The Emergence of Cross-Border Labor Solidarity
Gilmore, Peter & Alexander, Robin
For six years Fernando Castro had responsibility for the management of chemicals at a motor plant owned by General Electric (GE) in the Mexican border city of Judrez. Last November he was fired...
...The two unions also organized a 13-city tour by fired GE worker Fernando Castro, fired Honeywell worker Ofelia Medrano SAnchez, and STIMAHCS General Secretary Benedicto Martinez, to publicize the violation of workers' rights in Mexico...
...We must insist that workers' rights to wages and benefits such as health, education, and environmental safety be protected everywhere...
...general support for independent organizing efforts...
...They learned, for spurious reasons related to union activity and what the example, that the company now requires buses to drop company called "insubordination...
...U.S...
...In general, unions within the AFL-CIO have been both reluctant and unable to establish meaningful relationships with independent unionists in Mexico...
...The workers protested...
...Peter Gilmore is editor of the UE News...
...Dissatisfied with the responses of GE and Honeywell, and with the failure of President Clinton to even answer their correspondence, UE and the Teamsters took further action...
...On January 8, dozens of armed CTM goons, clad in Ford uniforms, were allowed into the factory where they shot and killed one worker and wounded eight others...
...In addition, AFL-CIO unions at the local, regional and national levels have met with the leadership of the FAT, in some cases simply to get acquainted, but in other instances to develop deeper relationships and provide financial support...
...unions should not organize in Mexico...
...shop conditions, and of union activists...
...During the anti-NAFTA campaign, the International Labor Rights Education and Research Fund submitted a petition to the U.S...
...A MacNeil/Lehrer news team filming a story on cross-border organizing accompanied the delegation during part of its trip.' Revelations that GE management had actively obstructed union-organizing efforts outraged (but did 42 NWLA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS NACIA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS 42REPORT ON MEXICO facilities...
...It is imperative, however, that unions move forward to establish strategic international alliances...
...Some U.S...
...This makes us equal...
...In part this is because the AFL-CIO has a historic relationship with the corrupt, government-dominated Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM...
...Above: Fired for union organizing, Mexican workers demonstrate outside the GE plant in Jurez to demand theirjobs back and the right to unionize...
...The workers occupied the factory for 15 days until evicted by the police...
...TIE has helped organize several trinational auto workers' conferences in Mexico, which were attended by both union leaders and rank-and-file members...
...some fired workers erected a plant6n-an encampment with banners publicizing their protest-outside the factory, demanding the right to elect their union leaders...
...the union hopes to receive funding earmarked by the EPA and U.S.AID for this purpose...
...If they fail, we share a future of common misery...
...See Wall Street Journal, May 25, 1994...
...econ U, tLe comp aI n CI S i UL not _ only demonstrate that a company has engaged in massive violations of workers' rights, but must show evidence of a persistent pattern of failure to enforce the laws...
...When we begin an organizing campaign," says Benedicto Martinez, one of FAT's national officers, "it is with the knowledge that we are taking on not only the company, but the government and official unions as well...
...Workers in the United States and Canada share a common interest in ensuring that Mexican workers are successful in organizing democratic unions and improving wages and benefits," says UE SecretaryTreasurer Amy Newell...
...most of them leave quietly and do not challenge the On December 22, General Electric advised UE that company's actions, it had offered to reinstate six of the ten fired workers...
...Last November he was fired for union organizing, a relatively common occurrence in Mexico...
...In a more problematic example given this union's reputation and top-down organizing approach, the Laborers' International Union of North America recently announced that it intends to begin training Mexican workers in environmental clean-up...
...government and U.S.-based transnationals-to enable Mexican trade unionists to organize in Mexico...
...It sponsors tours of activists, and is developing an emergency-response network for labor-rights violations in Mexico...
...I want to tell workers here," Castro said, "that some of us who have been fired are continuing to organize from the outside, together with workers on the inside...
...It is important to refocus the secretariats away from meetings and resolutions," says Diaz, "and to provide concrete assistance to those who are trying to organize...
