MEXICAN LABOR NEWS AND ANALYSIS
Volume VII, No. 3
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Thanks to Sarah
IN THIS ISSUE:
"Get off our backs" - Mutual Support Coordinating Commmittee
"Latin American doesn’t want handouts, it wants social justice" - CLAT
ICFTU REPORT CONDEMNS MEXICAN CORE LABOR RIGHTS ABUSES
[Brussels, March 20, 2002] Fierce anti-union discrimination, shocking working
conditions in the maquiladoras, some 1.5 million unrecognized domestic workers
with no legal rights and widespread discrimination against women and the
indigenous population: these are among the findings of a new critical report on
Mexico released by the ICFTU to coincide with the 20-22 March World Trade
Organization (WTO) trade policy review of the country. [The ICFTU or
International Confederation of Free Trade Unions is the largest and most
important international federation of labor unions.]
Mexico has ratified only one of the two International Labor Organization (ILO)
conventions on trade union rights and for many workers anti-union discrimination
is a stark reality. This is especially the case in the maquiladoras which, as
the report states, are "particularly relevant to the WTO Trade Policy
Review since the special customs regime - amounting to a free trade zone - for
companies that assemble components for export, is the bedrock of Mexico's trade
and economic development strategy." Employment in maquiladoras has
increased by 100 per cent since the mid 1990's and at present, approximately 1.3
million workers are employed in 3,500 factories. Inspection of working
conditions and of workers' fundamental rights are carried out by less than seven
hundred labor inspectors.
As well as employers, in collusion with local officials, offering "fierce
resistance" to trade unions, "wages are lower in the maquiladoras than
in the domestic manufacturing sector, and poor working conditions are
commonplace, including handling of chemicals and solvents with no safety
equipment."
Of the few cases of industrial action that have occurred, most have been brought
to an abrupt end with the dismissal of strike leaders and the strike being
declared illegal. As the report states, "peaceful Labor protests continue
to be dispersed by the police using force. This was the case in 2000 at a
clothing maquiladora called Kuk-Dong. Eight hundred workers went on strike to
protest the firing of five co-workers for having complained about working
conditions and demanded the right to form an independent union. The strikers
occupied the factory for three days, at which time state police in full riot
gear stormed the plant. The unarmed workers put up no resistance; still the
police beat them so severely that some 15 workers had to be rushed to hospital
for treatment."
Outside the maquiladoras, freedom of association and collective bargaining are
generally protected in law and widespread in practice, "but there remain
serious problems with the ability of many workers to exercise these rights.
Workers in the public sector do not have freedom of association in that a trade
union monopoly still exists. However, the legal registration of unions in Mexico
is often hampered by the authorities, specifically by the local Conciliation and
Arbitration Boards (CABs) which have sole authority to regulate union elections
and handle all phases of Labor dispute resolution."
Mexico also has a large urban informal workforce, some estimates having ranged
as high as 40% of the Labor force in some cities. The report states that there
are over 1.5 million domestic workers in Mexico, who are not recognised legally,
are generally paid less than the minimum wage, and are often mistreated by their
employers.
Mexico has ratified both of the core ILO Conventions on discrimination, however discrimination against women is rife in Mexico and the report states, "sexual harassment at the workplace is widespread." While Mexican law provides relatively extensive maternity benefits to women workers, widespread and persistent discrimination by employers, especially in maquiladoras, against pregnant women in order to avoid maternity protection costs is a serious problem. In maquila plants along the US border, women are often forced to show used sanitary towels as proof that they are not pregnant and more often than not, women workers that are found to be pregnant are fired or forced to resign.
Discrimination against the indigenous population is also a grave problem.
Illiteracy rates for the indigenous are about twenty per cent higher than the
highest regional illiteracy rates for the non-indigenous population.
Mexico has ratified one of the ILO's two core conventions on child Labor, yet
child Labor is a widespread occurrence, especially in rural areas and in urban
informal activities. There has been progress in addressing the child Labor
problem, but recent reports suggest a total of approximately 5 million working
children, 2 million of these under twelve years old, especially in small
companies, agriculture and the informal sector. Despite government initiatives,
only six out of ten primary school children actually complete school, and a
national education authority reported that 1.7 million school aged children are
unable to receive an education because their poverty forces them to work.
