border controls / maquiladoras

[MLuftmensch@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Michael Luftmensch)]

re-border controls / maquiladoras

The Mexican government established a free trade zone  along the Mexican-US
border thirty years ago and waived its duties and restrictions on the import
of industrial inputs and capital equipment for foreign-owned and operated
assembly plants. Working for a fraction of what US workers would be paid for
similar work, a young and predominantly female workforce assembles goods that
are then shipped back across the border for sale in the United States. The
companies only pay duties on the value added  by the assembly process (i.e.,
the wages paid to Mexican workers).

Over the years, this has worked well for a variety of transnationals,
allowing them to transfer the most menial tasks in the assembly process south
of the border, ruthlessly exploit the low wages paid in Mexico, and cynically
take advantage of the lax enforcement of Mexican environmental standards. The
worst of times for the Mexican people are the best of times for the
transnationals.

The following is from Migration News, Nov. 1995:

"In Mexico, manufacturing employment has dropped every month since September
1990, and one million Mexicans lost their jobs in 1995, especially as large
companies streamlined their operations to become globally competitive.  In
rural Mexico, over two-thirds of the farmers questioned in one survey
reported that their incomes had been reduced by a NAFTA induced influx of
corn, processed meat and milk products that lowered the prices they received
for farm products in Mexico. The maquiladora industry is booming--employment
rose 100,000 or 20 percent since January 1, 1994, and today tops 600,000.
Maquildora wages fell as a result of the peso devaluation-from an average
$2.54 per hour, including benefits, to $1.80 hourly-- many workers take home
$25 to $45 per week."


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Sexual Harassment at Maquiladora

by Jean Bowdish (7 January, 1995)

Some 180 Mexican women have filed a lawsuit in the United States court
system to get back what is legally and rightfully theirs-- severance pay and
dignity.

The women worked in a maquiladora, a sweat-shop factory set up in the
"free-trade zones" established in Mexico before NAFTA. Maquiladoras are
notorious for long hours, low pay, and miserable working conditions.

The company president and chief executive officer, John Shahid of
California, took "free-trade zone" to mean "I can do anything I want without
repercussions." He was wrong.

It was during a company picnic in September that Shahid showed his true
sliminess. Using verbal and physical intimidation, he demanded that some of
the women put on a bikini show. Then Shahid videotaped the women.

"I felt humiliated and violated," said Veronica Vasquez Baron, one of the
women forced to participate. "Shahid treated us like objects. He thought
because he has money he can do anything. I hope Shahid now understands that
we are not his property."

The women sought action against the sexual harassment through Mexican labor
authorities. Shahid refused to respond. He then closed down the maquiladora,
firing all the workers without paying them the three months' severance pay
required by law.

Determined not to let Shahid off the hook, the women filed a lawsuit in the
U.S. It is the first of its kind. The women are asking that Mexican law be
applied against the California company, American United Global Inc., in U.S.
courts.

"The U.S./Mexico border will not be used as a shield by American companies
to evade their legal obligations to Mexican workers," said Fred Kumetz, the
attorney representing the women.

Shahid replied he does not own the maquiladora that employed the women, who
inspected O-rings used in industry, and he stopped sending work there
because of a dispute with the manager. This is the old practice of hiding
behind dummy corporations, holding companies and partnerships that obscure
the real owners. It is part of a growing trend of stranding maquiladora
workers following sudden closings of plants dependent on U.S. companies.

Mary Tong, administrator of the San-Diego based Support Committee for
Maquiladora Workers, said the women's case is a legal test of NAFTA. "If
NAFTA opened the border to trade, the border should also be opened in terms
of liability," she said.

"Hopefully our actions will set a precedent that can keep this from
happening to other workers," added Vasquez Baron.

For more information, readers can contact Mary Tong at (619) 542-0826 or
mtong@xxxxxxxxxxxx

Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted if source is
cited. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY
10011; via e-mail: ww@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx




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