Since November 19, the workshops and teachers of the PILLARS in Mexico City were notified that their attendance at the march that President Andrés Manuel López Obrador will lead next Sunday, November 29 was mandatory. In some cases, in addition, it was instructed that each one must carry 10 people because otherwise “measures would be taken” which include dismissing them as beneficiaries of the different programs and that for a good part of them has become their employment and the only income they have, denounced teachers of these spaces.
“On November 19, the Project Coordinator Leaders had a meeting with Javier Hidalgo (director of the local Sports Institute) and he told them that all the beneficiary figures had to go (to the march) and that we had to bring more people (…) or else they were going to take action on the matter because she was practically low from the program,” shared a teacher of cyberschool of a PILAR of the mayor’s office of Gustavo A. Madero who requested not to publish his name for fear of reprisals.
“Yes, I am going to go (to López Obrador’s march) precisely because of this threat, but I have even thought about carrying some signs to say ‘they brought me by force,'” added the young man who since his inauguration in 2019 has worked on the PILLARS, a strategy headed by the government of Claudia Sheinbaum.
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This is not the first time that workshops and collaborators are threatened to participate in political events, since on other occasions they have already been asked to attend López Obrador’s rallies in the Zocalo or more recently to the government reports that Sheinbaum gave, on the occasion of his fourth year in office. in the 16 mayor’s offices of Mexico City.
“We had to collaborate for the vaccination days and although that did not touch us because we said ‘órale va, we must support’, but this we do feel that it has nothing to do with what the program claims to be and we feel that it is a purely political issue. Recently Claudia Sheinbaum came to the delegation and also the instruction was that we go, “explained the young man.
“In some PILLARS some bosses did raise it in a more subtle way because they did not want to get into so many problems (…) But there were some who said ‘and they have to meet 10 people per head’… just like the (program) Ponte Pila gave them posters to stick everywhere,” he said.
These are the same posters that Animal Político documented were placed without authorization at the ticket offices, platforms and trains of the Metro, as well as those that have appeared in the streets of the capital of the country and that, even, the head of the Sports Institute, Javier Hidalgo boasted, in his Twitter account, that he was pasting in the facilities of the institute he directs.
“It is not the cause of a party, it is the cause of an entire people. That’s right, my party is Mexico.
Everyone who wants to go, women, men of good will are invited, everyone@lopezobrador_ pic.twitter.com/lJRcTOYLU6
— Javier Hidalgo (@Javier_Hidalgo) November 24, 2022
In fact, asked about it, the public official reported that he had paid for the printing of 500 posters supporting the mobilization of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
“They didn’t give us (posters) although we did think they were going to send us to beat them, but no. What is true is that in some PILLARS they notified that they were going to send trucks,” he said.
Here pasting the posters for the Celebration with the President @lopezobrador_ of the 4 years of transformation in the Institute of @DeporteCDMX 😎✌🏽🇲🇽 pic.twitter.com/s1Yb4HFSmK
— Javier Hidalgo (@Javier_Hidalgo) November 23, 2022
The young man, who combines his work with his studies, stressed that although his family is aware of the situation, he will not ask them or their neighbors or friends to accompany him on Sunday to the march. “It’s a risk I plan to take,” he replied when asked what will happen if his superiors, at the time of taking the list, reproach him for not having complied with the quota.
Separately, another beneficiary of the PILLARS whom we will identify with the name of Laura, said that a week ago they received a message in the WhatsApp group where their superior and colleagues are in which their boss “invited” them to attend the march next Sunday.
“Rather, he told us that those who wanted to go to tell him and sign up (…) As obviously no one raised their hand, the tone of the message changed, “said the young woman who also works as a teacher at a cyber school.
“There is never the opening of anything (…) We do have to access everything because effectively it is always like putting this question of saying ‘well’ well.i no, you know next year how they are going to go’, that is, obviously it refers to work because every year we put our papers to continue, “reproached Laura.
In the case of the young woman, she was not required to bring more people, although they already have the lists with which they will confirm their attendance at the mobilization.
“It’s very unpleasant because finally the fact that they are conditioning us when in reality I do not consider that they are giving us anything, finally we do not even have benefits, then it is not like we say ‘oops, no, then the super job’ so that they condition us that ‘if you do not do such a thing we are going to get you out of here'”. Held.
Another teacher of a PILLARS in Gustavo A. Madero, shared that her superior also went from “who likes to accompany us” to “it is mandatory to go”, and although he did not explicitly tell them that if they did not go to the mobilization they could be left without the support they give them, the young woman does not want to risk so she will go to the march.
“Obviously it is not my plan to go to the march, however, under these constant threats one fears losing this job – in quotes – because we do not have any type of benefits because we are under the name of scholarship holders or service facilitator beneficiaries,” he explained.
Constant abuse
These complaints are added to those made by other beneficiaries of the different programs of the capital government that work mostly within the PILLARS, such as Ponte Pila, Community Cultural Promoters and Community Arts and Crafts Workshops, who through a statement claimed that they are repeatedly asked to participate in political events conditioning their continuity of work.
“It is not the first time that this happens, Javier Hidalgo when he was in charge of the Ponte Pila program also required the figures to exceed the number of hours established in the program, comply with quotas of extra assistants per beneficiary and support in actions such as the revocation of mandate, many of these tasks apart under mistreatment and strenuous days without having any extra support for tickets or food since many of these activities are carried out at considerable distances from our places of residence,” they said.
They also denounced the precarious working conditions in which they carry out their work because it is daily that they must put money out of their pocket to buy materials and be able to teach workshops and courses.
“This type of action corresponds to a proselytizing and clientelist logic in the midst of a partisan dispute in the context of political reform; we dissociate ourselves from any support for the PRI, PAN, PRD, MC parties or neoliberalism or conservatism, we consider that these practices are harmful to society and that they further denigrate our work in a country where labor dignity, education, culture and sports have been marginalized, “they added in reference to the threat of losing their jobs if they do not attend the march this Sunday.
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