The ICFTU is demanding that the Mexican government take action in the areas
where the ILO conventions are being ignored or flouted, especially in the
maquiladoras, and urges the government to ratify the two remaining core
conventions as soon as possible.
"The situation in the maquiladoras is often appalling," stated ICFTU
General Secretary Guy Ryder, "and there is much work to be done. We call on
President Fox to work in close consultation with the trade unions of Mexico on
these issues."
Story from: ICFTU OnLine... 057/200302/JL
To view the full report, please click:
http://www.icftu.org/displaydocument.asp?Index=991214929&Language=EN
The ICFTU represents 157 million workers in 225 affiliated organisations in
148 countries and territories. ICFTU is also a member of Global Unions:
http://www.global-unions.org
For more information, please contact the ICFTU Press Department on +32 2 224
0232 or +32 476 62 10 18.
###
MEXICAN BUSINESS GROUP WILL CREATE ELECTRONIC BLACKLIST
Raul Picard, a leader of CANACINTRA, one of Mexico’s most important business organizations, announced that his group will produce an electronic blacklist to keep employers informed about workers who engage in activities such as attempting to organize labor unions, raise demands for higher wages or better working conditions, or foment strikes. The blacklist will also contain the names of lawyers who represent such workers in defending their rights before the labor board.
Mexico’s Federal Labor Law (LFT) forbids employers from creating and maintaining a blacklist as a way of denying employment to workers.
For years Mexican employers have maintained such blacklists, though usually simply by calling each other’s labor relations, personnel or human resources offices. The e-blacklist should expedite the employers job of keeping union activists out of work—in violation of their legal rights.
Nestor de Buen, one of Mexico’s leading labor lawyers, has written that the establishment of such a list would represent the height of cynicism, and has suggested that the Mexican Secretary of Labor would have to intervene.
###
PROTESTS AT UN DEVELOPMENT MEETING IN MONTERREY
Thousands of protestors demonstrated outside the United Nations meeting on the International Forum for Funding Development held in Monterrey, Mexico from March 18-22. Mexican organizations naturally led the demonstrations, including protestors from El Barzón, Tierra y Libertad (Land and Liberty), a local poor peoples organization, and the Workers Party (PT), and local peasant organizations. Many had been brought to the meeting through the organizing efforts of the Mutual Support Coordinating Committee. In the Macroplaza in front of the Benito Juárez Monument they hung their banner: "Against Imperialism, for the unity of the peoples of the world. Death to the puppet government and sell-out leaders of Latin American. They must all go!"
While the governmental leaders met inside the official meeting, Mexican social movements and labor organizations held their own conferences. ParticiPAting were El Barzón, the Plan de Ayala National Coordinating Committee, the Independent Union of Agricultural Workers and Peasants (CIOAC), the Network of Social society, the Mexican Action Network on Free Trade (RMALC), the Democratic Workers Central, the Center for Labor Investigation and Union Consultation (CILAS), Women’s Communication and Information (CIMAC), the Center for Ecumenical Studies , and the Authentic Labor Front (FAT).
El Barzón, the debtors organization, brought together 800 delegates from throughout Latin America and to create a new coalition, the Latin American Federation of Organizations and Social Movements of Debtors and Savers.
We present here two documents, one from the Mutual Support Coordinating Committee, one of the groups that organized the protests, and the other from the Workers Central of Latin America (CLAT), an important labor federation.
"Get off our backs" - Mutual Support Coordinating Commmittee
Communiqué #3 [Excerpt] (Trans. by Dan La Botz)
This meeting has had the audacity to call itself the "International Forum for the Funding of Development," and would lead us to believe that its goal is to improve the situation of the people in the under-developed countries who live in poverty.
We are opposed to this sort of meeting for the following reasons:
Their voracity doesn’t even permit them to think about the possibility of equality in the world.
Their meeting will only serve as a way for the transnational corporations to accelerate the exploitation in which we live.
