4/24: Support the Maquiladora Workers at Daewoo Co. in Mexicali, Mexico!

Support the Maquiladora Workers at Daewoo Co. in Mexicali, Mexico!
Date: 3/31/2004 2:22:50 PM Pacific Standard Time
From: ilcinfo [at] earthlink.net

Dear Anti-Sweatshop Activists:

We need your help organizing!

On April 24, a Binational Conference in Support of the Daewoo
Maquiladora Workers will be held in the border city of Mexicali,
Mexico -- just across from Calexico, Calif.

The purpose of this conference is to build support for the workers at
the Daewoo maquiladora (assembly sweatshop) factory who are waging a
courageous battle to organize an independent union to improve their
wages and working conditions.

We are reprinting below an Action Alert on the struggle of the Daewoo
workers that was sent out earlier this month by the Washington,
DC-based Campaign for Labor Rights. Also included below are two
important background articles by Prof. Gemma López Limón, who is the
main organizer of the Daewoo Workers Support Committee (MOLDETIM) and
a leading authority on the maquiladora industry along the Mexico-U.S.
border.

Please contact us at the San Francisco Labor Council's OWC program if
you are interested in helping us build support for this conference --
and especially if you are interested in attending. You can reach us
at the following: tel. (415) 641-8616, or email
<ilcinfo [at] earthlink.net>.

If you cannot attend the April 24th conference, please help us get
the word out about this important struggle. The Daewoo workers in
particular need financial assistance. The OWC Continuations Committee
has launched a special fund drive to assist these workers in their
organizing efforts. Please tell your friends and coworkers about this
fund. All donations should be made payable to "OWC" and sent to OWC,
c/o SF Labor Council, 1188 Franklin St. #203, San Francisco, CA
94109. Please mark "Daewoo Workers Fund" on your check.

Thanks, in advance, for your interest and support,

In solidarity,

Ed Rosario and Alan Benjamin
OWC Continuations Committee
San Francisco Labor Council (AFL-CIO)

*********************


ACTION ALERT BY CAMPAIGN FOR LABOR RIGHTS

This information comes to us from the Open World Conference at the
S.F. Labor Council

* Defend Daewoo Maquiladora Workers in Mexicali, Mexico!
* Date: 3/12/2004
contact: ilcinfo [at] earthlink.net

Campaign in Defense of the Daewoo Maquiladora Workers in Mexicali, Mexico

Five workers at the Daewoo Orion de Mexico (DOMEX) maquiladora plant
were fired from their jobs last September after they tried to form an
independent union to improve their wages and working conditions.

The five fired workers who took the lead in organizing a genuine
union at Daewoo are Juan Carlos Espinoza Bravo (interim general
secretary), Victor Ortega (interim organizing director), Rita Soltero
(interim recording secretary), and Rogelio Torres and Alan Lechuga
Moreno of the interim executive board.

The Daewoo maquiladora factory produces TV screens for the U.S.
market. It is owned by a Korean multinational corporation. It employs
more than 800 workers. For the past four years, workers have received
no wage increases, even though management got numerous raises. The
rate of job injuries has increased dramatically during this period
due to speed-up.

Last October, about 40 of these workers formed a union. They
submitted their union registration application to the National
Reconciliation Board. Soon after, Daewoo management began to harass
the workers who had signed onto the union, taking away bonus points
for punctuality, productivity, attendance and loyalty -- which was
tantamount to a wage cut of 200 pesos per month, a considerable sum
considering their incredibly low wages. When some of the workers
protested this abuse, they were fired.

Meanwhile the Reconciliation Board has ignored the Daewoo workers'
petition to form a union, even though formally they must announce
their decision to certify a new union 60 days after the application
is filed.

The Daewoo workers, together with workers in other maquiladora plants
in the Mexicali region, have launched a new organization -- the
Movement for Freedom and Labor Rights for Workers in the Maquiladora
Industry (MOLDELTIM) -- and are calling on the trade union movement
in the United States and across the Americas to support their
struggle for independent unions and labor rights. They insist that
workers in the maquiladoras must be granted at least the same labor
rights as all workers throughout Mexico.

On Thursday, March 11, the Reconciliation Board heard Juan Carlos
Espinoza Bravo's claim that he was unjustly fired. Due to the
tremendous support and presence of other workers, and the messages of
solidarity from around the world, the Board declared the firing a
misunderstanding. They said Espinoza could return to work the next
day, which he did, amidst applause of support.

