1970s and early 1980s in which sections from several states began demanding democratic reforms in the union structure. This movement resulted in the fall of SNTE leader Carlos Jongitud Barrios in 1989. He was replaced by Elba Esther Gordillo as President, a position she held until her arrest in late February 2013.
The SNTE has its roots in the struggle of the teachers union since the time of President Porfirio Díaz, which easily suppressed all opposition. Teachers strikes in May 1919 and the strike of Veracruz in 1927 and 1928, established the need for an organisation. Both movements affected the construction and strengthening of the Mexican Confederation of Teachers.
With the building of opposition to the government, in 1932 saw the formation of the Mexican Confederation of Teachers, and in 1934, the League of Education Workers (under the leadership of the Communist Party of Mexico), the Workers' University and the National Federation of Education Workers. By 1935 the United Front was formed from the National Education Workers, culminating with the creation of the National Confederation of Education Workers, during a period of a huge boom in worker, peasant and popular union associations.
The SNTE began to consolidate from 1939, with the formation of various regionalised trade guilds and unions that were adhering to the Confederation of Workers of Mexico (CTM), which in turn served as the labor sector of the PRI.
In 1936 the Confederation of Workers of Mexico supported the creation of the Union of Education Workers of the Mexican Republic (STERM Inter). From its foundation, it began to form the basis of a national educational system. But due to both internal and external conflict, break away unions formed, including the Revolutionary Front of Teachers (after the Mexican Union of Teachers and Education Workers).
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