Downward Mobility: Mexican Workers After NAFTA

...They have the region, and to experienced a general downward shift maintain a pool of out of better-paying jobs into low-wage cheap and available employment, with an increasing percentage of people labor, working for less than poverty-level wages...

...11.Author's interview, May 23, 1996...

...According to the report, in the plants of companies such as General Motors, General Electric, Zenith, Panasonic, Sanyo and AT&T, women are routinely subjected to questions on the use of contraceptives and their sexual habits...

...Latino Many U.S...

...There are, however, in the words of political analyst Jorge G. Castafieda, ways to "amend, improve or postpone numerous chapters in the agreement...

...When we get out of the privileged big business circle, however, things change significantly...

...9 The report denounces violations of human and labor rights against women who look for jobs or who work in the maquiladora industry along the Mexico-U.S...

...This is also the transcript of a speech delivered in Mexico City on April 11, 1996...

...People are never given severance pay when fired...

...These banks cater to a select group of fewer than 500 of Mexico's largest companies, which together control most foreign trade...

...It is caught in a vicious cycle in which it can't lend more The growing money until it gets paid on old debts...

...We're now working with plenty of chemicals that are not allowed in the United States because of their effects, and VOL XXX, No 3 Nov/DEC 1996 37REPORT ON LATINO LABOR because the instructions on handling them are written in English, the women do not know what they're working with...

...Working postures are uncomfortable...

...The most affluent of them, Carlos Slim-the owner of Tel6fonos de M6xico--increased his net worth from $3.7 billion in 1994 to $6.1 billion in 1995...

...weight to the thesis In the United States, the economy that NAFTA was may be "booming," but the gap between rich and poor is the basically designed to greatest in over a generation...

...The demonstration called for enhanced regulation of pesticides used in the fields...

...34REPORT ON LATINO LABOR still in trouble...

...Regarding their relations with the U.S...

...He is the director of PUEBLO's regional development project in the state of Tamaulipas...

...Latino and Mexican workforce...

...The government has pumped over 12% of its GDP into the private banks, but the Mexican banking system is NACIA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS Carlos A. Heredia is an economist with Equipo PUEBLO, a Mexican nongovernmental organization...

...Government, the issue for Latino labor leaders has always been to weigh the benefits that accrue from supporting the present Administration...

...Labor Department under one of the NAFTA side agreements to hear labor complaints related to the trade agreement...

...No 3 Nov/DEC 1996 35REPORT ON LATINO LABOR 750,000 paid positions were created, most of them in the export -mainly maquiladora-sector...

...customs service to prevent Mexican goods from entering the United States), and the low quality of foreign merchandise (cheap Southeast Asian imports that enter Mexico through the United States...

...governments to deliver on the glowing promises of NAFTA has confirmed the warning often raised in the NAFTA debates that the trade pact would further polarize both societies...

...companies billions of dollars per year...

...None- for the same ( theless, they are frequently appealed to...

...Mexican workers are continuing their migration to the United States, regardless of the ever-tougher immigration stance north of the border...

...government has refused to sign a similar accord with Mexico, because it would raise the cost of farm labor, since the flow of undocumented workers saves U.S...

...labor leaders on tours to Mexico, where they were pampered by their hosts...

...I have an ear infection...

...Claudia Luengas, of the National Association of Democratic Lawyers in Mexico City, believes that the lack of an independent judiciary and the blatant disrespect of the rule of law by labor tribunals in Mexico move Mexican workers to look for other means of redress outside of the country...

...become able to exert an electoral force that is at least comparable to their demographic weight will their initiatives on labor and other issues gain relevance...

...3. Mexico Update, Equipo PUEBLO (Mexico City), April 16,1996...

...en a number :ween Mexican no workers same industry asingly, :orporation...

...policymakers to normalize the flow of migrant workers...

...2. Richard J. Barnet and John Cavanagh, "The Planetary Workplace: New Challenges for Working People of Color," Civil Rights Journal, 1996...