Whatever the negotiations and agreements they pretend to arrive at, our lives and our voice will not be respected. The facts show that whatever crumbs they concede is only a lie that will be used to take advantage of us if we were to believe them.
The actual state of exploitation that the world finds itself in show us that capitalism whatever fact if may show continued to be one of the great evils of humanity.
The Mutual Support Coordinating Committee is opposed to this meeting and invites all organizations, groups and individuals who are against the authoritarian politics that come together in these meeting, to demonstrate either in their region or in this city.
"Latin American doesn’t want handouts, it wants social justice" - CLAT
[The following open letter from the Latin American Central of Workers (CLAT) to Koffi Annan appeared in Mexican and other Latin American Newspapers in March. It cal also be found at their website: http://www.clat.org/ Trans. by Dan La Botz]
Mexico City, March 8, 2002
Mr. Koffi Annan
General Secretary of the United Natins,
Presidents, Chiefs of State y Representatives of the countries of the World,
especially of Latin America at the International Conference on Funding for
Development in Monterrey, Mexico
Ladies and Gentlemen,
LATIN AMERICA DOESN’T WANT HANDOUTS--IT DEMANDS SOCIAL JUSTICE
The Latin American Central of Workers (CLAT) representing 25 million workers in Latin America and the Caribbean conveys to you the indignant and anguished voice of our workers and peoples wit the hope that this meeting may approve a set of measures to bring about social justice, the indispensable condition for the maintenance of democracy and human rights and that it will comply with the fundamental rights of workers approved by the International Labor Organization (ILO) in June of 1998
Any evaluation of the current situation and perspective of development show a striking contradiction.
Never before has the world community experienced such advances in science, technology and transportation and communications making it possible to produce and distribute goods and services with equity, and to realize sustainable and integral human development, and maintain world peace. But never before have there existed so many great contradictions of social injustice, the consequence of an economy concentrated in the hands of small groups and marginalizing and excluding the great majority of people.
History show us that peace is the fruit of social justice and of integral and sustainable development. Latin American is the most unjust continent in the world. Every year the number of people and business multiply, creating new wealth through corruption. At the same time wages fall and social security is reduced. Jobs become less secure, and there is an increase in the numbers of people without education. There is a collective fear of insecurity, of margionalization, and of social exclusion.
In the face of this emergency we demand:
That the governments comply with their promise to pay 0.75% [of their GDP to development] and that after 2005 this increase to 1% as a world re-distributive tax of wealth to overcome underdevelopment. Those who receive more should pay more.
The external debt of the poorest countries should be cancelled, and there should be a general reorganization of external debt in general in order to invest in payment of the social debt, the creation of jobs, and development zones.
New agrarian policies with the goal of promoting food security througout the world, and in order to stop the rural exodus and the creation of urban poverty zones.
International agreements against drug dealing, corruption, arms expenditures, in order to rededicate resources to the productive economy, especially to the development of small and medium sized companies and to cooperatives and economic solidarity.
The establishment of the foundation for a fair trading system to promote world development.
The democratization of the United Nations (UN) with the active participation of workers organization s, of organized civil society and peoples and with respect for the agreements of the International Labor Organization (ILO).
COMMITTED TO THE CONSTRUCTION OF A FREE, JUST, AND SOLIDARY WORLD,Sincerely,For the CLATEduardo Garcia Moure, general secretaryJose Merced Gonzalez, international office director, CLAT-Mexico###
HERNANDEZ JUAREZ, HEAD OF UNT, RESIGNS FROM PRI
Francisco Hernández Juárez, head of the Mexican Telephone Workers Union (STRM) and one of the co-presidents of the National Union of Workers (UNT), has resigned his membership in the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).
For 26 years Hernández Juárez was a member of the PRI, and also served as a member of its national council. During the administration Carlos Salinas de Gortari, as a PRI leader Hernández Juárez, worked closely with the former president to carry out his neo-liberal economic agenda, including the privatization of the Mexican Telephone Company (TELMEX).
But now Hernández Juárez has left, he says, because of differences with the new PRI leader Roberto Madrazo Pintado. "Madrazo only want power and doesn’t really represent the social demands of the party activists, of society and of the workers," said the UNT leader. Hernández Juárez said he has no plans to join any other political party.
