Background on the Issue
The Coordinadora Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación (CNTE), a group of teachers advocating for educational reform, has been pushing for the repeal of the 2007 Instituto de Seguridad y Servicios Sociales de los Trabajadores del Estado (ISSSTE) law. The teachers are concerned about the sustainability of their pension system, which they believe is inadequately funded.
Meeting with Government Officials
On Wednesday, the CNTE held a more than five-hour meeting with officials from the Secretaría de Gobernación (Segob), including representatives from the Secretaría de Educación Pública (SEP), ISSSTE, and Hacienda y Crédito Público. The teachers’ main demand was the abrogation of the 2007 ISSSTE law.
Teachers’ Demands and Government Response
The teachers, led by Yenny Pérez Martínez of the Sección 22 in Oaxaca, criticized the government’s proposal as insufficient. The government suggested maintaining the retirement age at 58 for men and 56 for women, with a gradual reduction every three years until 2028. However, Pérez Martínez stated that this does not address their central demand for the repeal of the 2007 ISSSTE law.
In response, Segob and SEP proposed the creation of an Interdisciplinary Collective to analyze alternative pension system strengthening options and the formation of tripartite commissions involving federal, state authorities, and teacher representatives to tackle labor issues. They also invited teachers to collaborate on a new teacher income, promotion, and recognition model to replace the current USICAMM system, which is one of CNTE’s primary demands.
Pension Fund Concerns
The teachers argue that the funds in their Afores (Voluntary Private Retirement Accounts) are insufficient to cover even three years of pension payments for ISSSTE workers. Currently, there are 979,677 million pesos in Afores for ISSSTE workers, according to the Comisión Nacional del Sistema de Ahorro para el Retiro (Consar).
If these resources were transferred to a socially-oriented administration system, as proposed by the CNTE, it would provide enough funds to cover nearly three years of ISSSTE pensions. However, the annual pension payout is 339,394 million pesos, with 99% funded by the federal government using public resources.
The CNTE also proposes that active workers’ retirement contributions be used to support their colleagues’ pensions, aiming to reverse the 2007 ISSSTE reform that moved state workers (including teachers) into individual Afores accounts, transferring pension payment responsibility from the government to workers.
Key Questions and Answers
- What does the CNTE demand?
- Repeal of the 2007 ISSSTE law.
- Elimination of Afores and individual pension accounts, returning to a collective system funded by government and worker contributions.
- Rejection of pension calculation using UMAS, demanding the use of the minimum wage as a reference.
- Abrogation of the 2019 educational reform, including the suppression of USICAMM and SICAMM laws.
- 100% salary base increase, beyond the 9% offer from the government.
- Replacement of USICAMM with a new teacher promotion, admission, and retention system agreed upon by teachers.
- What does the government offer?
- Gradual reduction of retirement age through a decree.
- Establishment of an Interdisciplinary Collective to explore pension system alternatives.
- Replacement of USICAMM and enhancement of workers’ labor rights.
- Implementation of tripartite commissions to address demands and find solutions.
- Guarantee of no retaliation against teachers participating in protests.
