A protest by a powerful Mexican teachers’ union briefly halted flights at the main international airport in the capital on Friday afternoon. The demonstration for higher wages created scenes of chaos, delaying travel for thousands of passengers as security forces swarmed into the airport’s terminals in a bid to assert order.
The shutdown in Mexico City began about 2 p.m. local time and lasted about 20 minutes as hundreds of union members marched to the airport’s entrances. The protest also snarled traffic on streets surrounding the airport, which is in a densely populated part of the city, and police officers were seen escorting stranded travelers to the airport in pickups. Officers in riot gear were also seen inside the airport.
While the shutdown was brief, some international flights out of Mexico City were either canceled or delayed for hours on Friday. Airlines such as Aeroméxico were offering clients the chance to reschedule their flights without charge or to pay only a small difference in price.
The protest reflects how Mexico’s leftist president, Claudia Sheinbaum, is coming under pressure from some unions and social movements as a weak economy and a yawning budget deficit constrain her ability to raise wages and improve working conditions for many public employees.
“We have not received any attention or respect to resolve our demands, not even the most minimal ones, from the president,” Eva Hinojosa Tera, a union leader from Michoacán state, said in a radio interview on Friday.
The organization staging the protest, the National Educational Workers Coordination, commonly known by its initials C.N.T.E., is a splinter group of Mexico’s largest teachers’ union and has participated in strikes and demonstrations for years. The 100,000-strong group’s demands include doubling teacher salaries and appealing pension and education laws they deem harmful.
Earlier this week, the group paralyzed traffic along one of Mexico City’s most emblematic avenues, and Mexican journalists reported that they were assaulted by protesting union members outside the National Palace in the old city center.
After those scenes of chaos played out on Mexico City’s streets, Ms. Sheinbaum announced on Friday morning that she would cancel a scheduled meeting with union representatives. The president said she supported protests as long as they were “peaceful” and offered the union the opportunity to meet instead with her interior and education ministers.
What the government “has given to the teachers is a lot — and I wish we could give more, because the teachers of Mexico deserve everything,” Ms. Sheinbaum said, adding that her administration could not afford to double the teachers’ salaries. “There are times when there are budget limitations,” she added.
Last week, the Mexican government said it would raise teachers’ salaries by 10 percent and offer an extra week of vacation. The announcement was welcomed by other teachers’ unions — but not by the more militant C.N.T.E.
Teachers’ unions in Mexico have been active in organizing protests and strikes, including in 2013 and 2016, when the groups opposed laws that would have had teachers undergo mandatory evaluations. Some of the protests turned violent at the time.
The current tensions between Ms. Sheinbaum and the teachers’ union come at a pivotal time for her government. The authorities are preparing for elections on June 1, which will overhaul Mexico’s judiciary, shifting to a system in which voters will select thousands of judges across the country from one in which judges are chosen based on training, expertise and years of experience.
A mobilization of voters through unions, which generally support Ms. Sheinbaum’s government, could play a decisive role in the election of more than 2,600 judges, from district judges up to Supreme Court justices. But the tensions with the protesting teachers’ union could affect voter turnout and election results, political analysts have warned.
Simon Romero is a Times correspondent covering Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. He is based in Mexico City.
Emiliano Rodríguez Mega is a reporter and researcher for The Times based in Mexico City, covering Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean.
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