...Border Patrol, and our government just makes statements without doing much to protect our rights....With NAFTA, their concerns are somewhere else, like the number of Corona beer cases exported to the United States...

...particularly Latino) and Mexican workers, until the Mexican "Berlin Wall" of government control over unions falls, it will be difficult to establish solid crossborder links between unions...

...Latino labor leaders supported the trade pact, insisting that working through the side agreements and the NAFTA institutions would compensate for a less-thanperfect pact...

...This represents an increase from 20.8% to 26.4% of the workforce...

...NAFTA benefits have been reaped by companies able to concentrate production and marketing in an integrated way in both the United States and Mexico...

...This represents a 20% increase per year over the last two years...

...On the other hand, they wanted to be on good terms with the Mexican government...

...Among Mexicans, the trade pact's obvious winners have been the owners of recently privatized companies-the billionaires who heeded the call of former president Carlos Salinas de Gortari and campaigned for the trade agreement...

...If we only demonstrate in Mexico, they will suppress the movement, and it will become inconsequential...

...Many of them have since made it to Forbes magazine's list of conspicuous billionaires...

...Today, the annual average is 5,000 workers...

...they are simply selling abroad what they cannot sell at home...

...The maquila plants continue to represent an enclave along the northern border, where over two thirds of the plants are located...

...Just three of these fifteen banks-Citibank, JP Morgan and the Spanish bank, Santander-accounted for 81% of those profits...

...The U.S...

...The importance of these subsidies is underscored by the refusal of U.S...

...The law states we should get compensated for work-related illnesses, but hospitals will never admit we get sick because of our work...

...On one such petition, in October 1994, the NAO ruled that there was no evidence the Mexican government had failed to enforce its labor laws in the disiLssadl somllle 40 pro- union workers at Mexican There has plants of the U.S...

...7. Raul Llanos Samaniego, "Son importados ia mayoria de los insumos en las maquiladoras," La Jornada (Mexico City), August 24, 1996...

...Apart from the majority of the Cuban-exile community in Florida, most Latino communities (including Cuban-Americans in New Jersey) have favored the Democratic Party and its policies...

...government will never accept the inclusion of migration and labor rights in an expanded trade agreement...

...4 There is a growing gap between prices and salaries in Mexico...

...As of August 1996, there were 3,188 maquiladoras, which employed over 800,000 workers, as opposed to less than half that number in 1988.7 In Mexico, the free-trade deal was promoted by an alliance of corporate chieftains, government officials and politicians of both the party in power, the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) and the opposition National Action Party (PAN...

...A small number of U.S...

...Lati they have proven to be unenforceable when the who work in the political wills of the gov- ernments involved have and, incre been lacking...

...It is an open secret that the labor of undocumented Mexicans subsidizes the economy of the U.S...

...61-79...

...And this consensus has led to an increasing subordination of Mexican policymaking to the dictates of the Washington...

...9.Alejandro Romero Ruiz, "Hostigamiento y represi6n contra mujeres en las maquiladoras," in La Jornada (Mexico City), August 22, 1996...

...but if we spread the information abroad, the government will have to pay dearly for the deterioration of the [false] law-abiding image it has been trying to give itself through an expensive public relations campaign...

...They are forced to resign when they get pregnant...

...So while the side agree- growth of cr ments have given workers labor sol on both sides of the border a forum, they have not There have be been an effective tool for improved labor-law en- Of exchanges bet forcement...

...government is to insure that the economic liberalization policies remain in place...

...To a large degree, there is a consensus among economic and political elites on the kind of economic policies to be implemented in the region...

...This trend, together with the steep fall of the peso, has generated this trade surplus...

...Practically all of the companies owned by these billionaires have partners in, export to or render services in the United States...

...Most have been close business associates of the family of former president Carlos Salinas...

...On several occasions, Ford workers from the United States have supported free union elections in the Cuautitlin plant of the giant auto maker...

...The truth, however, is that exports have surged only because there is a dramatically reduced domestic market in Mexico...

