Mexican Labor News & Analysis

Mass March In Mexico City Against Fox’s Economic Program

Tens of thousands of Mexican workers, peasants, and debtors marched through Mexico City on November 27 in opposition to president Vicente Fox and his economic program. Organizers estimated the crowd at 200,000 while the authorities said only 80,000 had marched. In any case, despite rain showers, it was an enormous march, culminating in a rally in the Zocalo, the country’s national plaza.

The opposition coalition says that this march represents a stage in the mobilization for a national work stoppage to take place on December 9.

The key issue that sparked the current wave of protest was the Fox administration’s proposal to tax food and drugs. Protesters also oppose the privatization of the electrical industry and the Abascal plan for reform of the Federal labor Law, also on the Fox agenda.

Soggy protesters marching in the drizzle chanted slogans such as, “Stop the electrical reform!,” “Fox, understand, the country’s not for sale,” and “If he could, Fox would sell his mother.”

Ad Hoc Coalition – Politicians, Unions, Movements

The demonstration came as an outgrowth of an ad hoc coalition formed during the last months by some of the major political leaders, labor and social organizations of the country. Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), Mexico left-of-center opposition, has joined forces with Manuel Bartlett Díaz of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), the former ruling party of Mexico, to condemn Fox and the conservative National Action Party (PAN) for their neoliberal economic program, in particular the proposed privatization of the electric power industry. Their political alliance seemed to have helped create the political space for and give energy to the labor and social movements.

The coalition organizing the demonstration was made up of the National Union of Workers (UNT), the independent labor federation; the Mexican Union Front (FSM) led by the Mexican Union of Electrical Workers (SME); El Barzon, the debtors organization, the Countryside Can Stand No More and the Permanent Agrarian Council, both coalitions of farmers and peasant organizations, and the Promoter of National Unity Against Neoliberalism. UNT affiliates participating in the demonstration included telephone workers, social security employees, university workers, flight attendants, pilots, streetcar worker, projectionists, and the Authentic Labor Front (FAT). Many others also participated including the National Coordinating Committee of the Mexican Teachers Union (la CNTE),

In addition to the massive demonstration in Mexico City, there were also demonstrations in nine states, with 8,000 marching in Guadalajara, Jalisco; 5,000 in Puebla, Puebla; and 5,000 in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon.

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News Analysis: New Labor Anti-Fox Coalition, A Step Forward

by Dan La Botz

The new coalition between labor and peasant or farmer organizations in Mexico—formed to protest a proposed food and drug tax and the planned privatization of the electric power industry—represents a new development and a step forward for Mexico’s working people. While some of these organizations have been working together over the past three years on a variety of issues, the last few weeks have brought them together in a closer and stronger alliance. At issue is the question of whether this coalition will be able to lead a national work stoppage and create a political alternative.

The coalition brings together forces which have not always worked together and which have sometimes been at odds. The National Union of Workers (UNT) and the Mexican Union Front (FSM), for example, have differed over Labor Law Reform, but came together recently at the Cancún protests where they co-hosted a labor forum. Both of these independent labor federations have joined with the Countryside Can Stand No More, itself a broad coalition of many peasant and farmer organizations, and with El Barzón, the debtors’ coalition that has sometimes been the wildcard of the social movements.

Together, these groups have formed a coalition which rejects not only the tax on food and drugs and the privatization of electric power generation, but stand opposed to president Vicente Fox’s entire economic program. Which is to say, that the coalition has become political in the most meaningful sense of the word, defying the power and the plan not only of Fox and his National Action Party (PAN), but also implicitly challenging the Mexican economic elite.

However, since the Mexican working people have no political party of their own—that is no labor party or working people’s party—they find themselves pushing forward, pushing upward, and joining together with Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), Mexico’s left-of-center opposition, and with Manuel Bartlett Díaz of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). The alliance between Cárdenas and Bartlett is a particularly strange one, since Bartlett is commonly viewed as the man responsible for the electoral fraud in 1988 that stole Cárdenas’s victory in that presidential election. The National Union of Workers (UNT) and the PRD have joined together on several issues over the last few years, most notably on the issues of Labor Law Reform. The labor alliance with a wing of the PRI represents something new and different—or something old and familiar—depending on how one looks at it. Is this the old tragedy become the new farce? Or could this represent the beginning of some new political realignment?