...into "voluntary" resignations more than 100 Mexican She gave the company until December 10, the date of workers, including a woman who attended the UE a previously scheduled Conference Board meeting of convention last August in Cleveland...
...Unionists will encounter innumerable obstacles in their efforts to forge linkages with their counterparts in Mexico, among them differences in language and culture, limited resources, the historical relationship between the AFL-CIO and the CTM, and a strongly ingrained sense of rivalry between U.S...
...2 The unions requested that the USNAO initiate an investigation, and hold hearings on the mass firings and numerous labor-rights violations committed by GE and Honeywell in response to organizing campaigns at their Juirez and Chihuahua plants...
...Historically, the international labor secretariats functioned primarily to promote their respective capitalist or socialist political programs...
...unions to change their tune...
...There are a number of major problems with this system...
...This will enable FAT to finance its budget and to put some of the fired workers back to work as organizers...
...In coordination with community leaders, CJM targeted specific polluters on "chemical row" in Matamoros...
...The debate over NAFTA had one silver lining: it forced U.S...
...4 Unionists from all three countries have met on several occasions...
...After hours of harassment, Medrano eventually signed the statement, but was fired anyway...
...Progressives see similarities in the struggles that U.S...
...Over eight million Mexican workers are unionized...
...Labor Notes also recently conducted a cross-border organizers' school which focused on the nuts and bolts of "successful mutual solidarity efforts...
...Among those them from receiving union literature...
...The North American Worker to Worker Network (NAWWN), a newer coalition based in North Carolina, serves as an informational clearinghouse...
...In fact several of the fired workers-one of them Fernando Castro-have refused all deals, and are demanding their jobs back...
...and Mexican workers also discovered that they were subject to the same unacceptable company practices-such as providing pizza, in lieu of compensation, to workers who meet major production goals...
...give light work to pregnant women...
...unionists have begun to envision a future that includes not only cross-border organizing, but coordinated bargaining, strikes, and political action...
...It places greater emphasis on dealing with representatives of Mexico's official unions...
...unions...
...I am here to make a commitment to those who are supporting our efforts that we will not stop until we have succeeded in organizing the plant...
...This is an important and welcome change which has been developing over time...
...Out of these conversations, the workers began to develop plans for future communication and support...
...jobs to Mexico during the last 12 Telepho years...
...and Mexican workers...
...Over the Below: Striking U.S...
...unions to establish international alliances...
...5 Workers who contribute receive an international organizers' jacket patch...
...The Emergence of Cross-Border Labor Solidarity 1. The MacNeil/Lehrer report aired on January 11, 1994...
...Last October, AFSC and the American Public Health Association sponsored the creation of a binational network of health and safety experts to provide free counsel for maquiladora workers...
...These efforts have taken four forms: workerto-worker interchanges, ranging from exchanges of information to financial or other kinds of aid...
...The changing economic reality-reflected in the loss of thousands of high-wage jobs in the United States as U.S...
...Sanctions cannot be invoked for the following types of violations: the violation of rights to organize or associate including collective bargaining and the right to strike...
...The company sec guard (in foreground) refused to accept the letter...
...In this alliance, FAT agreed to target transnational companies in the maquiladora zone that have a bargaining relationship with UE in the United States...
...CJM was responsible for much of the media attention during the NAFTA debate on environmental pollution along the Mexico-U.S...
...By early February, the soft-spoken technician was on tour in the United States, stressing to North American audiences the importance of the assistance that the Mexican workers and their union had received from trade unionists north of the border...
...An article about the trip was published in the November 19 edition of the UE NEWS...
...As a result of the occupation, the company fired more than 750 of the most active trade unionists...
...5. Although it never really got off the ground, the Dime-a-Month campaign was designed to provide both significant financial support to Mexican workers as well as an opportunity for those initiating the campaign to speak about both the situation in CuaOtitlan, and the differences in wages and standards of living in the United States and Mexico...
...But this time, things were different...
...provide adequate protective equipment and properly ventilated work areas...
