Mexico Workers Hold Rival May Day Rallies Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit Mexico Workers Hold Rival May Day Rallies Reuters 01-MAY-99 MEXICO CITY, May 1 (Reuters) - Mexican workers massed in separate pro-government and opposition rallies on Saturday to mark the traditional Labour Day celebrations. The pro-government Labour Congress (CT) and breakaway National Workers' League (UNT) agreed to hold separate marches to avoid possible conflicts. Both demonstrations went ahead without the violent clashes seen in recent years between marchers and police. Thousands of workers affiliated to CT filled Mexico City's main Zocalo square early on Saturday to hear speeches from President Ernesto Zedillo and labour leader Leonardo Rodriguez Alcaine. Zedillo vowed government support for workers' rights and living standards, which the Harvard-trained economist said depended on the battle against inflation. "Today we know, better than ever, that we can persevere until we beat inflation, which eats up workers' wages. And for that reason we shall continue to work together, so that wages are worth more for everyone," Zedillo said in front of the National Palace on the main square. Government figures show that 60 percent of Mexican workers earn no more than the equivalent of $6.50 a day. In recent years, May Day celebrations were marred by the 1994-95 devaluation crisis and its aftermath, which severely undermined living standards and forced the CT to scrap outdoor rallies from 1995-97. After the official ceremony ended and the CT unions emptied the Zocalo, it was the UNT's turn to rally there after marching down Mexico City's main thoroughfares from the monument to the 1910 Revolution. Electricity workers opposed to government plans to privatise the power industry led the UNT rally and were joined by striking students from Mexico's biggest university, the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). The 35,000-strong Mexican Electricity Workers' Union charges that government plans to open the power industry to private investment will cause unemployment and higher rates. The government says its proposals are the only way to finance the estimated $25 billion cost of a 38 percent expansion in generation capacity it says the country will need over the next several years. The striking students, who have paralysed UNAM and the National Polytechnic Institute since April 20, set fire to an image of Zedillo outside the National Palace to protest the end of their effectively free education. UNAM administrators have proposed hiking tuition to about $63 per semester -- up from fees, unchanged since 1948, that are the equivalent of just two cents. Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited.All rights reserved. ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytcamer-05.12.99-02:28:40-22335