Perhaps the answer lies in the response to the call for a national work stoppage on December 9. The coalition has generally used the word “paro,” work stoppage, rather than “huelga general,” general strike. After all, unlike South American nations, Mexico has never had a national general strike, though there were widespread strikes throughout the country in the 1910s and 20s, in the1930s, 1970s, and early 1980s. During the late 1980s and 1990s there were a few calls for national work stoppages which found a partial and spotty response.

When in the past labor has created national movements that challenged the power of the state and the ruling elite, the response has been swift and hard. A national railroad strike in 1959 was suppressed by the Mexican Army, and a national “Democratic Tendency” of the labor movement in the mid-1970s was also crushed by the military.

The December 9 work stoppage—which happens to coincide with the international Human Rights Day—will not challenge state power or the Mexican ruling class. The real question is do the UNT, the FSM, the Countryside Can Stand No More, and El Barzón have the unity and influence to pull off a national work stoppage, a short general strike, that will be significant enough to force Fox to back off on the tax and privatization proposals.

The Mexican working class has set itself a test. If it fails the test, it will be a setback for the movement, leading to demoralization and probably to the collapse of the coalition. If it passes the test, it could not only lead to the consolidation of the coalition, but it could also increase the changes of the Mexican working class finding its own political expression.

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Mexican Unions Create New Labor Federation

A group of Mexican unions announced in November that they have formed a new labor federation. The Mexican Electrical Workers Union (SME) and 40 other unions said that they will transform the Mexican Union Front (Frente Sindical Mexicano), which has been an informal coalition, into a permanent labor federation.

Mexico will now have three majorlabor federations:

· The Congress of Labor, founded in 1966, dominated by the Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM) – historically linked to the Institutional Revolutionary Party.
· The National Union of Workers (UNT) – an independent federation founded in 1997.
· The Mexican Union Front (FSM) whose transformation into a federation was announced this November.

The FSM has also been known as the “anti-reform” front because it opposes all of the so-called reforms proposed by the government of president Vicente Fox. The SME and the FSM have been the core of the National Front Against the Privatization of the Electrical Industry, and the have also opposed any reform of the Federal Labor Law (LFT). The UNT, on the other hand, joined with the PRD to propose a version of labor law reform that it argues would strengthen independent unions.

Ramón Pacheco, a spokesman for the SME and the new FSM, said, “Our position is very far from that of the CT. We agree with the UNT on some issues, and are close on others, but the big difference is that they are willing to negotiate the labor law reform, and we will not negotiate anything on that issue.”

In a press conference, Raul Campillo, a leader of the Union of Air Traffic Controllers, explained that his organization had broken with the National Union of Workers (UNT) and with its best known leader Francisco Hernández Juárez. “Since Alejandra Barrales of the Mexican Flight Attendants Union left the UNT it has gone down,” he said. “It no longer has the drawing power it once had.” The controllers will join the new FSM as observers, though not yet as full members, he explained.

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Latin American Bloc, Anti-globalization Forces Stop FTAA

The United States plan for a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) based on a common trade agreement for the Western Hemisphere was stopped in Miami, Florida on November 20 and 21. Inside the ministerial meeting the Brazilian delegation (which for the first time included two trade unionists) led a block of Latin American nations that rejected the U.S. plan, while outside tens of thousands of protesters held their ground despite massive police repression. The combination proved strong enough to force the adoption of a new plan called “FTAA Lite” or “FTAA à la carte.”

Inside, Brazil, the largest nation and the most powerful economy of South America, succeeded in making his country the leader of a loose coalition of Latin America nations such as Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador and Venezuela who oppose U.S. attempts to impose it own trade regime. Just a few weeks ago Lula lead Brazil to form a bloc with China, India and African nations to stop the U.S. at the World Trade Organization meeting. (See William Greider and Kenneth Rapoza, “Lula Raises the Stakes,” in THE NATION, December 1, 2003, pages 11-16.)

Outside, anti-globalization demonstrators estimated by police at about 10,000 and by organizers at 30,000 engaged in spirited protests despite sometimes terrifying and violent police repression. The AFL-CIO’s president John Sweeney and vice-president Rich Trumka, visited the “convergence center,” a huge warehouse where youth activists made signs, banners and puppets, where they expressed their opposition to more free trade agreements. The United Steel Workers of America had the largest labor delegation of several thousand members, joined by dozens of other unions and hundreds of unionists. In addition to the AFL-CIO, other organizers of the protests included the Citizens Trade Campaign, Jobs With Justice, and the Miami Workers Center. Thousands of students and other young people also joined the protests, some engaging in the direct action and civil disobedience tactics of the Battle of Seattle, though the police generally overwhelmed them.