...This represented 41% of Mexican bank profits in 1995...

...Although in the aftermath of its passage, some antiNAFTA groups on both sides of the border continued to campaign for the trade pact's abrogation, two and a half years into NAFTA, outright opposition to it no longer seems feasible...

...Latino workers who work in the same industry and, increasingly, for the same corporation...

...But this is totally de-linked from NAFTA...

...Furthermore, government surveys indicate that the number of people unemployed and underemployed (those who work less than 35 hours per week) rose from 7.7 million at the time of the December 1994 peso devaluation to 10.2 million in December, 1995...

...And north of the border, only when Latinos in the U.S...

...Government and the IMF...

...Latino workers can be attained: democratization of the labor unions, political alliances between unions and other organized sectors of the population and a leadership that looks beyond geographical borders...

...Latino workers have and capital flows in been working longer hours for lower real wages...

...There seems to be no chance for a European Union-style compact, which would facilitate evolution toward a common market-and a common labor market...

...According to the government, 6.7 million Mexicans joined the labor force between 1988 and 1995, but only VOL XXX...

...Sometimes it is our own Mexican bosses who are the worst exploiters, and we have to take our case to the United States (or in the case of Sony, to Japan) to make the Mexican government listen to us," says Martha Ojeda, who was fired from a Sony maquiladora in the border city Nuevo Laredo because of her organizing work...

...None of them discuss how the Mexican people are doing, nor why under NAFTA the Mexican economy is not growing when it is supposed to be booming...

...corporations General Electric steady-thoug and Honeywell...

...The failure of the Mexican and U.S...

...6 Three sectors of the economy-electronics, automobiles/parts, and machinery/precision instruments-account for 67% of all exports...

...In the United States, U.S...

...That is why it will not pressure the Mexican government to enforce its labor laws even though Mexican workers are routinely fired-by domestic and transnational companies alike-for engaging in "unauthorized union activity...

...The trade surplus is expected to be about $9 billion...

...By contrast, the center-left Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), the country's thirdlargest party, criticized NAFTA, arguing for a different type of economic integration, as did the independent unions and the socalled "democratic currents"-groups inside official unions who oppose the leadership but are largely powerless...

...There remains, however, a strong possibility of strengthening and enforcing the labor-protection side agreement of NAFTA...

...The relevant variable for migrants is the wage disparity between the two countries-a disparity that has substantially increased after the most recent peso devaluation...

...Although recent changes in the top leadership of the AFL-CIO seem to favor a closer relationship between U.S...

...Trade liberalization has meant the deepening of the dual economy: while large subsidiaries of transnational companies that cater to foreign markets have flourished, many Mexican firms that sell to domestic consumers have gone under...

...During 1995, exports concentrated sharply as only 2.7% of all exporting companies (750 of a total of 27,000) were responsible for four fifths of all Mexican exports...

...As of October 1996, for example, the minimum wage was almost 12 times higher in the United States ($4.75 an hour) than in Mexico ($0.41 an hour...

...And beyond the seeking of redress through international appeals, there has been a steady-though cautious-growth of cross-border labor solidarity...

...In Mexico, two thirds of the economically active population-25 million out of a total of 36 million workers-survive on informal activities, without access to social security and with little possibility of advancement...

...In the first two years of operation under the new rules of NAFTA, Mexico's 15 foreign banks made a profit of $1.3 billion...

...both of these leaders come from the progressive wing of labor...

...As for facilitate investment family income, U.S...

...They control key industries, such as telephone and telecommunications, banking, mining and air transportation...

...Here, there is a great need which is illustrated by a recent report from the Women's Rights Project of Human Rights Watch...

...However, they don't do health check-ups as we leave a factory to see how we are...

...Over seven million Mexicans are in arrears in their home mortgages, car loans and/or direct credits...

...border...

...An agreement signed in 1974 between the governments of Canada and Mexico, for example, allows Mexican agricultural workers to go to Canada temporarily to work on the harvests each year...