...Cooperative efforts have also been made to provide training and technical assistance to Mexican workers, especially in the areas of health and safety...
...In other fired were the man who hosted the gathering with UE, instances, managers snatched union literature out of and a worker interviewed on MacNeil/Lehrer...
...The Teamsters union, which represents many organized Honeywell workers in the United States, took the initiative in developing the U.S...
...Labor Notes, a monthly publication of the Labor Education and Research Project, and the Transnational Information Exchange (TIE) have also organized conferences and delegations in an effort to foster a dialogue between both unionized and rank-and-file workers, generally on an industry-wide basis...
...ment The American Friends Service Committee purityy (AFSC) has also brought workers and union officials together in a variety of forums...
...These campaigns led to the closure of two plants, which significantly reduced pollution in the neighboring colonias...
...Participants agreed to exchange information on a continuing basis via electronic mail, to summarize collective bargaining agreements, and to create a bilingual compilation of telecommunications terms...
...Department of Labor...
...Meanwhile, at Honeywell's Chihuahua plant-a second factory targeted by the Strategic Organizing Alliance-low pay, lack of protective equipment, and poor treatment by management had convinced workers to organize as a local of STIMAHCS, the metal workers' union...
...progressives within the labor movement have responded to the crisis of labor rights in Mexico with a wide range of solidarity actions...
...For these reasons, explains Newell, UE and Mexico's only independent labor federation, the Authentic Labor Front (FAT), created a Strategic Organizing Alliance two years ago...
...In the shadow of the NAFTA debate, a spotlight was cast on the dismissals at this GE plant...
...From November 4 to 7, 1993, a delegation composed of General Electric workers from UE Locals 506, 731 and 1010 met with workers from Compaiifa Armadora engaged in organizing...
...We must insist that this equality be reflected in our paychecks, our work conditions, our living conditions, our environmental conditions--for which the common company is responsible...
...If still unsuccessful, the parties can initiate a multi-step process culminating in sanctions...
...GE about the Ju.rez firings, declaring that all of the workers in question had accepted statutory severance pay...
...Management interrogated the women individually for up to four hours, in some cases offering them money if they revealed the names of those responsible for the organizing effort...
...It produced 35,000 small motors in 1993up from 24,000 the previous year...
...headquarters of General Electric outlining the types of labor-law violations described by the Mexican GE workers, and requested a company investigation and corrective action...
...The U.S...
...At the next step, the parties can request ministerial consultations...
...With , out- the end of the Cold War, however, some trade edra- secretariats are turning their attention to sup- t. porting organizing work by member unions...
...spotlight poor environmental and working conditions, especially in the maquiladora sector...
...The petition, drawn up with the assistance of the Mexican National Democratic Lawyers' Association, detailed systematic labor-rights violations in Mexico...
...and Mexican workers face...
...union movement to question the AFL-CIO's exclusive relationship with the CTM and to explore the meaning of international labor solidarity...
...This should impact the security of our jobs here and in Mexico...
...Because the They stressed the need for prompt action in light of economic pressure on workers to accept indemnifica- the promises to protect labor rights made during the tion (legally mandated severance pay) is so extreme, NAFTA debate...
...delegation toured the neighborhood where the majority of Mexican GE workers live, and discussed ways in which GE workers in the United States could support the efforts of the Mexican workers to organize a union...
...and Nevertheless, if the NAO is willing to wi investigate aggressively, cast a major spotlight on violations, and use diplo- F matic pressure to encourage resolution, the process will be valuable...
...The tour was supported at the local level by various unions, Jobs with Justice chapters, and fair-trade campaigns...
...or the violation of the rights of migrant workes...
...perceived as an effort by GE to rid itself of senior When the board convened, delegates instructed workers, of workers who speak up or complain about Newell to inform President Clinton about the firings...
...Farm Labor Organizing Committee...
...One of the most interesting relationships was spearheaded by members of the United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 879, where Ford workers from Minneapolis joined with Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) members to provide support for Ford workers in Cuadtitlan...