Miami police, joined by thousands of other officers from cities and counties throughout Florida, took an aggressive approach using tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets and billy clubs to attack not only protesters but the press and passing citizens. Police officers dressed in civilian clothing used stun guns against demonstrators, while police cars and bicycle cops roamed the streets arresting and snatching up protesters, particularly students and youth. Miami Police arrested almost 250 protesters, most on charges such as disorderly conduct, failing to disperse, or illegal assembly. (See below letter from Leo Girard, United Steel Workers of America president, on the police repression.)

“This is atrocious,” Thea Lee, an international economist for the AFL-CIO and herself a teargas victim, told the press. She accused the Miami Police of having violated agreements reached with the AFL-CIO regarding the protests. “This was a deliberate strategy to discourage participation in a legal protest. The police were sending the message that you don’t have the right to protest and express your opposition.”

The United States government left the meeting not with the FTAA it had originally sought, but with an agreement with Brazil and other Latin American nations on what has been called “FTAA Lite.” The agreement allows nations to choose the deals they want to enter into while rather than committing themselves to an overall package. The result will be many bilateral agreements rather than once master plan.

Lori Wallach, director Public Citizen’s international trade campaign, told the press, “The only thing they could agree on was to dilute the agreement and put off all the difficult decisions in order to make sure that Miami didn’t become the FTAA’s Waterloo.”

But, while Latin American nations and anti-globalization protester succeeded in stopping the United States from imposing its will on the hemisphere, we still do not have a humane alternative to the corporate agenda. We have free trade retail rather than wholesale. The fight continues for real fair trade that would benefit the world’s working people and the poor.

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Mexican Labor Unionists Join Protests Against FTAA In Miami

Mexican trade unionists joined their counterparts from the United States and many other countries for the protests against the FTAA in Miami on November 20 and 21. The Authentic Labor Front, an independent labor federation and the Center for Labor Studies and Union Consulting (CILAS) both sent delegations. The President and advisor of workers who organized an independent union at Mex-Mode, a garment manufacturer in Puebla, also attended, as did UNORCA, a member organization of the Countryside can stand no more.

In addition, to Mexican groups, the tri-national Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladora (CJM), which has members in Canada, Mexico and the United States, also sent a sizable delegation.

All participated actively in a variety of activities. As described by Veronica Leyva, from CETLAC, the FAT-affiliated worker’s center in Cd. Juárez, the FAT delegation participated in the program organized by the USWA, as well as in the march. However, they also participated in a variety of other activities, and many Mexican organizations participated in the Latino Forum which took place on the 18th.

As reported by Leyva, “The speakers that morning included Prof, Victor Uribe (Florida Internacional University) who spoke about the history of free trade – that it has been present since the 18th century. He then provided a number of examples about the serious consequences for the most vulnerable populations

”Alejandro Villamar (RMALC) then spoke about the negative effects of NAFTA on the Mexican economy, especially small and mid-size businesses, and about how the countryside has been devastated.

”A maquiladora worker from CJM spoke about the low wages in the maquiladoras and about the repression against workers who try to organize, and a speaker from Brazil’s MST provided an analysis of the agricultural situation in Brazil, making it very clear that the crisis there is very similar to that of Mexico and other Latin American countries.

”Jorge Robles (FAT) spoke of the importance of maintaining relations of solidarity between unions throughout the world, in order to strengthen the labor movement and improve conditions of workers. He described a number of examples where international solidarity has helped lead to a successful outcome, and declared: ‘In this globalized world, international solidarity is the only benefit globalization has brought us!’”

Leyva reported that she also participated in a panel discussion which was broadcast on Venezuelan television on the topic of China – whether it posed a threat or whether talk of production going to China was over-stated, and that Alfredo Domínguez of the FAT, and other trade union leaders from Colombia and Venezuela were interviewed by Telemundo.

Antonio Villalba, a leader of the Frente Auténtico del Trabajo in México (FAT), told La Jornada, "The FAT is committed to participating in the debate over globalization and bringing this discussion to rank and file workers.” Ten years after NAFTA “tells us what is coming with the FTAA, but we are not merely rejecting it, but are offering an alternative. Nevertheless, our government continues to negotiate secretly, it just announced an agreement with Uruguay and we didn’t even know about it.”

