Unionized education workers launched actions across the country Saturday, in order to protest against the gas price hikes that have sparked massive protests in recent weeks against the gasolinazo.

GALLERY:
Mass Protests Against Mexico Gas Price Hikes Enter Second Week

Teachers unionized at the 22nd Section of one of Mexico's main education union CNTE have started mobilizing against the energy reform — responsible for the gas price rise — in the 37 sectors where the union is active, said Professor Hector Cueto Lopez, union leader in Pochutla.

In this city, teachers marched at 8 a.m., local time and held a political meeting along with other social organizations and political movements against the reform.

The decision to mobilize followed a vote in a previous general assembly, approving a resolution against “the structural reforms that are completing the killing of the people,” said the leader. “We will also fight against the excesses of state officials, as this country is going through a crisis and they should adjust to the new economy.”

Tens of thousands of Mexicans have filled the streets in cities across the country over the past week to protest a double-digit spike in fuel prices that came into effect on Jan. 1 and is set to raise the cost of basic food staples like tortillas by up to 20 percent.

Since the protests broke out, clashes between police and protesters and looting have left six people dead, 1,500 arrested, 420 businesses affected and several roads blocked.

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto has claimed that the price increases were inevitable and the result of international markets, not his neoliberal reforms that have chipped away at the monopoly of the state-owned oil company Pemex and brought about creeping privatization in the country's oil industry.