...In 1996, it is expected that Mexico's total exports will top $100 billion of which over 80% will be exports to the United States...

...2 They have been affected by downsizing, flexible production and migration...

...In practice and U.S...

...Wall Street investment bankers also seem to be content with the relative Cesar Chavez addresses the press at a United Farm Workers demonstration in Bakersfield, California in 1991...

...When we start working at a factory, we go through a physical medical examination, as the company wants to make sure we are fit to work," says a woman working for a maquiladora in the border state of Coahuila...

...Only 2.1% of their inputs are bought inside Mexico...

...The more representative the unions become at home, the better equipped they will be for cross-border initiatives and for joint endeavors in this era of globalization...

...Southwest, as well as the service sectors of Chicago and New York City...

...1 2 The "unionism without borders" will have to wait until free unions become a reality in Mexico...

...The official unions, which represent 90% of unionized workers and are tightly tied to the government and the ruling party, offered unconditional support for the agreement...

...The recent new U.S...

...Practically none of the companies that increased exports have augmented their level of output...

...Downward Mobility: Mexican Workers After NAFTA 1. Jesus Hernandez (name has been changed), a Mexican migrant worker in Tijuana, to El Financiero, (Mexico City), April 15, 1996...

...3 These businesses reported problems with "unfair competition" (small local and regional retailers being displaced by large U.S...

...The Mexican Trade Ministry often invited U.S...

...In this context, many of them supported the trade pact, insisting that working through the side agreements and the NAFTA institutions would compensate for a lessthan-perfect pact...

...On the one hand, they wanted to establish or reinforce links with their Mexican colleagues south of the border...

...NAFTA, and the economic globalization of which it is a part, has reshaped the U.S...

...6. Figure given by Enrique Vilatela, the director of Bancomext, Mexico's export-import bank, in La Jornada (Mexico City), July 15, 1996...

...The Mexican government has frequently expressed displeasure at these procedures, and the paradox has emerged that a government which favors economic liberalization and the free flow of investment capital disapproves of the internationalization of conflicts derived from economic liberalization...

...In fact, in the last 18 months, bilateral trade between the United States and Mexico has resulted in a substantial Mexican surplus...

...Mexico's productive capacity was devastated, as the BY CARLOS A. HEREDIA nation's small and medium-sized businesses could not endure tough competition from large foreign corporations...

...acquainted with the experiences of their fellow Mexican workers in the telephone and telecommunications, textile and garment, automobile, and public service industries...

...The understanding was that they could not organize with their Mexican counterparts...

...In the first two years of NAFTA over two million jobs (one sixth of all jobs in the "modern" sector) were lost in Mexico, as the country's productive apparatus collapsed following the quick liberalization of trade...

...The financial system is in virtual collapse, as the banks cannot collect the money they lent in the midst of the borrowing and spending spree that followed the passage of NAFTA...

...firms, such as Wal-Mart), import and export licenses (discretionary nontariff barriers imposed by the U.S...

...Groups from a variety of ideological positions have come to accept that, like it or not, we have to live with NAFTA...

...In 1995, the combined wealth of Mexico's 15 richest individuals was $25.6 billion dollars-the equivalent of 10% of the country's estimated GDP...

...Only 9.37 million Mexicans have regular paid jobs in the private sector, and just under 2 million are employed by the government or public agencies...

...We have no safety whatsoever...

...Although there is a bipartisan consensus in the United States that the current hysteria against Mexican migrant workers will recede once the November 1996 presidential election is behind us, many in the labor movement-on both sides of the border-feel the U.S...

...10.Maria Sanchez (her real name has been changed), a worker at Confecciones Monclova, interviewed by Sedepac's Maquiladora Project, quoted in Patricia Amat y Le6n, Ajuste Estructural: Debate y Propuestas, Lima, Peru, April 30, 1996...

...residents and Mexicans who work for the same corporation is that of Ford Motor Company...