Jorge Robles, another leader of the FAT, commented that nine years after the intention was announced to negotiate the FTAA two things have clearly changed: first, we have discovered that capital does not have borders and nor do workers – and we are establishing cross-border alliances. Second, we have the experience of ten years of NAFTA, with which we can demonstrate the concrete impact of these policies.”

Hector de la Cueva of CILAS, who was involved in organizing the World Social Forum, expressed his horror and outrage at the massive police repression that protesters encountered. “We have a complete violation of democratic rights here in the United States,” he said.

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Steelworkers President Blasts Police Role In Miami

Below is the letter the Steelworkers sent to Congress demanding action against the repression and violence used by the police in Miami against the demonstrators.

November 24, 2003

Greetings:

Last week, the fundamental rights of thousands of Americans—including our Union's active members and retirees, members of other AFL-CIO unions, our allies in the Citizens Trade Campaign and Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch, as well as members of United Students Against Sweatshops - who had gathered in Miami to peacefully protest the creation of a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) were blatantly violated, sometimes violently, by the Miami police, who systematically
repressed our Constitutional right to free assembly with massive force, riot gear and
armaments, including combat vehicles.

It is condemnable enough that a massive police state was created to prevent American citizens from directly petitioning FTAA negotiators for redress of their grievances, for there can be no doubt that using massive armed force to deny us the right to publicly and peacefully confront them put the full powers of the state in the service
of the multinational corporations and financiers who singularly benefit from the expansion of so-called "free trade."

It is doubly condemnable that $9 million of federal funds designated for the reconstruction of Iraq were used toward this despicable purpose. How can we hope to build democracy in Iraq while using massive force to dismantle it here at home?

The obvious purpose of the repressive police presence in Miami was, at
a minimum, to intimidate us and limit the exercise of our rights. Phalanxes of police in riot gear stretched for blocks, as did police cars buttressed bumper to bumper. These heavily armed forces gratuitously instigated tensions by forcing demonstrators to pass
through narrow gauntlets merely to enter sites for which the AFL-CIO had secured permits for rallies and parades. Indeed, a manned, armored personnel carrier sat poised within a few yards from the entrance to the venue.

The specter of thousands of union members, many of whom have served the
nation with great honor in combat, being forced to walk such a gauntlet, as if they were a common enemy rather than law abiding citizens united in common cause, was truly appalling.

Unfortunately, the exercise of unwarranted force was even worse, in many instances, than the affront created by its threat.

1. When the wife of a retired Steelworker from Grantsville, Utah, verbally protested what she considered the abusive treatment of a student activist at the entrance of the AFL-CIO rally on Friday, November 21, she was slammed to the ground face down by policeand a gun was aimed point blank at the back of her head. A Steelworker who witnessed the violent repression reported that she was so terrified that her entire body was literally vibrating.

2. In a case of blatant entrapment, a secretary in our International Headquarters in Pittsburgh, and a local Steelworker activist from Wisconsin who had worked all day as a parade marshal and was wearing a bright orange marshal's vest emblazoned with the words "AFL-CIO Peace Keeper," were returning to their hotel, when they were directed by armed police to abandon the sidewalk and to proceed down a set of trolley tracks. Once on the tracks, they were immediately pounced upon by armed riot police, handcuffed and arrested. They were forced to remain in cuffs for hours on end, even when visiting the washroom.

3. The Co-Director of Citizens' Trade Campaign was forced to the ground and had a gun put to the back of her head while peacefully attempting to enter the AFL-CIO rally at the Bayfront Amphitheater. Furthermore, the headquarters of Citizens' Trade and Global Trade Watch were surrounded and under constant surveillance by armed riot police.

These were just some among countless instances of humiliating repression in which the Miami police force disgraced itself.

Based on these disgraceful circumstances, we believe several actions should immediately be taken.

First, Miami Police Chief John Timoney should be fired.

Second, all charges against peaceful demonstrators should be dropped.

Finally, since federal funds helped finance the violation of our members' constitutional right of free assembly, a Congressional investigation into the Miami Police Department's systematic repression should immediately be launched.

To do less would be to endorse homeland repression in the guise of homeland security.