...CFO is composed of women workers from a variety of plants, who meet together in their neighborhoods to learn about their rights under Mexican labor law, and to develop tactics to enable them to assert these rights without jeopardizing their jobs...
...We must fashion a union with workers in alliance, state by state, country by country...
...6. See, for example, the March/April 1993 issue of Steelabor which is critical of the official unions, and the February 21, 1994 article in the AFL-CIO News reporting on the GE and Honeywell firings and on the February tour sponsored by UE and the Teamsters...
...rather, they argue, U.S...
...As news reached UE's Pittsburgh headquarters, More serious, last fall GE terminated or pressured Newell wrote a series of letters to General Electric...
...The Teamsters encouraged concerned trade unionists to write protest letters to the company and President Clinton...
...Fourth, although NAFTA took effect on January 1 of this year, *Inte procedures and permanent personnel *Small grc are not yet in place, the secretariat's Latin Am executive director has not been hired, *Latin Am and, according to Secretary of Labor -Field stu Robert Reich, the commission will not be .R up and running until early July...
...Fifth, even if all of the government entities were operational, most of the steps include no time frame, appear extremely bureaucratic, and may take years to complete-even assuming that relief soci0 were available at the end of the process...
...Mujer a Mujer is an organization based in San Antonio, Mexico City and Toronto which facilitates contacts among women workers in Mexico, the United States and Canada...
...3 The debate around NAFTA has caused many in the U.S...
...and properly test workers who may have been exposed to chemicals or inform them of the results of these exams...
...We need an organizing response, not a political response," says Baldemar Velasquez, the president of the U.S...
...Organizing is tough in Mexico, but is hardly easy in the United States...
...The Emergence of Cross-Border Labor Solidarity Multinationals have internationalized their operations at a much quicker pace than U.S...
...workers' hands...
...Many in the U.S...
...The hourly wage of GE workers in Decaturapproximately $13.50-was more than twice the daily wage of their Mexican counterparts in Juirez...
...border, including reports of the high rate of anencephalic births in the Brownsville/Matamoros area...
...disputes concerning forced labor, over-time, employment discrimination, workers' compensation, and equal pay...
...CFO representatives have attended two annual Zenith shareholders' meetings to talk about low wages, long shifts, and exposure to hazardous substances at the Reynosa plant...
...Moreover, the Wall Street Journal reports that almost one half of U.S...
...and efforts to NACLA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS 46REPORT ON MEXICO FAT national officer Benedicto Martinez delivers a letter to manage on behalf of fired workers at GE's plant in Judrez...
...The GE motor plant, Compafifa Armadora or CASA, employs approximately 950 workers and 100 supervisory staff...
...National Administrative Office (USNAO), a small agency housed in the U.S...
...unions to reconsider international solidarity...
...A centerpiece of the drive to attract foreign investment is the maquiladora program...
...It is significant that all of the top 100 U.S...
...The debate over NAFTA had one silver lining: it compelled some U.S...
...The efforts of UE, the Teamsters, and FAT, through STIMAHCS, to organize GE's Judrez plant and Honeywell's Chihuahua plant are two examples of what has become known as cross-border labor organizing...
...The workers captured three of them, who admitted they had been hired by the CTM...
...unions should help provide resources and create the conditions--through pressure on the U.S...
...Postal, Telegraph & Telephone International, views the international secretariats of tradeunion federations as promising vehicles for furthering international solidarity efforts...
...If those do not resolve the problem, they can convene an evaluation committee of experts...
...At the foundation, the national administrative offices can accept complaints about a wide variety of labor violations...
...The Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras (CJM), a coalition of labor, religious and community groups, initially focused on environmental contamination by U.S.-based transnational corporations...
...Third, although a private party may file a complaint, private parties have no standing within the process, and CE absolutely no control over the proceedings...
...In fact, it appears that they do not EDU even have basic due-process rights of participation...
...This was widely UE leaders from GE plants, to correct the situation...
...It has begun an initiative to draw attention to the problem of the inadequate translation of warning labels on chemical containers, and has been instrumental in publicizing the recent firings of and police brutality against Sony workers in Nuevo Laredo...