Each of the other fired workers is to be received by the
Reconciliation Board over the next month. Write the CEO of Daewoo to
insist that the remaining workers, Victor Ortega, Rita Soltero,
Rogelio Torres, and Alan Lechuga Moreno, also be allowed to return to
work. The five unjustly fired workers also seek back pay, as they
have now been out of work for seven months, and were blacklisted,
preventing them from finding work in other maquiladoras. Though
their reinstatement at the factory signals a significant victory, the
workers are still struggling to form a union. Write to the Governor
of Baja California to urge him to support their efforts and require
the company to recognize their union.

Send your letters to:

C. Eugenio Elorduy
Governor, State of Baja California
Mexico
<http://www.com.mx">gobernadorbaja [at] http://www.com.mx>

Myung Soo Choi,
Chief Executive Officer
Daewoo Orion de Mexico
<mschoi [at] domex.com.mx>

Please send copies to Humberto Brizuela at <brizuela [at] hotmail.com> and
to the OWC Continuations Committee at <ilcinfo [at] earthlink.net>.

The next step in this struggle is an exciting conference to be held
in Mexicali, bringing together maquila workers from the region, and
demonstrating support for the Daewoo workers' organizing.

The Open World Conference Continuations Committee, in coordination
with the MOLDETIM organizers, is calling on labor officials,
unionists and activists in the United States, Mexico and Canada to
participate in a one-day conference in Mexicali on Saturday, April
24, to listen to the testimonies of the fired Daewoo workers and
other workers in the maquiladora industry, and to
promote a wider solidarity campaign on their behalf.

If you are interested in participating in this conference, contact
the Open World Conference at ilcinfo [at] earthlink.net

Thanks, in advance, for your support,

Eddie Rosario and Alan Benjamin,
Co-coordinators,
OWC Continuations Committee


********************


SOVEREIGNTY AND MAQUILADORAS

by Mercedes Gema López Limón
(translation by Dan La Botz)

Where Is the Maquiladora Project Taking Us?

The maquiladora export industry is the cutting edge of "free trade,"
of the commerce of the globalized world, of the new division of
labor, of flexibility in the productive process and deregulation of
labor. It is a clear example of de-localization, or the movement of
firms of the industrialized countries to the backward countries in
order to reduce labor costs.

According to the definition of the Mexican Institute of Statistics
(INEGI), "the maquiladora export industry is the ensemble of firms
and establishments that are engaged in carrying out some or various
of the stages of the productive process, generally of assembly or
administration. The maquila's activity involves the transformation,
elaboration, and repair of merchandise originating in a foreign
country, temporarily imported to be exported later." So, the provider
of the maquilas is also the purchaser of the product. (Dabat, 1996)

This is the policy most favored by the government to generate
employment, even though the recession in the United States led to the
loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs. The Baja California Secretary
of Economic Development pointed out at the end of 2003, that there
were 218,871 workers, or 50,000 less than in previous years; in
Mexicali there are 49,900 (La Crónica 07/03/04) and he confirms that
in the last four months employment as increased. Most of the
investment capital comes from the United States and Mexico, but there
are also investments from Asian countries such as Japan, Korea and
others creating about 40 percent of the jobs.

The maquiladora "boom" resulted principally from the low cost of
labor, tax exemptions, the creation of infrastructure and services
with industrial parks provided by the government. The peak of the
maquiladoras took place at the same time as the dismantling of
national industry aggravated by the North American Free Trade
Agreement (NAFTA) which has brought the country to the verge of
destruction. With the negotiation of the Free Trade Area of the
Americas (FTAA) the entire continent will be a great maqiladora at
the service of the multinational corporations, principally those of
the United States.

The Maquiladora: Beyond National Sovereignty?

Here in Mexico, these corporations enjoy credit, tax exemptions, and
government stimulation of production, as well as the possibility of
having policies modified with changes in the market. They have been
able to hire "apprentices" paying them less than the minimum wage,
and firing workers, without compensation, who are no longer
considered "able." They have been able to increase or reduce their
personnel, and their hours and weeks of work and wages if the company
requires it. They have in practice modified the Federal Labor Law
regarding such policies as absenteeism and firings, and they have
reduced their payments to the national Social Security (health
system) if they establish a "short week," create "permanent"
positions, or give permanent employment after 90 days of work, etc.
(Levy and Alcocer, 1983). So, throughout the length and breadth of
the country, the maquiladoras are managed as spaces completely
foreign to and outside of national sovereignty. One of the defining
characteristics of national sovereignty, of course, is the observance
and the operation of national laws throughout a country's territory,
in that way to regulate the economic development of the country.