Respectfully,
Leo W. Gerard
International President

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NAFTA At Ten

By David Bacon

Thousands of demonstrators will filled Miami streets on November 20 and 21 in a show of opposition to free trade unseen (at least in this country) since the battles in Seattle four years ago. Opponents plan to hit the proposal for a Free Trade Area of the Americas with the same one-two punch that forced trade ministers to end talks in Cancun in October with no new agreement. While a sea of grassroots opponents lay siege in the streets to the Miami hall where ministers meet once again, inside the meeting itself the new left-wing governments of Latin America—Brazil, Ecuador, Argentina and Venezuela—have already formed an implacable opposition.

As demonstration and debate unfolded, in the eye of the storm is the one free trade agreement that already provides an idea of what the Americas can expect from the Bush free trade plan. In just a few short weeks, the North American Free Trade Agreement will be ten years old. And for FTAA's opponents, that ten-year history of devastation, wreaked in Mexico and the US both, will be the key argument in stopping its extension to the rest of Latin America.

The communities of working people and the poor, on both sides of the border, have paid the price for trade liberalization, while the benefits have been reaped by the tiny clique who promoted NAFTA ten years ago.

A Record of Job Loss in the U.S.7

In one of life's ironies, successive Secretaries of the US Department of Labor - among NAFTA's most ardent supporters - have kept close track of the treaty's high cost in US jobs. By 2002, the department had certified that 408,000 workers qualified for extensions of unemployment benefits, because their employers had moved their jobs south of the border.

Most observers believe this is a vast undercount. According to NAFTA At Seven, a report by the Economic Policy Institute, “NAFTA eliminated 766,030 actual and potential U.S. jobs between 1994 and 2000 because of the rapid growth in the net U.S. export deficit with Mexico and Canada.”

NAFTA Devastating for Mexico

While the job picture for US workers was grim, NAFTA's impact on Mexican jobs was devastating. Before leaving office (and Mexico itself, pursued by charges of corruption), President Carlos Salinas de Gortari promised Mexicans they would gain the jobs the US lost. And on tours to the US to promote the treaty, he promised that this job gain, although painful for US workers, would halt the northward flow of Mexican job seekers.

NAFTA's first year saw instead the loss of over a million jobs all across Mexico, in the wake of economic crisis. To attract investment, NAFTA-related reforms required the privatization of factories, railroads, airlines and other large enterprises. This led to further huge waves of layoffs. And because unemployment and economic desperation in Mexico increased, immigration to the US has been the only hope for survival for millions of Mexicans.

For a while, however, it seemed that the growth of maquiladora factories along the border would make up for at least part of the job loss. By 2001, over 1,300,000 workers were employed in over 2000 border plants, according to the Maquiladora Industry Association. But tying the jobs of so many Mexicans to the US market, for which the plants were producing, proved a disaster as well. When US consumers stopped buying as the recession hit in 2001, maquiladoras also began shedding workers. The Mexican government estimates that over 400,000 jobs disappeared in the process -- as the saying goes on the border, when the US economy catches cold, Mexico gets pneumonia. A two-year PR campaign by the association and the Mexican government to blame the loss in border jobs on Chinese competition then sought to obscure the obvious fact that the plants produced far more goods than a recession-plagued market in the US
could absorb.

Failure to Protect Workers Rights

But the most serious consequence of NAFTA has been its failure to protect the rights of workers as promised by its supporters. To attract investment to the maquiladoras, Mexican government authorities cooperated with investors and compliant
official unions in maintaining a low-wage economy, reinforced with a system of labor control.

According to Martha Ojeda, director of the Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras, the government-mandated minimum wage for workers on the border is about $4.20. She estimates that a majority of maquiladora workers earn close to this wage.

A study by the Center for Reflection, Education and Action (CEREAL), a religious research group, found that at the minimum wage, it took a maquiladora worker in Juarez almost an hour to earn enough money to buy a kilo (2.2 pounds) of rice, and a worker in Tijuana an hour and a half. And yet another study by the Economics Faculty of the
National Autonomous University in Mexico City says Mexican wages have lost 81% of their buying power in the last two decades.

Workers Forced to Join Company Unions

To enforce this system, maquiladora workers are required to belong to unions that have no intention of raising those low wages or helping them end exhausting and dangerous working conditions. Throughout NAFTA's ten-year history, workers have sought to break free in a long labor war waged from plant to plant along the border. They have organized independent unions, willing to fight for a larger share of the enormous wealth the factories produce. But these efforts have been met with firings, plant closures, and even physical violence.

