Trade unions
Throughout the 20th century, worker unions in Mexico were typically co-opted by the ruling party, PRI, and in many ways, still serve as the basis for the operation of political clientelism. Media industries, however, rarely provide good working conditions and precarity is typical, especially for journalists. Unionisation of journalists in Mexico is rare in printed media but typical for the technical staff in broadcasting. Still, one of the most important although not necessarily influential unions is the National Syndicate of Press Redactors, the closest entity to a national union that serves as the national representative for the International Federation of Journalists. There is also a Federation of Mexican Journalists Associations (FEPARMEX), that groups the journalists’ associations across different States in the country. There are other unions that affiliate eligible workers, such as the Industrial Union of Workers and Artists of Television and Radio in the Mexican Republic (SITATYR) or the Union of Workers of the Broadcasting and Telecommunications Industry (STIRT). These unions do not normally oppose corporate interests but align themselves with the majority of pro-PRI unions.
Some individual media houses also host their own unions, like the case of workers at La Jornada, the left-wing newspaper created in 1984, with SITRAJOR. Another example is the Union for the Mexican Institute of Radio, one of the public national radio services in the country. Another public union is the Union of Workers of NOTIMEX, the State’s News Agency and Mexico’s principal.