| Mexico City--Nov. 21--The head of Mexico's main sugar
workers union said he expects a six-day strike to end within a week after
labor and management start talks today. The strike over a pay raise and
retirement benefits has delayed the six-month 2000-2001 sugarcane harvest
that begins this month.
Enrique Ramos, secretary-general of the Sugar Industry Workers Union,
told reporters at Mexico's Labor Secretariat the strike has idled not only
mill workers but also cane cutters and truck drivers who are going unpaid,
hurrying the need for a prompt resolution. "The union wants to end
this thing this week," he said.
Cane also is starting to ripen in the fields and can only remain ripe
for a week to 15 days before its yield begins to diminish; so every day
spent on strike would lower the total sugar harvest, Ramos said. He
calculated Mexico's current sugar surplus at 570,000 tonnes.
About 50,000 workers at all but four of Mexico's sugar mills went on
strike for a 25% pay raise and boosted retirement benefits Nov. 15, around
the time of the start of the harvest season, Ramos said. Workers are also
demanding clinics at their workplaces and houses. Ramos said the union
wouldn't back off from the 25% pay hike demand. Inflation in Mexico is
expected to close 2000 at less than 9%, Finance Secretary Jose Angel
Gurria said Tuesday. |