Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación

SNTE
National Educational Workers Union
Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación
Founded1943
Location
Members1.4million
President and General Secretary
Alfonso Cepeda Salas
AffiliationsEducation International
Websitesnte.org.mx

The National Educational Workers Union (Spanish: Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación, SNTE) is a trade union which represents teachers in Mexico. Its current Secretary-General and President is Alfonso Cepeda Salas.

With over 1.4 million members, it is currently the largest teachers' union in the Americas and the largest union in Latin America. Formed in 1949, the SNTE is composed of local sections in each of Mexico's states. For much of its history, the SNTE has been a corporatist union allied with the long-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and has been accused of having government-appointed charro leaders and anti-democratic tendencies. This resulted in a movement in the late 1970s and early 1980s in which sections from several states began demanding democratic reforms in the union structure. This movement resulted in the fall of SNTE leader Carlos Jongitud Barrios in 1989. He was replaced by Elba Esther Gordillo as president, a position she held until her arrest in late February 2013.