Mexican labor movement

[Ian Murray <seamus2001@xxxxxxxxx>]

HoustonChronicle.com -- http://www.HoustonChronicle.com | Section:
Business
June 14, 2003, 7:16PM
New grass-roots movement fosters unions, in past discouraged
By JENALIA MORENO


TLIXCO, Mexico -- With vacant looks in their eyes, female workers
furiously remove stray threads from T-shirts emblazoned with "Princess of
Everything."

American girls who wear the garments stamped with this precocious
statement will probably never know about the working conditions at the
Pacific Continental textile factory.

But after touring this plant one afternoon, organizers like Marco Polo
Rodriguez, 27, know all too well. He knows that at the Korean-owned
factory in this central Mexican town, workers labor for about $5 a day,
less than the retail price of a Princess T-shirt sold at a Texas store.

And the Mexican union organizer hears a Korean manager at the plant
explain that the company decided to open a factory in Mexico because of
the cheap labor.

Rodriguez is just one of a half-dozen former Mexican university students
and plant workers trying to give a voice to workers in these maquiladoras,
or assembly line factories. The organizers are part of a fledgling labor
movement in a country where promises of democracy after a historic
election in 2000 go unfulfilled. But it's a difficult struggle,
considering that even if workers succeed in organizing an independent
union, maquiladora owners may relocate their factory to a country with
even cheaper labor.

"I think if a lot of female Mexican workers would demand what's their
right, this would be another Mexico," said Blanca Velazquez, 29, who once
worked at an auto parts factory and helped organize a union there, which
was so successful she co-founded the Worker's Assistance Center to help
maquiladora workers across the state.

For two years these organizers, who are all in their 20s, have visited
factories and the homes of workers to help foster the creation of
independent unions. They write and perform plays for communities so
residents know about working conditions at the maquiladoras and workers
know how to organize.

Piling into the group's battered Chevy Blazer, they drive to remote
villages to discuss organizing with workers who must travel by foot and
bus for hours to reach their workplaces.

"There are no sources of work in Izucar de Matamoros except for in the
fields," said Liliana Tejeda, 22, of her small town 25 miles south of
Atlixco. Even that work dwindles every day because of Mexico's growing
farm crisis.

Impoverished farmers are leaving the countryside, saying small farms are
being squeezed out by bigger, better-funded U.S. competitors, and have
staged protests seeking help to bring the antiquated agriculture industry
up to date. Farm labor leaders have even called for an end to the North
American Free Trade Agreement and sought to keep subsidies and tariff
protection for crops.

Tejeda and her sister worked at Matamoros Garment through March, when the
plant closed. Until she can find another job, she speaks to international
visitors about working conditions at maquiladoras.

The Worker's Assistance Center has had some success in organizing workers
in this cathedral-filled town about 90 miles southeast of Mexico City. The
center formed in 2001 to help organize an independent union for workers at
the Mexmode garment factory.

Mexmode workers complained of worms in the cafeteria food, and a few said
they were forced to perform sexual favors, Velazquez said. Mexmode
officials would not allow reporters or union organizers access to the
plant recently.

The situation ignited in January 2001, when about 800 workers walked off
the assembly line and camped inside the Mexmode factory, demanding the
rehiring of fired workers, cleaner restrooms and cafeteria food that
didn't make them sick. Three days later, hundreds of soldiers stormed the
plant and began beating the mostly female workers.

"Everything was really ugly," said a Mexmode worker who spoke on the
condition of anonymity for fear of losing her $6-a-day job.

The beatings drew international media attention when American college
students found out their schools ordered sweat shirts bearing the Nike
swoosh from Mexmode, formerly called Kukdong.

Students protested with workers in Atlixco, and Mexican students formed
the Worker's Assistance Center, which invited American labor leaders to
help.

Together, they helped the Kukdong workers form an independent union, an
extraordinary action in Mexico. That's because there's no such thing as
voting by secret ballot in Mexico. Instead, in an intimidation tactic,
each worker must vote in front of her boss.