At the same time Hernández Juárez announced the creation of the Economic and Social Council of the State, an organization that he said will "struggle for greater justice for workers, for more democracy and inclusion, which means in the short term to continue promoting the negotiation of the transition to democracy in Mexico." This is not the first such organization that Hernández Juárez has launched. Just a few years ago he created the Social Movement of Workers (MST) with much the same objectives. That organization, however, failed to make a mark on Mexican society.
While Hernández Juárez’s resignation comes as no great surprise—he has been increasingly alienated from the party, it could be very significant if he begins to move toward the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD).
###
UNIONS FORM NEW COALITION, WILL BACK ROBLES TO HEAD PRD
A group of 16 labor unions, several affiliated with the National Union of Workers (UNT), have formed the Union Coordinating Committee (Coordinadora Sindicalista), to fight for independent unionism and to support the candidacy of Rosario Robles, former mayor of Mexico City, for leader of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD).
The Union of Workers of the National Autonomous University (STUNAM) and the Streetcar Workers Union (Tranviarios) are two of the leading organizations in the new labor coalition. Benito Bahéna Lomé, head of the Streetcar Workers appeared to be leading the support for Robles, though he said that his movement did not represent a return to the "corporativist" or party-state control of unions that previously existed under the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). Individual workers would make their own decisions, he said.
###
PEMEX AND PETROLEUM UNION BUREACRACTS UNDER FIRE
Executives of the Mexican Petroleum Company (PEMEX) and leaders of the Mexican Petroleum Workers Union (STPRM) have come under attack from several sources for corrupt and authoritarian practices. Some Mexican commentators have called recent development "a fatal blow" to what was once Mexico’s most powerful labor union bureaucracy.
- The Mexican Attorney General will bring charges against Rogelio Montemayor Seguy, the former director of PEMEX, and Carlos Romero Deschamps and Ricardo AldaZa Prieto, petroleum union leaders, for the misappropriation of 1.5 billion Mexican pesos (150 million dollars), most of which went to the presidential campaign of Francisco Labastida Ochoa of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).
- Mexican authorities will also file charges against PEMEX officials and oil union officials for having secretly and illegally sold 250 million dollars worth of oil to U.S. citizen William Flanagan in 1984. Jesus González Schmal, a Mexican political activist and commentator called this "a mortal blow to the PEMEX union."
- The National Coalition of Democratic Petroleum Workers, an opposition group within the union, has called for Romero Deschamps and AldaZa Prieto to resign for their misappropriation of government and union funds. The coalition claims to have filed 60,000 labor board charges against the union officials for violations of workers’ union rights.
- The National Union of Confidential Employees, has called upon Julio Printer, head of PEMEX labor relations and union head Romero Deschamps to end the "terrorism" within the union. The group claims that PEMEX is laying off 6,000 workers in order to eliminate dissidents and critics.
The oil workers union leadership appears to be caught between government investigations coming down from above and movements of both white collar and blue collar workers rising up from below.
STPRM leaders Romero Deschamps and Aldana Prieto have attempted to strengthen their position by appealing for support to Roberto Madrazo, the leader of the PRI.
Mexican President Vicente Fox has so far not committed himself, but he has shown an aversion to challenging the leaders of the old, state-controlled unions, such as STPRM.
###
SOLIDARITY REQUESTED FOR MEXICAN OIL WORKERS
Union Repression in Mexican Oil Companies
Name of the affected workers: Workers in the Mexican National Oil Company
Rights Violated: Union freedom and democracy, Employment Stability
Those responsible for the violations: Mexican Oil Companies (PEMEX) and the Union of Oil Workers of the Mexican Republic (STPRM)
Location: Oaxaca, Guanajuato and other Mexican states
The National Democratic Alliance of Oil Workers, A.C. ( ANDTP) is a civil association whose aim is the defense and promotion of the Labor Rights and the well being of oil workers, through union democratization, defense of the oil industry and the grassroots empowerment of workers. The ANDTP is comprised of groups in 13 sections of the Union of Oil Workers of the Mexican Republic. Since October, 2000 they have taken part in diverse actions in order to promote the democratization of the STPRM and the defense of union rights. These actions have included:
The roots of this action against STPRM lie with the Secretary General, who is currently undergoing a criminal investigation. With the growing activity of the ANDTP and other groups of oil workers, the union, in compliance with the company, has initiated a campaign of selective repression, through firings and early retirements, with the goal of maintaining control over the workers within the union.