To be more precise, the most common violations of labor legislation
are the following:

- The failure to observe the legal work day of eight hours, and the
increasingly common practice of 10, 12, or 14 hours of continuous
work, and even the obligation to stay and work two shifts when
production requires it, at times that the company decides; together
with that, the violation of the payment of correct overtime, with the
argument that in this way the workers don't have to work on Saturdays.

- Work in the worst conditions of super-exploitation with exhausting
speed on the production lines.

- The lowest possible salaries that have no relationship whatsoever
to the fabulous profits that the companies make.

- Complete lack of health and safety on the job, and denial of
information about dangerous substances being worked with, lack of
engineering to protect workers, and not giving workers protective
equipment. Frequently there are not health and safety committees, or
the committees have been stacked in favor of the employer..

- The practice of sending injured workers to private physicians
rather than to Social Security (IMSS-the Mexican Institute of Social
Security, the public health system) to avoid having accidents
reported and being fined, a practice that militates against the
interest of the workers.

- The practice of taking rest breaks or lunch breaks based on the
necessities of production.

- In not a few cases, the complete failure of the company to meet its
obligations to the Social Security system (IMSS).

- Firings without just cause and without the compensation required by law.

- The complacency of the authorities in the face of the "labor
cultures" that are imposed by the employers (above all the Korean
employers) which include mistreatment of the employees.

- The hiring of minors of both sexes on conditions similar to those
of adults, a practice prohibited by the Federal Labor Law (under the
age of 13) unless with the special exceptions and protections for
those 14 and 15 years of age.

- Run-away companies that expose workers to abuse and unemployment
since they arrive one day and pick up and leave the next, leaving
their workers completely vulnerable.

- The hiring of elderly women and men and people with disabilities
into poorer jobs and at wages worse than those of other workers.

- An absenteeism policy based on the rule that if a person misses one
day she or he is not allowed to come to work the next day, and
sometimes for two or three days.

- The labor authorities' complete bias in favor of the employers.

- The requirement that women workers produce a certificate to prove
that they are not pregnant when they apply for work, and to reproduce
such proof in order to keep their jobs, together with the firing of
pregnant women.

- The existence of "company unions" at the service of the employer
that create "protection contracts" (to protect the employer) which
are often signed even before the plant opens and begins to run.

- The prohibition of the right of workers to form unions of their own
choosing, and therefore the lack of independent unions that defend
the interests of the workers.

All of this which takes place on a daily basis, but completely
illegally, is what employers hope to legalize with the "reform" of
the Federal Labor Law, part of the reforms that Fox proposes before
entering into the FTAA in 2005.

The Case of Daewoo and Those Fired For Attempting to Organize a Union

In the maquiladoars there are no unions, or, if there are, the
workers don't know anything about them and they do not serve them.
They are hostages of "official" leaders who used to serve the
Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) government, and who, since
1989, have adapted to the government of the National Action Party
(PAN). [The PAN came to power in Baja California in 1989.]

Article 357 of the Federal Labor Law establishes that: "[W]orkers and
employers shall have the right to create unions without previous
authorization" [the sense of the law is that workers can create
unions for themselves and employers can create their own chambers of
commerce]. Article 358 notes, "No one can be obliged to organize or
join a union." In addition Mexico has since 1950 been a signatory to
Convention 87 of the International Labor Organization which
guarantees the right to labor union freedom and protects the right to
unionize.

The businessmen who own the maquiladoras have no obstacle to their
right to organize. The press announced with great fanfare the names
of those involved in the employer organizations and publicizes their
activities. But the situation of the workers is altogether different.
There is a long history of the workers' struggle for the right to
organize, and of the obstacles that the employers, the authorities
and the pro-company union leaders place in their path. The
explanation for this is that the great business of the maquiladoras
is based on the deplorable working conditions and the wages (which
are between 10 and 20 times less than those paid in the country of
origin of these firms), and which multiply the profits by that much.

In September 2003, a group of workers at the Daewoo Orion of Mexico
(DOMEX) company organized to establish a union and went to the Labor
Board (JLCA) in order to comply with the law. As soon as the company
learned of this, it fired five of the leaders unjustly and without
any compensation and created an environment of severe hostility to
labor in the factory, threatening the workers and obliging some of
them who were on the union list to sign a document repudiating any
association with the union. This policy of terror meant that within a
few days the workers no longer had the 20 people needed to form a
union. But this is only the first chapter in a history that is still
being written. ...

