ReturnExchange: Visit CTCP, Nicaragua visits FNOTNA, Mexico
By Orlando Mercado, CTCP, Nicaragua
As part of the StreetNet exchange visit programme CTCP, Nicaragua, discussed and planned a visit with FNOTNA in Mexico. The visit took place from 25th-28th November 2007. The delegation of the self-employed workers from Nicaragua (CTCP) making the exchange visit to meet and learn from FNOTNA, our Mexican counterparts organising street and market vendors of the informal economy, was constituted of four comrades: Orlando Jose Mercado, head of the delegation as Vice-co-ordinator of CTCP-FNT, Marvin Marenco Corea, Secretary for International Relations, Sandra Flores Jimenes, Secretary for Minutes and Agreements, and Maria Teresa Sanchez, Secretary of Markets Union.
The CTCP delegation was received by Gilberto Vasquez Muro, General Secretary of FNOTNA, the national federation of non-salaried workers of Mexico. We then met with Augustin Serna Servin, the General Secretary of CROC of Nuevo Leon, who briefed us about the organisation of the unsalaried workers in Nuevo Leon.
Between Thursday the 25th of November and Saturday the 27th of November 2007 we took part in the following activities:
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We met with Jose Benito Reyes, the CROC’s General Secretary of Unsalaried workers of Nuevo Leon to discuss how the unsalaried workers are being integrated into social insurance plans.
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A meeting with the general secretaries of the mobile markets of Nuevo Leon city.
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A meeting was held with the Director of the Institute of the Workers’s Technology University, Edilberto Cervantes Galvan, where he talked about the institute and its programme for the workers.
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We attended a press conference with the media department of CROC.
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Director of Commerce of Monterrey, Professor Jesus Fernandes Garza, met with us to present the work that is being done jointly with the organisations of unsalaried workers, which we thought was very positive.
To learn more about the mobile markets, the visiting delegation did an educational walk to visit the markets of the city of Nuevo Leon. We had the opportunity to see how these comrades work with the system of mobile markets and saw how it is organised so that routes are defined and markets work on these routes on agreed days.
On Sunday the 28th, we travelled to the Federal District of Mexico City. In the federal district, we visited the markets of the city and we participated in the ordinary council of the FNOTNA (National Fed-eration of Unsalaried Workers’ Organisations), where we were able to share experiences with some of the leaders who were present.
Our delegation issued a special invitation to FNOTNA to become a part of our alliance of Informal Economy Unions of Central America and Panama (SEICAP), which CTCP is directing to address the negative effects of globalisation in our sector.
We think it is very important that Mexico becomes part of our alliance so that in the future, it co-ordinates with other organisations of Latin America to keep on with the struggle for the recognition and the respect for self-employed workers’ rights. United, organised and empowered we will be unbeatable!