Last weekend, the head of the Government of Mexico City, Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, together with the local Secretary of Culture, Vannesa Bohórquez López, went to Villa de Aragón, to the east of Mexico City, to lead a ceremony inaugural protocol of one more headquarters of the Points of Innovation, Freedom, Art, Education and Knowledge (Pillars).
There, the head of government declared that “what we generate in Pilares are rights (…) the government gives a scholarship to all those who are workshop leaders, promoters of education, culture and sports who give their time, their lives To be able to serve others.”
Pilares is one of the most ambitious community cultural projects of the local government. So far, Sheinbaum Pardo said, 220 are in operation throughout the city and it is expected that by the end of this year there will be 300 active. The goal, he mentioned, is to reach a million people served in the country’s capital.
But, along with the jubilation for the growth of this project launched since 2019, there is a systematic precariousness of the people who provide services not only of culture but also of a scientific and sports nature in the city, who help in the Pilares, same that have denounced poor communication, gradual impoverishment of income from their work and an increasing demand for working hours. Specifically, a contradiction within a program that considers guaranteeing cultural rights, especially of the vulnerable population, while at the same time violating the labor rights of those who collaborate.
They are not recognized as workers
The Economist spoke with a member of the Community Arts and Crafts Workshops for Welfare (TAOC) program.
“When these calls came out in 2019, it was very encouraging for people like me, they were well received and well seen because they were things that were not being worked on in previous administrations. An incentive for people who were already working on community and artistic aspects”, shares who since 2020 has served as a monitor of the TAOC program.
“What is worrying for those of us who are facilitators of services is that they want to provide dignified treatment, compensate for the damage that has been done to these communities and that dignified treatment, respect and communication do not occur with those who are providing care,” he laments. .
The lines of action of the TAOC program specify that the Community Culture program should be promoted, the network of Lighthouses consolidated, the network of houses of culture and community cultural centers formed, art promoted in the Pillars, and independent cultural initiatives encouraged.
However, the service facilitators denounce that last year they had to participate in programs not specified in the rules, such as vaccination days, Covid-19 test kiosks, the Christmas festival last December and the Day of the Dead activities. Everything, with the same monetary compensation and sometimes with up to 12 hours of work a day.
“In the first instance, the treatment that we are given is not of any employment relationship, that is, we are not being recognized as cultural workers, we signed a commitment letter and privacy notices, but not a contract with legal benefits . We only receive this economic support, as they call it.”
Less salary, more work
To observe the precariousness that they argue, it is enough to observe the operating rules of the annual calls since 2019 and up to the recent ones.
For 2019, the service facilitators called were 1,705 for a target population of 50,000 people with a budget of just over 106 million pesos. In 2020, the call grew to 1,854 people, with a target population of 60,000 people, that is, 10,000 more than the previous year and with a budget of 179 million pesos, 73 million pesos more.
By 2021, the increase in labor demand and the decrease in the budget began. The number of the target population was already 70,000 people and the call for facilitators increased to 1,942, but the budget was reduced to almost 161 million pesos.
Now, for this 2022, the target population is 100,000 people, that is, double the number of 2019. However, to meet this objective, 1,650 service facilitators are requested, that is, 50 less than in 2019, who must provide serving twice the population. Everything, with a budget of just over 129 million pesos.
“This means that the workload will be much greater for cultural agents,” the testimony accuses. As if that were not enough, he shares, for the monitors, the monthly payment was reduced from 12,000 pesos, to 6,000 pesos in 2022.
And he adds: “it seems that we are more concerned about the numbers than about the work that is going to be done and about taking care of the facilitators. Since 2019, the workshop participants have been falling by the wayside. Despite the fact that there were dialogue tables with Claudia Sheinbaum and Alfonso Suárez del Real herself, we have not received a response to our requests, that we be considered as workers, that we be given the legal benefits and that we be part of a Pilares program that works not only for the numbers but for the well-being of all, nothing happens, despite the fact that the Ministry of Culture is the main one that should ensure cultural rights”, concludes the interviewee.
Contrast in wages
61,517 pesos per month for the position of general director of Community Cultural Linkage
This January 19, it was announced that Benjamín González Pérez, then head of the area, left office and will be replaced by historian and cultural manager Xavier Aguirre Palacios.
The gradual precariousness of TAOC:
- 2019 call
- Called: 1,705 people
- Target population: 50,000 people
- Budget: 106’657,000 pesos
- 2022 call
- Called: 1,650 people
- Target population: 100,000 people
- Budget: 129’888,000 pesos
The salary of the director on whom the Pillars depend, of more than 61,000 pesos a month, contrasts with the 6,000 pesos of the “scholarship” of a monitor or facilitator, as they are called, because they are not recognized as workers.
ricardo.quiroga@eleconomista.mx