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 Business News | August 2005 
Leader of Largest Mexican Labor Union Coalition Dies
 Morgan Lee - Associated Press
| | Labor leader Leonardo Rodriguez Alcaine, left, arrives with Mexican President Vicente Fox at an official May Day event in Mexico City in 2001. (Photo: Houston Chronicle) |
Mexico City — Leonardo Rodriguez Alcaine, the leader of Mexico's largest and most politically influential labor organization, died Saturday at a hospital in Mexico City from a heart illness, union officials said. He was 86.
Rodriguez Alcaine served as secretary-general of the Mexican Workers' Confederation since the death in 1997 of Fidel Vazquez, the iron-fisted boss who dominated Mexico's union movement since the late 1930s.
Under Rodriguez Alcaine, the confederation maintained close ties to Mexico's former ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which held the presidency from 1929 until President Vicente Fox's election in 2000.
When Fox addressed jeering members of the labor confederation last year, Rodriguez Alcaine criticized the president on Mexico's economy, saying that there were not enough jobs to keep up with population growth and that Mexico's youths were unlikely to stable find work.
But leaders of the 5 million-strong confederation have long been criticized for guaranteeing labor peace while keeping wages low. Mexico's minimum wage is about US$4.25 (euro3.50) per day.
Fox's proposals to overhaul Mexico's antiquated labor laws remain stalled in an opposition-dominated Congress, where the PRI still holds the largest voting bloc.
PRI President Roberto Madrazo was in a long line of visitors today to attend a viewing for Rodriguez Alcaine at a funeral home in Mexico City.
Known for feisty exchanges with the press, Rodriguez Alcaine was a native of Texcoco in Mexico State who went to work at 19 for Mexico's state-owned power utility, the Federal Electricity Commission.
He climbed through the ranks for Mexico's national electricians' union to become its secretary-general in 1975.
Rodriguez Alcaine headed the electricians' wing of the Mexican Workers' Confederation before his election as secretary-general. He was elected to a second, six-year term in 2004.
The labor leader's body was to be transported to the headquarters of the Mexican Workers' Confederation.
Rodriguez Alcaine is survived by his wife Margarita Salazar.
More information about funeral plans and family were not immediately available. |
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