March 2, 2002, the same day that Carlos Romero Deschamps received the Fidel Velasquez award from the CTM, (attended by Government Secretary Santiago Creel), a series of posters appeared in sections of the STPRM condemning groups that oppose the current union leadership and work for democratization within the unions.
Five days later, on March 7, 2002, in one day, five leaders of opposition groups were fired unjustly. The majority of these workers belonged to the ANDTP -- Armando Ruíz Villalon and Genaro Navarro of section 24 (Salamanca, Gaunajuato); David Ramírez y Raymundo de la Rosa of section 38 (Salina Cruz, Oaxaca); as well as Octavio Rivas of section 34 (Central Office, DF), being the first three workers to participate in the ANDTP. Also included in these unjust actions was the forced retirement of at least seven workers and the formal investigation of seven other employees.
This campaign of firings has continued to the present date. The following cases of unjust firings have been documented.
PEMEX has used the supposed lack of work materials as false justification for these dismissals. Addressing this excuse we present the following information:
Article 161 of the Federal Law of Employment states that the completion of 20 years of employment prevents termination unless there exists a serious violation of article 47 of the same law. In this particular case 4 out of the 5 workers fired had been employed at PEMEX between 20 and 25 years
It has been made evident to us that these dismissals are flagrant acts of ANTI-UNION DISCRIMINATION, prohibited by the Mexican Constitution, the international covenants of Union Freedom, which were adopted and ratified by Mexico, and the Mexican Federal Labor Law.
This situation has provoked serious fears of a campaign of repression, led by Romero Deschamps, against the leaders of opposition groups working for democratic unions. The Center of Labor Action and Reflection asks your solidarity in order to make the following demands on the Mexican labor authorities, Mexican Oil Companies, and STPRM:
Nothing more for the moment. Hoping for a satisfactory solution to this conflict, we send our best wishes.
SEND FAXES TO:
Lic. Vicente Fox Quezada. President of the United States of México 55151794
Lic. Carlos Abascal Carranza. Secretary of Employment and Social Welfare 011-525 645 23 45
Ing. Raul MuZoz Leos. General Director of Mexican Oil 011 525 722 2500 ext 29211
Federal Deputy Carlos Romero Deschamps General Secretary of the Union of Oil Workers of the Mexican Republic 011-525 535 68 03
Lic. Alvaro Salazar Supervisor of the United Human Resources of the Refinery
Ing. Antonio Dovali
Salamanca Guanjuato 011 52 454 547 27 37 ext 32048
Send copies of your letters to the Center of Labor Action and Reflection 011-525 527 84 10
###
ILO ACCEPTS UNIONS’ COMPLAINT OVER INDIGENOUS RIGHTS
In early March, the International Labor Organization (ILO) accepted a complaint from Mexican labor unions alleging that Mexico violates Indian rights. The Union of Workers of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (STUNAM) and the Independent Union of Workers of La Jornada newspaper (SITRAJOR) brought the complaint under ILO convention 169 to the ILO in September of 2001.
The complaint argued that the Mexican government had tortured, disappeared, and summarily executed indigenous people in the militarized states of Oaxaca, Veracruz, Chiapas, Puebla, Guerrero, Yucatan and Hidalgo. The complaint argued that very often indigenous peoples’ conditions were tantamount to slavery. Several labor unions have supported indigenous causes since the Zapatista-led Chiapas uprising of 1994.
###
CTM SAYS FOREIGN LABOR UNIONS VIOLATE MEXICAN SOVEREIGNTY
Mexico’s historically state-controlled, pro-employer and notoriously corrupt union federations, such as the Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM), have been feeling competition from independent union efforts receiving international solidarity from Canada and the United States.