Ten years of hearings held under NAFTA's labor side agreement have documented extensive violations of labor rights. In those few instances in which workers have successfully formed independent unions, as they did at Tijuana's Han Young plant in 1998-9, their strikes were broken, despite guarantees under Mexico's Constitution
and Federal Labor Law.

NAFTA's sponsors promised that the treaty's labor side agreement would protect workers, even though the treaty itself was intended to demolish all barriers to foreign investment. The side agreement proved toothless. In ten years not one fired worker has been returned to his or her job, and not one independent union has gained legal status and a contract as a result of the NAFTA process.

Mexican Labor Rights Undermined

Instead, the historical labor protections built into Mexico's legal system have been systematically undermined and eliminated as obstacles to investment. Even when Mexican judges held that strikes were legal, as did Maria Lourdes Villagomez Guillon of the Federal 5th District in 1998, and Pedro Fernandez Reyes Colin of the First Collegial Court of the Fifteenth District (Baja California's highest judicial authority) in 1999, their decisions were defied with impunity by government authorities. Under NAFTA, breaking strikes and unions on the border has become an integral part of economic development, and legal protections for workers have been swept away.

Four years ago, at the height of the protests against the World Trade Organization, Zwelenzima Vavi, the head of the South African Congress of Trade Unions, described the alternative to NAFTA and the free trade philosophy underpinning it. “In the pursuit of
profit,” he said, “governments are told to remove worker protections, and then use that as an inducement for investment. But development is a wider concept. It includes social development, and the living conditions of the people. Development can't exist with
mass unemployment and poverty.”

As the opposition gathers in Miami, these are the words that critics of NAFTA and FTAA will put before the world.

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U.S. Congressional Delegation To Mexico Reports On NAFTA

WASHINGTON - As trade ministers met to negotiate a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) agreement in Miami, Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur, a Democrat from Ohio, and a delegation of other members of Congress returned from their trip to Mexico and the border region where they studied the effects of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) there. The group, which spent four days meeting with Mexican workers, family farmers, women's groups, religious leaders and legislators, reported its findings today.

Congresswoman Kaptur led the delegation, sponsored by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. She was joined by Rep. Jerry Costello (IL), Rep. Raúl Grijalva (AZ), Rep. Jan Schakowsky (IL), Rep. Bernie Sanders (VT), Rep. Ted Strickland (OH) and Rep. Bennie Thompson (MS). Cheryl Johnson, Human Rights director at the Teamsters, also participated.

The delegation visited maquila workers, their families and social service providers in Ciudad Juarez, family farmers in Tlaxcala, union workers in Puebla and Members of the Mexican Congress in Mexico City. “NAFTA proponents promised more jobs in the U.S. and a better life for people in Mexico,” said Kaptur. “But we have seen that as 879,280 jobs have left the U.S., living and working conditions in Mexico have worsened."

They met with farmers in Tlaxcala, two hours east of Mexico City. Kaptur reported, “The farmers told us that they can't compete with the dumping of US corn products. It is wasting Mexican small farmers and the Mexican countryside is in crisis. Some 1.8 million farmers have left the land already and 300,000 more leave each year.”

On the border, the group met with families in one of the colonia settlements—impoverished communities that have exploded over the last ten years as farmers and small businesses in the interior have withered under NAFTA and workers have flocked to the border in search of work. Infrastructure has not kept up with the population boom and residents live in squalid conditions without sewage or waste disposal.

The delegation met with struggling manufacturing workers in Puebla who have recently unionized. Their wages and working conditions have improved since they have organized, but now they are worried about their jobs moving to China, where workers make even lower wages. “One worker described this international race to the bottom like the poor countries are like crabs in a bucket. He said that every time one country starts to climb up out of the bucket, another comes along and pulls it back down,” said Congresswoman Kaptur.

The group met with Mexican legislators in Mexico City and initiated an inter-parliamentary dialogue. They plan to continue working together to search for solutions to the international trade dilemma.

“In a time when trade deficits are soaring and job losses are mounting, nine million Americans are already out of work and the Bush administration is in Miami working to expand the failed NAFTA model to 31 more countries in a Free Trade Area of the Americas," said Kaptur. “NAFTA's tenth anniversary comes at a time when the need to review our trade policy has never been greater.”

[The report above was distributed by the office of Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur.]