----

Mercedes Gema López Limón
Researcher at Instituto de Investigaciones Sociales
of the Autonomous University of Baja California (UABC)
Email: glopez [at] uabc.mx


**********

Women Workers in Mexico's Maquila Industry

Excerpts from presentation to International Women's Conference by
Gemma Lopez Limon (Mexico)

By GEMA LOPEZ LIMON

[Note: Following are excerpts from the presentation by Gema Lopez
Limon to the Feb. 21, 2002, International Women's Conference in
Berlin. Lopez Limon is a researcher at the University of Baja
California in Mexicali, Mexico.]

In this contribution, I will report on a group of women workers who
toil in one of the most dynamic economic sectors in the Mexican
economy -- the maquiladora [assembly plant] export industry.

According to the National Institute of Statistics, Geography and
Information (INEGI), an estimated 1.1 million people, half of whom
are women, work in Mexico's maquiladora industry. The real number is
undoubtedly much higher. These maquiladora plants are exempt from
Mexico Federal Labor Law (LFT). All real trade union activity is
banned. All attempts to organize independent unions have been
repressed severely. Where "unions" exist, they are run and controlled
by the employers and the government.

The maquiladora industry is deregulated industry par excellence.

The lack of basic labor rights pertains to both men and women. There
is no legal 8-hour workday. Shifts of 10 to 12 hours are commonplace,
as is forced overtime without overtime pay rates. The worst
conditions of superexploitation are prevalent. The rates of pay are
roughly 1/20th of what they are across the border in the United
States.

In the maquilas you find all of the following: no hygiene on the job,
no protection against hazardous materials, no ventilation, no regular
rest and food breaks, no benefits, no Social Security or heathcare
coverage, no protection against employer abuse (including physical
abuse), no recourse to redress grievances, no government inspection
to prevent child labor -- and the list goes on.

To these conditions of super-exploited labor one must add others
which directly affect women:

Mexico's Federal Labor Law (and Convention 103 of the ILO) establish
maternity rights so to grant protection to pregnant women.
Nonetheless, the maquiladoras negate these rights across the board,
as they demand that women present a certificate stating they are not
pregnant if they want the job -- or later, if they want to keep their
job. (In numerous plants, the supervisors go so far as to order women
to show their menstrual sanitary napkins.) If a woman is found to be
pregnant, she can be fired immediately.

There are no childcare centers for working mothers.

Night work for women in the maquilas is widespread -- despite the
fact that it puts workers' health, security and life at grave risk.

A very high proportion of the 270 women murdered in the past few
years in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua -- the main
maquiladora center of the country -- are maquila workers. One who was
killed was a girl 13 years old. Their deaths are still unpunished.
Reports of rapes and assaults on women who work the night shift and
leave in the early morning are frequent.

Another regular problem is sexual harassment suffered by women
workers at the hands of their supervisors, managers and bosses, who
pressure them for sexual favors in exchange for being hired, made
permanent or being promoted in a job.

During some of our own research on women in the maquiladoras in the
border city of Mexicali, Baja California, we gathered testimonies
from many workers. Here are some examples we found:

Maria is 15 years old. She is a maquiladora worker like her mother.
Between the two they sustain the family. She tells us she works from
6 a.m. till 4 p.m., but very often she is forced to work double shift
(at straight pay). She does all her work standing up. Sitting is not
permitted, even for a moment; they can only sit when they have a
short break. The environment is full of noise, and the tasks are very
heavy. She is very worried because her mother is pregnant and when
her situation becomes evident, they will fire her and Maria will be
left with the job of sustaining the household.

Carmen is an older person. She entered work in one of the few
maquilas that hire women her age. She, too, is on foot the entire
work day -- even though her legs swell up. She is not allowed to sit.
Carmen and the other workers in her plant do not have social security
or healthcare coverage. She got her job from official state
institution known as the Whole Family Development (DIF), which rounds
up these women and takes them to the factory.

Silvia had worked as an administrative employee in a maquiladora for
more than 10 years. Now she is studying in college. They just changed
her schedule, increased the work day by one hour and took away an
hour from her lunch break -- all for the same salary. As a result,
Silvia cannot continue her studies. She protested and the bosses
fired her.

These three stories reflect the harsh reality confronting an
increasing number of working women in Mexico. We must put a stop to
these mounting attacks by reversing the corporate "free trade"
agenda, by building independent trade unions, and by fighting for
enforceable labor rights, based on the ILO Conventions -- without any
exemptions!