Tereso Medina Ramírez, head of the CTM in the state of Coahuila, accuses Canadian and U.S. labor unions of violating Mexican sovereignty. These foreign agitators, he says, have stirred up workers in the maquiladoras in an attempt to get investors to return to those countries. Medina Ramírez named Gerry Fernandez, Ed Keyser, Jeff Hermanson, Ana Elsa Aviles, Ben Davis,
Stan Gacek and Julia QuiZones with inciting the workers to seek higher wages and better benefits, and to strike. He accused them of being responsible for the closing of the "Dimit" and "Maxindo" plants. Those named work for various organizations. Jeff Hermanson is the AFL-CIO representative in Mexico.
The CTM leader said he was going to Mexico City to give proof of these associations to Secretary of Labor Carlos Abascal, Secretary of the Interior Santiago Creel Miranda, and CTM leader Leonardo Rodríguez Alcaine. He said he would also seek the assistance of Secretary of Foreign Relations Jorge CastaZeda to investigate the activities of these foreign agitators, and to limit their activities.
###
MAQUILADORA PRODUCING FOR PLAYTEX FIRES HUNDREDS
The Sara Lee Moda Feminina plant in Querétaro, Qro., Mexico, which produces for the Playtex company, working with its CTM company union, has fired 300 garment workers for opposing the re-election of the union leader, according to reports in EXCELSIOR and other Mexican newspapers.
With the union’s collusion, the company fired 300 workers because they opposed Concepción Rodríguez, who for 25 years has headed the union at the plant which is affiliated with the Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM).
Cristina Trejo Hernández, a leader of the opposition group, said that the CTM had brought in "goons" to threaten the workers.
Workers seeking change received some support from Juan Carlos Palacios Mondragon, one of six candidates for president of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD).
###
EUZKADI DECISION THREATENS RIGHT TO STRIKE -ALCALDE
[The following letter represents an important contribution to understanding the current situation of unions and workers in Mexico. Trans. by Dan La Botz.]
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Here in Mexico we are very worried about a decision recently handed down by the Labor Board in the case of the strike at the Euzkadi Rubber Company (an affiliate of the Continental Tire corporation of Germany). With this decision, the right to strike will end in Mexico. The workers affected have asked that we support them with international solidarity, and we think this may be the way to reverse this grave precedent. This decision is based on political rather than legal motivation, and it is unlikely the labor boards of Mexico would revoke this decision if there were not an international outcry.
The German transnational corporation Continental Tire acquired two Mexican tire plants in 1998. The first in San Luis Potosí has a pro-company union affiliated with the Confederation of Mexican Workers [CTM]. The second, in El Salto, Jalisco, has an independent and democratic union, the Revolutionary National Union of Workers of the Euzkadi Rubber Company. On December 16, 2001, Continental Tire made the decision to close the plant in El Salto, Jalisco, where there was an independent union, leaving 1,000 workers there without employment.
With the closing of the German transnational, it stopped paying wages and benefits to all of these workers. In spite of Mexican labor legislation which requires the company to file a notice with the labor authorities (un juicio previo) in order to resolve the plant closing issue, it never did so. Because of that violation, the law permits the union to give strike notification on the grounds of breach of the collective bargaining agreement and wage demands, which the democratic union did with the labor authorities on January 10, 2002. The strike began January 22, 2002 (more than two months ago at the time of writing this letter). Since that time, the national labor authorities have insisted and pressured the workers to accept a lower wage than their contact requires, telling them that the company will not reopen the plant unless there is a new economic arrangement, and that otherwise they put at risk further German investment in Mexico, and therefor the workers must accept the company’s offer.
For their part, the workers have demanded the reopening of their workplace, since there is clearly no impediment to doing so. In spite of this, on March 22 of this year [2002], the labor authorities declared that the strike was "legally not viable" and "inappropriate" [improcedente] as well. It should be noted that neither of these terms exists in our labor legislation. When the strike broke out, the authorities had three choices: 1) declare it illegal; 2) declare it "non-existent," 3) declare it "existent." [The three choices permitted under Mexican labor law in this situation.] Unable to make a decision among these three possibilities, the authorities "invented" a decision that does not exist in the labor law in order to get rid of the strike, without the workers being able to return to their jobs, since the plant remains closed.