...UE and the Teamsters also asked the USNAO to examine the failure of the Mexican authorities to enforce Mexican and international laws protecting organizational and labor rights...
...We believe it is imperative that we develop a new kind of international solidarity-one which is focused on organizing...
...Most had attended workers off inside company property, so as to prevent the meeting with the UE delegation...
...GE course of the next two weeks, GE closed this plant in 1989, and shifted production to Juarez...
...Work at the plant largely came here from a Decatur, Indiana plant closed in 1989, which had been represented by the United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America (UE...
...It has organized tours, enabling rank-and-file and unorganized women-especially garment workers from Mexico and the southern United States-to begin a dialogue...
...Ultimate success, of course, will require political change, not only in Mexico, but in the United States and Canada as well...
...fired ten Mexican workers, all for not surprise) the UE members...
...Others, such as Eduardo Diaz of the U.S...
...The PRI's development strategy culminated with the implementation of NAFTA on New Year's Day...
...The company responded viciously, coercing 20 women into signing statements that said they were voluntarily resigning...
...2. The structure of the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation (NAALC) can be thought of as a pyramid...
...But nothing will happen unless workers begin taking what at this point appear to be impossibly small steps...
...The reluctance is also, in part, a consequence of protectionist and xenophobic cultural traditions within the United States and the trade-union movement...
...The Mexican government under President Carlos Salinas has enthusiastically implemented a neoliberal "modernization" program which has decimated real wages, cut social services, privatized much of the state, and opened the country to foreign investment...
...As Americans and Mexicans alike, we are now less citizens of the nation in which we are born, and more citizens of the company for whom we work...
...Relationships between unions-generally either industry or company specific-also have been developing for some time...
...Trade unionists generally agree that U.S...
...companies surveyed have initiated or plan to initiate alliances with Mexican companies, open offices, or establish production facilities in Mexico...
...It meets with Mexican unionists to provide them with encouragement and assistance in organizing...
...The Mexican GE workers revealed that the compa- GE sent form letters to those people who inquired ny uses chemicals which have been banned at U.S...
...Other efforts have focused on unorganized workers...
...The maquiladoras, with foreign ownership, produce goods for export, largely to the United States...
...3. A 1993 study by the Inter-Hemispheric Resource Center estimated that U.S...
...The local USNAO can initiate an investigation, hold public hearings, and consult with other national administrative offices...
...FLOC president Baldemar Velisquez credits the exchange of information and mutual support with helping SNTOAC get a 17% increase in wages and benefits in its contract at a time when a 10% ceiling was in place...
...The vast majority, however, belong to unions tied directly to the "official" or government-dominated federations [see "Official and Independent Unions Angle for Power" p. 44...
...In a symbolic gesture of solidarity, they have worn black arm bands to commemorate the death of Cleto Nigmo, a Ford worker killed by CTM goons...
...Today, half a million workers toil in some 2,000 maquiladora factories...
...We are working through our international department to encourage the AFL-CIO to follow UE's lead in supporting independent trade unions in Mexico...
...Since last summer, UE and STIMAHCS, the metal workers' union affiliated with FAT, have targeted the Juirez plant...
...The global reach of this type of organizing mirrors the rapid globalization of the world economy and the increasing mobility of international capital...
...The Mexican trade unionists who toured the United States in February received a warm welcome at various union meetings, clearly signaling a greater openness on the part of the AFL-CIO and affiliated unions to expand their support beyond the CTM...
...I prefer to think of a future where we sit together at the bargaining table with trade unionists from Mexico and Canada, and together take on transnational corporations such as General Electric and Honeywell...
...The U.S...
...Once again, however, the CTM intervened to oust the new leadership...
...The Honeywell management offered in-shop organizer Ofelia Medrano a deal: if she signed a statement assuming responsibility for the organizing campaign and pledging to abandon the campaign, the company would guarantee her continued employment at the plant...
...On January 5, 1990, CTM thugs attacked the plant6n...