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Mexican Sara Lee Workers Take Fight To Shareholders

The New York City pension fund filed a shareholder's resolution with Sara Lee urging it to establish a program of independent monitoring of its global human rights standards. The company opposed the resolution, claiming it has an excellent system in place to monitor compliance with its standards. A few weeks before the annual shareholders’ meeting, the company distributed copies of its code of conduct to the workers in Monclova—the first time they had ever seen it.

With help from affiliates and allies, Betty Robles of SEDEPAC was able to participate in the annual shareholders meeting in Tampa, Florida as a proxy shareholder. Betty informed everyone at the gathering that the workers were gratified to learn of the existence of the code but that it was a case of too little too late.

“The abusive treatment of workers will continue as long as they are not allowed to speak out against it without fear of retaliation,” she said, urging adoption of the resolution. “The challenge now is to put a new system into place, one that respects the rights of the workers and assures Sara Lee shareholders and the public that the company is vigorously enforcing the highest global labor standards.”

With help from organizations supporting Sara Lee workers, approximately $1.8 billion worth of shares were cast as votes in support of the pro-worker resolution, which constituted eleven percent of the vote. Shareholder resolutions have to achieve three percent of the vote to be eligible to be re-submitted the following year, six percent of the vote for the second year, and ten percent of the vote for the third year. The eleven percent margin means that Sara Lee has to deal with its shareholders on the resolution for at least three years.

[The article above was submitted by Enlace, an organization that promotes international labor solidarity. Enlace affiliates include: ACORN, SEIU Local 1877, HERE Local 2; and Enlace allies: AFSCME District Council 37; SEIU Local 503, SEIU Western Region Capital Stewardship Program, HERE International Secretary Treasurer Sherri Chiesa, the AFL-CIO Investments Office, City of New York Controller's office, the Unitarian Universalist Association, Responsible Wealth, and free lance writer Alan Howard.]

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Growth Of The Informal Economy Worries Mexican Gov’t

The Mexican Secretary of Finance has expressed concern at the growth of the informal economy. Companies that operate outside the legal framework of business pay no taxes, and workers receive no social security health coverage or other benefits. The government reports that today there are 21,238,000 workers in the formal or legal economy, and 20,324,000 in the informal or underground economy. In June 2003 Mexico’s economically active population (PEA) was estimated at 42,848,000.

Moreover, according to the Secretary of Finance, the growth of the informal economy represents a dangerous trend. In the last three years (that is to say, during the presidency of Vicente Fox) Mexico created 691,000 new jobs in the formal economy, but 1,568,000 in the informal economy.

The Finance Secretary’s office issued a statement in November saying, “The contraction of employment opportunities is causing the informal economy to become an escape valve for unemployment, and reflects the weak dynamic of the formal market.”

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Slim On A Buying Spree

You shouldn’t think that everyone in Mexico is doing badly.

Carlos Slim, Mexico’s richest man, has been on a buying spree. He has been grabbing up telephone companies, electronics stores, retail businesses and construction companies.

Slim, descendant of Lebanese immigrants to Mexico (the name was originally Salim), came to international attention during the presidency of his friend Carlos Salinas. When Salinas privatized the state telephone company, TELMEX, Slim bought the controlling interest. Today his fortune is estimated at 7.3 billion dollars.

He has recently purchased two cellular telephone companies in Brazil, BSE and BCP, and one in Argentina, CTI, the CTE telephone company in El Salvador, and the Colombian cellular company Celcaribe and the Ecuadorian Conecel. He also just announced that he had made a deal to buy the Latin American operator telecommunications services of AT&T in Latin America.

Then he announced his intention to buy the Good Guys electronics chain in the United States. He followed this up by buying the six JC Penny stores in Mexico. Finally it seems that he is about to become the major stockholder in ICA, the huge Mexican construction company.

So while poverty is widespread in Mexico, there is also wealth, concentrated in the hands of a few big players, of whom Slim is the biggest.

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Social Statistics

Trade

China sold the U.S. 14.7 billion dollars worth of good in September compared to Mexico’s 11.7 billion dollars. While the difference between China and Mexico in terms of trade was only 347 million last April, the gap has now grown to more than 3 billion dollars. Mexico, however, remains the second leading business partner to the US, with a bilateral trade rate of almost 173 billion dollars over the first three months of the year,
31 billion of which is surplus for Mexico.

Unemployment

When President Vicente Fox took office, the Mexican Institute of Social Security (IMSS) which provides health and pensions for most workers had 12,775,125 card holders. Today IMSS has 12,401,513, a loss of 373,612 jobs. Many of those who have lost jobs in the formal sector have moved to the informal economy.

