The Unionism of Oaxacan Teachers against the Education Reform in Mexico (2012-2018). A case of Social Movement Unionism

This thesis addresses the unionism deployed by Section 22 of the National Union of Education Workers (SNTE) against the Education Reform promoted during the presidential term of Enrique Peña Nieto (2012-2018). The reform established a set of criteria determining hiring, contract renewal, and promotions for teachers within the education system. Section 22 of the SNTE, union that represented public education workers from Oaxaca State, questioned the modifications and raised a belligerent unionism against the education measures. The union carried out extensive strikes, used strong repertoires of collective action, proposed a form of organization based on assemblies and sought to articulate its action against the reform with other demands raised by different subaltern groups. In this thesis we seek to reconstruct the six years of confrontation over the education reform, analyze the structural conditions that influenced the union deployment, and give an account of the organization of Section 22 and the union subjectivity of its activists. One of the key questions of this research was how to conceptualize the unionism deployed by Section 22 against the education reform. To address this question, we used the concept social movement unionism.