Latin America: Unions Out

President Manuel Avila Camacho took the labor bull by the horns last week, struck at the last vestiges of union control of Mexico’s railroads. Management now has power to hire & fire, to disregard all union regulations which “slow up, impede or impair” operation—more power, in fact, than U.S. railway management possesses.

Mexico’s railroads, always insufficient, have been bedeviled by politics, have frequently broken down. In 1938 President Lázaro Cárdenas handed their management over to the railroad workers’ unions. This well-meant gesture turned out as badly as might have been expected. Strikes continued, wrecks increased, efficiency declined.

When the wartime shipping shortage increased their burden, the Mexican railroads groaned under the load. Wrecks rose to the incredible figure of 400-plus in 1943. The inability or failure of the U.S. to supply enough new rails and equipment had something to do with this record, but the persistent squabbles of labor groups and general disorder were the most important causes.