In terms of the scenarios possible under our law, the authorities could declare the strike "nonexistent," which would have required the workers to return to their jobs within 24 hours. But since the authorities know that the plant will not reopen, they could not declare the strike "nonexistent"—because that would have required the company to reopen the plant within 24 hours of the decision. Consequently, the workers face a very grave situation; on the one hand, there is no [legal] strike because the authorities have declared it "inappropriate" [improcedente] and on the other had, they cannot return to work because the plant is closed.
The company, trampling on all its labor obligations, led people to believe that its other affiliates had contracted to buy the Euzkadi goods, so that—supposedly—it is insolvent and cannot pay its workers, even though all the property is still owned by Continental tire.
As you can see, this is all about illegal acts wrongly upheld by the Mexican authorities, as has never been done before with such brazenness. It seems incredible that in spite of the fact that the company violated the law by carrying out an illegal closing, it was rewarded by a declaration that the strike was "inappropriate" [improcedente]. It is not possible that those who violate the law should benefit from their wrong doing. The cause of the strike was the transnational corporations’ arbitrary plant closing, and its refusal to pay wages to its workers.
Sincerely,
Arturo J. Alcalde, attorney
For further information write: snrte_euzkadi@hotmail.com and ask for Jesus Torres NuZo (general secretary) or Jaime Camacho (secretary of labor and conflicts).
###
MEXICAN MINERS STRIKE IN SEVERAL STATES
Mexican miners went on strike in several states in mid-March, principally in the Zacatecas region in Central Mexico and in the Sonora area in Northern Mexico.
In Zacatecas, some 540 miners working for the Industrial Minera México, part of the powerful Grupo México conglomerate, shut off their machines, laid down their tools and walked off the job in pursuit of a new contract. Miners currently receive about 70 pesos or little more than seven U.S. dollars per day. The strike spread to other mines: Nacozari, Sonora; Nueva Rosita, Coahuila; and San Luis Potosí.
###
UE AND USAS TO SPONSOR FAT TOUR TO ELEVEN CITIES
The United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) and United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) will be hosting a tour of two Mexican labor activists from the FAT between April 23rd and May 4th.
Hector González Gomez is a local officer of the FAT's metal workers’ union at the Sealed Power plant in Aguascalientes, Mexico. Originally based in Mexico City, the U.S. transnational moved most of its operations to Aguascalientes in an effort to substitute one of the government dominated unions and pay lower wages and benefits. However, the FAT followed and unionized that plant, as well!
Higinio Barrios Hernández was born in Oaxaca, and came to Cd. Juarez nine years ago. For the first three years he worked in various maquila plants. Following his participation in the FAT-sponsored Workers’ Education Center he was hired as an organizer three years ago.
They will be traveling to the following cities: Pittsburgh, Kent, Cleveland, Toledo, Detroit, Ann Arbor, South Bend, Milwaukee, Madison, Iowa City and Chicago. UE’s Director of International Affairs, Robin Alexander, will be accompanying them throughout the trip, and Lenore Palladino, Midwest regional Organizer with USAS, will be joining them for presentations in South Bend, Milwaukee, Madison and Chicago.
"This tour will bring the real story of globalization to union halls, churches, universities and other venues from Pennsylvania to Iowa," says Bruce J. Klipple, General Secretary-Treasurer of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE). "The pioneering Strategic Organizing Alliance between UE and the FAT is an effort to build a new kind of international solidarity. We are pleased to work with USAS to develop a new approach to countering a corporate-driven globalization that denies workers their basic rights, decent living conditions and a safe working environment."
The Pittsburgh-based UE has always represented industrial workers, and increasingly represents workers in the public sector, including social workers, scientists, workers in schools, libraries and universities, day care workers, and graduate students. USAS is an international student movement of campuses and individual students fighting for sweatshop-free labor conditions and workers’ rights.
