Mexico federal court employees strike over judicial changes requiring that judges stand for election

Employees at Mexico’s federal courts have gone on strike over judicial changes that would make all judges stand for election. The employees' union put locks on the gates at several courthouses early on Monday. They say the measures proposed by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador would threaten their working conditions, benefits and salaries. But the unionized workers also objected to the part of the judicial overhaul that would eliminate the system by which judges and court employees accumulate experience and move up to higher positions. López Obrador's proposed reforms would allow just about anyone with a law degree and a few years experience as a lawyer to be elected as a judge.