...After two and a half years of free trade, domestic consumer debt is at an all-time high in Mexico...

...The Mexican government strongly suggested that the maquiladora model was going to be phased out once NAFTA was in place, but the opposite has taken place...

...According to a study by the Labor Congress (CT) during 1995, the cost of the basic basket of goods deemed necessary for a family of five rose 60%, while the minimum wage only increased 31...

...Well over half of the trade surplus comes from the maquiladora sector...

...At this point, three conditions will have to be met before higher levels of understanding between Mexican and U.S...

...In fact, manufacturing wages in Mexico are now below the levels of 1981, prior to the economic liberalization drive...

...5 In the aftermath of the peso devaluation, it has become an article of ruling-circle faith that Mexico will export its way out of the economic crisis, and that NAFTA will ensure that this happens...

...There have been a number of exchanges between Mexican and U.S...

...You're either sitting or standing for the full eight hours...

...companies have increased their investments in the Mexican economy, most dramatically in the automobile industry and, increasingly, in the financial sector...

...based International Labor Rights Education and Research Fund (ILRERF...

...During the first year of the accord, 203 Mexican workers took advantage of the agreement...

...Harvey has been an advisor on several petitions to the National Administrative Office (NAO)-the agency established by the U.S...

...Since the Clinton Administration's February 1995 bailout package was approved, the number-one priority of economic policy in Mexico has been the servicing of Mexico's debt to the U.S...

...12.The election John Sweeney as president and Ron Blackwell as director of campaigns...

...According to a study jointly released by the Mexican Confederation of National Chambers of Commerce and the government statistics agency, NAFTA had negative repercussions for 60% of commercial establishments in Mexico...

...Of course not everyone concurs that the Mexican economy is doing surprisingly well...

...polarization in both But it can't get paid on old debts without countries lends lending more money because the private sector is broke...

...In this context, some groups have deemed it preferable to go beyond Mexican courts and address dispute resolution through multinational panels established by the side agreements...

...Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin routinely say that Mexico is doing "surprisingly well," and emphasize the need to continue the fiscal policies put into place since the crisis erupted...

...stability of the peso/dollar exchange rate, the gains in the Mexican Stock Exchange and the hefty profits reaped by foreign capital in Mexico...

...The best known individual case of cross-border cooperation between U.S...

...5. Figures are from La Jornada (Mexico City), March 4, 1996...

...8. Jorge G. Castaieda, "El TLC y las relaciones M6xico-Estados Unidos," in Various Authors,Los compromises con la nacion (Mexico City Plaza y Janes, 1996), pp...

...It is obvious NAFTA has brought neither the economic prosperity nor the flowering of human rights and workers' rights that was promised," says Pharis Harvey, Executive Director of the Washington, D.C...

...To make things even worse, social programs have been cut, while health care budgets are also being slashed...

...8 Castafieda suggests the reopening of negotiations on such issues as compensatory financing and development funds, dispute settlement, the phasing NACILA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS 36REPORT ON LATINO LABOR Immigrant Mexican fish-packing workers in California explode in applause as the results are announced r of the union representation . out of tariffs on agricultural imports, and most important for the purposes of this essay, migration, which from the outset was left out of the agreement...

...legislation on undocumented workers has certainly hurt the bilateral relationship, although it remains highly unlikely it will seriously hamper the northward flow of Mexican migrant workers...

...4. La Jornada (Mexico City), July 12, 1996...

...It has also lent weight to the thesis that the agreement was basically designed to facilitate investment and capital flows in the region, and to maintain a pool of cheap and available labor in both countries...

...He was granted a protected monopoly by the Salinas government for six years after the phone company was privatized in 1991...

...10 eyond NAFTA, a greater priority of the U.S...

...Latino labor leaders faced a difficult dilemma during the NAFTA debate...

...The narrow focus on trade liberalization also explains why both Michel Camdessus, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and U.S...

...Latino trade union leaders have ventured south to get been a h cautious-"oss-border idarity...