A list of public events and contact people for the various cities appears below:
7:00 p.m. Program
2607 Archwood Ave (just west of W. 25th St. and south of the I-71 access)
Contact: Brian Szittai, IRTF: 216-961-0003 <irtf@igc.org>
Thursday, April 25th: Toledo
7:00 p.m. Evening program hosted by FLOC at their office: 1221 Broadway (off I 75)
Contacts: Morgan Guyton, FLOC 419-243-3456 ext. 5, <mguyton@floc.com>
Al Hart, UE, (419) 471-9650 <alhart@glasscity.net>
Friday, April 26th: Ann Arbor
Noon 336 ½ S. State St. (Above Ashley’d Pub and Wazoo records).
Contact: Monica Weinheimer, Ann Arbor Movement for Global Justice 734-332-8006 <freerange_m@hotmail.com>
Friday, April 26th: Detroit
Evening program at UAW Local 22, Michigan Ave. (Just west of West Grand Blvd). Time to be confirmed.
Contact: Brad Markell <bmarkell@uaw.net> 313-926-5256.
Saturday, April 27th: South Bend
Probable evening event in South Bend. Time and location to be confirmed.
Contact: Lenore Palladino<lmpallad@midway.uchicago.edu> 773-752-3576 H; 312-738-6209 JwJ
Sunday, April 28th: Milwaukee
2:00 p.m. at Voces de la Frontera 1027 S. Fifth St., Milwaukee, WI.
Contact: Ramiro Castillo 414-384-9065; 414-403-1710 (cell); 414-645-1529 (RC - home) <ramirocastilloprodigy.net>
6:00 p.m. fundraising dinner at St. Pius X 2506 Wauwatosa Ave., Wauwatosa, WI 53213
Contact: Michael Duffey 414-288-3748 W; 414-778-0763 home; michael.duffey@marquette.edu>
12:30 Marquette: Brown bag lunch at Union.
5:30 p.m. pot luck at Casa Maria, a homeless shelter
7:30 p.m. UW M Room to be announced
Contact: Gina Bianchi: 414-372-5273 <dramamamaprincess@yahoo.com>
Tuesday, April 30th: Madison
5:00 - 7:00 p.m. First Unitarian Society refreshments or light meal
7:30 - 9:00 p.m. MATC 3550 Anderson St.
Contact: Leila Pine, First Unitarian Society , Social Justice Chair: 608-233-5566 <lpine@tds.net>
Wednesday, May 1st: Iowa City
7:00 Panel Presentation, Room 1505 Seamans Center, East entrance of the Engineering Building (Across from Old Capitol Mall)
Contact: Jen Sherer: 319-337-9986 <jsherer@blue.weeg.uiowa.edu>
Friday, May 3rd: Chicago
1:00 brown bag lunch hosted by JWJ. Unite union hall 333 S. Ashland. Blvd.
Contact: Emily LaBarbera-Twarog, Jobs with Justice 312-738-6203 <chicagojwjemily@mindspring.com>
7:00 P.M. Event at DePaul Lincoln Park Campus. Room TBA.
ContactHallie Hassakis<hhassaki@depaul.edu> 773-687-1886
Lenore Palladino<lmpallad@midway.uchicago.edu> 773-752-3576
###
1) For photos of protests at United Nations Monterrey Meeting on Funding Development go to: http://apoyomutuo.cjb.net/.
2) Maquiladora Health & Safety Support Network Newsletter, March 31, 2002. Volume VI, Number 1.
Editor & Coordinator: Garrett Brown gdbrown@igc.org
Webmaster: Heather Block block.heather@att.net
P.O. Box 124, Berkeley, CA 94701-0124
510-558-1014 (voice)
510-525-8951 (fax)
Website: www.igc.apc.org/mhssn
3) MEXICO SOLIDARITY NETWORK
WEEKLY NEWS SUMMARY
Mexico Solidarity Network http://www.mexicosolidarity.org
To subscribe write: mexicosolidaritynetwork@mexicosolidarity.org
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Send administrative queries to mexicosolidaritynetwork-request@mexicosolidarity.org
END MEXICAN LABOR NEWS AND ANALYSIS, VOL. 7, NO. 3, April 10, 2002