$1.38 Minimum

Every Sunday is a Labor Day in Mexico these days as CMTists (Confederation of Mexican Workers) parade the city streets, cheering their orators--chief of whom is CMT Secretary General Vicente Lombardo Toledano, hot-eyed little organizer, who looks a little like George Raft, likes to be compared to John L. Lewis. Last week, 18,000 unionists, members of the Syndicate of Petroleum Workers, had good reason to cheer. A 3,250-page, nine-volume decision in their favor was handed down by a special commission named by the Board of Arbitration to investigate Mexico's oil industry. It aimed to settle the long-simmering dispute between the Sindicator de la Industria Petrolera, employers' syndicate, and the 18,000 oil workers.

Two months ago the Government intervened to end a 13-day, nation-wide strike, commissioned a group of experts to study the financial condition of the $500,000,000 foreign-controlled industry. Last week the commission ordered that the 17 companies, including the Royal Dutch-Shell affiliate, Aguila, controlling 50% of national production, and Standard Oil of New Jersey's Huasteca subsidiary, make wage increases and establish other workers' benefits aggregating $7,200,000 annually. The report called for establishment of the 40-hour week, increase of the minimum wage to 4.90 pesos ($1.38) a day, and setting up of a national mixed commission composed of company, labor, and Government representatives to adjudicate all disputes.

The commission based its conclusion that the industry was able to stand an annual salary increase of $7,200,000 on four points: 1) "The curve of prices of petroleum products in the past months is rising, indicating that prospects for the industry are good for the coming years." 2) With one exception the percentage of profits in relation to capitalization of the Mexican companies was an average of 34.28% during the years 1934 to 1936, while the U. S. oil companies' percentage of profit was 6.13%. 3) The cost of producing a barrel of oil in Mexico during 1935 was 8.6 pesos, while in the U. S. the cost was 48.1 pesos and 4) on Jan. 1, 1937 the reserves and surpluses of the companies totaled more than $21,000,000. "The principal foreign petroleum companies form great American and British trusts and their interests have often been far from and even on occasions opposed to Mexican national interests," the report concluded, adding the specific charge that Shell subsidiary, Aguila, has "monopolistic tendencies."

Thumbing their way through the labyrinth of the decision, the companies wailed that the conclusions were "grossly unfair and misleading," asserted the whole document is based on "erroneous information," indicated their intention to file an appeal to Mexico's National Labor Board.

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