...The labor laws in Mexico are, ironically, much better than those in the United States, but enforcement of these laws is a major problem in both countries...
...corporations move to Mexico to take advantage of low-wage labor and slack environmental controls-is prompting U.S...
...UE has also established a solidarity fund, Robin Alexander is director of international labor affairs at the United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America (UE...
...It is extremely difficult to organize independent, democratic unions...
...While once restricted to Mexico's northern border, maquiladoras are now appearing in the interior as well...
...On February 14, the two U.S...
...On November 22, UE leader Amy Newell wrote to the U.S...
...union movement have begun to question the AFL-CIO's exclusive relationship with the corrupt, governmentdominated Confederation of Mexican Workers...
...government seeking to expel Mexico from the Generalized System VoL XXVIII, No 1 JuLY/AuGusT 1994 47 8 VOL XXVIII, NO 1 JULY/AUGUST 1994 47REPORT ON MEXICO Ofelia Medrano (center) at a rally, organized by the Teamsters unior side Honeywell world headquarters in Minneapolis this February...
...corporations moved as many as 180,000 U.S...
...In the fire sale of state companies to private business overseen by Salinas, the government savaged collective-bargaining agreements, slashed wages, laid off thousands of workers, and destroyed job-security guarantees...
...it has, however, no authority to resolve complaints...
...More recently, CJM has supported community and worker organizing efforts, both directly and through activity by shareholders...
...First, the only type of violations which are subject to sanctions are occupational health and safety, child-labor and minimum-wage technical labor standards...
...One of the first company-specific relationships was developed by the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) with its counterpart SNTOAC, an official farmworkers' union which represents Campbell's workers in Mexico...
...relationships between unions, ranging from exchanges of information to joint organizing projects...
...The UAW local has also initiated several innovative campaigns to provide financial assistance, among them an adopt-an-organizer campaign in which the local has pledged $300 a month for the Ford Democratic Movement...
...It also helped coordinate a telecommunication workers' conference in Mexico in February, which was attended by members of CAW, the Canadian Communication, Energy and Paperworkers' Union and three Mexican telephone workers' unions...
...With respect to internationalization, multinationals have been way ahead of the unions...
...and recently launched a sponsor-an-organizer campaign to encourage unions, individuals, and other concerned organizations to contribute a fixed amount each month for a year...
...Mi no was fired for union organizing at the company's Chihuahua plan of Preferences (GSP...
...The International Ladies' Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) also views work with Mexican workers and unions as a "key strategic front for the American labor movement," according to Jeff Hermanson, the union's director of organizing...
...comply with health and safety requirements...
...6 "I give credit to UE for being in the vanguard of efforts to raise living standards in both Mexico and United States," says Rosemary Trump, international vice-president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU...
...The maquiladora work force is overwhelmingly women and poorly paid...
...The tour included rallies, press conferences, and meetings with members of Congress and a wide variety of groups...
...Only time will tell...
...support effort for the Mexican workers...
...hen the reprisals began...
...Upon their return to the United States, two UE Locals immediately shipped a typewriter, and health and safety information to STIMAHCS in Juirez...
...4. On December 22, 1989 Ford announced it would not pay the Christmas bonus (a significant part of Mexican workers' yearly wages) and profit-sharing as required by the contract...
...This conference focused on changes in technology in the telecommunications industry, and the unions' response...
...workers at the GE plant in Decatur, Indiana in 1974...
...Subsequently, Ford workers democratically elected new leadership for the local...
...AFSC also provides financial and other support to the Border Committee of Workers (CFO), an independent organization of women workers in the maquiladora industry...
...corporations have at least one plant in Mexico, and that General Motors is the largest private-sector employer in the country...
...The workers responded with a work stoppage...
...They described a variety of other violations, including failure to: pay overtime properly...
...unions-with the full support of FAT--filed the first two complaints under the labor side agreement of NAFTA, with the U.S...
...Other efforts have focused on highlighting labor and environmental problems, especially in the maquiladora sector...
Vol. 28 • July 1994 • No. 1
