Mexico’s history of single party dominance was dependent on an alliance which had a major labor base. Since the creation of the PRI, many characteristics of the labor base and its political role has changed. The major turning point for change were the economic transformations Mexico experienced during the 1980’s. Before these changes the governing party from the top used a popular alliance as a mechanism to control labor (Collier 1992). Labor after the 1980’s became fragmented, feminized, and informalized.
Before Mexico’s economic changes in the 1980’s, labor was one of the major components of the radical populist alliance that supported the single party dominance of the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI). The alliance successfully established during Cardenas administration in the 1930’s with the alignment of a project from above and below in response to commercial and industrial growth (Collier 1992). Long term success of this alliance was due to its institutionalization, with the creation of the CTM, and the PRI’s tools to keep the alliance, tactics such as repression, firefighting, and clientelism. Under the PRI’s organizational structure, labor was united under the Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM). Yet being part
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The increase in unemployment labor experienced led to a fragmentation of the workforce into the formal and informal sector. Lack of employment and unemployment insurance led to the expansion of the informal sector (Wise 2010). Moreover, the formal sector shrank and was feminized due to employment in maquiladoras. Mexico’s informal sector includes various economic activities, where individuals make little money, work in harsh conditions, and lack financial security. Labor’s fragmentation lead to a decrease in workers who were part of the institutional structure of the PRI and it had less control over labor's political