Industrial employment

In the last two years, the Mexican auto industry has lost 3,000 jobs.

Remittances from Mexican migrants

The Bank of Mexico reported that remittances from Mexican migrants reached 9.937 billion dollars between January and September this year, or 36 percent more than last year during the same time period. The remittances represent 2.2 percent of Mexico’s GNP and surpassed last year’s total, also a record, of 9.8 billion dollars.

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Resources

The November/December issue of NACLA: REPORT ON THE AMERICAS, titled “Beyond the Washington Consensus,” carries several articles on trade and development. In addition an article by journalist John Ross, “The Zapatistas at Ten.”

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Book Review

David Brooks and Jonathan Fox, eds., Cross-Border Dialogues: U.S. Mexico Social Movement Networking. La Jolla, Calif.: Center for U.S. Mexican Studies, University of California San Diego, 2002. Bibliography (following Chapter 19). No index.

Journalist David Brooks and professor Jonathan Fox have put together a remarkable collection of 19 essays in some 440 pages that represents the distillation of almost 10 years of experience in cross-border organizing since the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). These valuable essays by journalists, academics, and activists dealing with labor, the environment, migration, human rights, and citizens coalitions describe, discuss and evaluate the most important organizing work across the U.S.-Mexico border. Whether the issue is the Zapatistas, or the Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras, every essay is well informed and intelligently critical of the cross-border experience.

Many of the authors have themselves been participants, activists, and leaders of these movements, while others are outstanding intellectuals committed to the fight for democracy and social justice across the border line. Every one of these authors is an expert in his or her area and every essay provides not only a wealth of information, but important insights into the cross-border organizing experience, sometimes accompanied by considered judgments and recommendations for future work.. Of particular interest to the readers of this electronic magazine will be “The Authentic Labor Front in the NAFTA-Era Regional Integration Process” by Manuel García Urrutia M. We cannot recommend this book too highly to those involved in Mexican, cross-border, or international issues. These essays, too many to deal with individually here, allow those of us involved in the international solidarity movement to see where we have been, what we have done poorly and done best, and where we might yet go. We give you the table of contents of Cross-Border Dialogues below:

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments
1 Movements across the Border: An Overview - David Brooks and Jonathan Fox
2 Labor Perspectives on Economic Integration and Bi-national Relations - Ron Blackwell
3 The Authentic Labor Front in the NAFTA-Era Regional Integration Process - Manuel García Urrutia M.
4 Lessons from the Labor Front: The Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras - Heather Williams
5 Mexico-U.S. Environmental Partnerships - Fernando Bejarano
6 Cross-Border Work on the Environment: Evolution, Successes, Problems, and Future Outlook - Mary E. Kelly
7 Globalization and Transnational Coalitions in the Rural Sector - Luis Hernández Navarro
8 Farmer Organizations and Regional Integration in North America - Karen Lehman
9 Tri-national Organizing for Just and Sustainable Trade and Development: Some Lessons and Insights - John Cavanagh, Sarah Anderson, and Karen Hansen-Kuhn
10 Citizen Advocacy Networks and the NAFTA - Bertha Elena Luján U.
11 Integration Policy from the Grassroots Up: Transnational Implications of Latino, Labor, and Environmental NGO Strategies - Raúl Hinojosa-Ojeda
12 Mexico-U.S. Migration and Cross-Border Organizing - Susan Gzesh
13 Cross-Border Grassroots Organizations and the Indigenous Migrant Experience - Gaspar Rivera-Salgado
14 Suffrage for Mexicans Residing Abroad - Jesús Martínez-Saldaña and Raúl Ross Pineda
15 Lessons Learned from Relations between Mexican and U.S. Human Rights Organizations - Mariclaire Acosta
16 In the Wake of the Zapatistas: U.S. Solidarity Work on Chiapas Lynn Stephen
17 Alianza Civica and U.S.-Mexico Collaboration - Emilio Álvarez Icaza Longoria
18 U.S.-Mexico Grassroots Challenges: Looking for a Winning Strategy - Ted Lewis
19 Lessons from Mexico-U.S. Civil Society Coalitions - Jonathan Fox
Postscript: After Quebec 2001 - David Brooks

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Back to Table of Contents of Mexican Labor News & Analysis articles.

Archived MLNA issues.