"Here you don't succeed in forming an independent union, and we did it,"
said the 21-year-old worker for Mexmode, which now has a contract to make
NBA uniforms.

She stitches together colorful pieces of material to make basketball
uniforms but can't tell the difference between a jersey for the Houston
Rockets and the New York Knicks.

Although she is pleased an independent union was formed, there are still
problems at the factory, she said.

For example, workers can't go to the restroom or drink water without
permission. And even with pay raises, many of the workers who fought the
hardest for a new union decided to walk out on their Mexmode jobs and
migrate to the United States.

Such disillusionment among workers is normal, labor experts said.

"I think a lot of times people have expectations that a new union or a new
organization can solve every problem and make a workplace into a Utopia,"
said Lance Compa, senior lecturer at Cornell University's School of
Industrial and Labor Relations in Ithaca, N.Y.

At least Mexmode workers ultimately won in their fight. Others have not
been so lucky. At the Matamoros Garment factory in Izucar de Matamoros,
workers tried to organize an independent union with the help of the
Worker's Assistance Center.

Workers like Tejeda complained of forced overtime and low pay, among other
issues. Management and strangers harassed them while they were organizing,
Tejeda said.

Ultimately, their efforts didn't pay off because the factory closed in
late March for financial reasons, Velazquez said. As part of an
international trend, owners search the globe for ever-cheaper pools of
labor, opening a plant in one country for a few years and then closing it
and reopening in another.

Some people are glad to see the dwindling of the maquiladora business.

"The experience has been very unpleasant," said Hector Estrada, a
spokesman for Atlixco's city hall. "It's better that the maquilas leave.
They pay little."

For years, the city's former political leaders encouraged foreigners to
open plants in the area and offered long lists of economic incentives. But
new city leaders said they no longer want to promote Atlixco as a source
of cheap labor.

"We want tourism instead," said Victor Galdeano, director of agricultural
development for the city, pointing to photos of the city's blooming rose,
hibiscus and bougainvillea business.

Despite the diminishing factories, organizers at the Worker's Assistance
Center want to improve conditions for workers at those that remain, like
the Pacific Continental Textile factory.

Compared with many factories across Mexico, conditions are better at this
plant in the sleepy city of 117,000.

Bottled water sits on workers' sewing tables, and music booms from
loudspeakers in competition with the constant hum of sewing machines. Fans
try to cool off workers in this sweltering plant. Safety zones are clearly
marked on the floor, and a fire extinguisher is available.

But workers don't wear masks as they perform the tedious chores of sewing
together pieces of fabric or packaging finished garments, all while tiny
hairs of fabric float in the air.

"I can understand why people get asthma," said Tom Hansen, director of the
Mexico Solidarity Network, a human rights group that helps workers on both
sides of the border.

Near the cafeteria with a palapa roof, covered in palm fronds, where
workers eat lunch, signs from companies such as Gap, Reebok, Wal-Mart,
Kmart and Target spell out a broad list of rights for workers who make
clothing for the U.S. retailers. These codes of conduct for retail
subcontractors include the right to organize.

But the signs don't convey the reality of union life for most of Mexico's
maquiladora workers.

Low pay and dismal working conditions are common in Mexico's manufacturing
sector. Strong union leadership could easily tackle and improve working
conditions, and probably raise salaries.

However, many workers find themselves caught in a political game played
for far too long in Mexico.

When fed-up workers try to organize, they discover that they cannot form
an independent union because a fake labor group was chosen for them even
before the factory opened. And a union leader they've probably never met
represents them.

This "white union," as such a phantom group is called in Mexico,
negotiates everything from wages to working conditions with the factory's
owner in secret. So instead of union leaders representing workers, they
work more for the employers and receive financial favors in return.

Except in a few cases, true representation was uncommon for maquiladora
workers.

Mexican government officials said they are working on labor reform, but
that reform will likely not move through Congress until after the pivotal
July elections. And it likely won't make enough changes to satisfy
workers.

Until then, workers at Mexmode and Pacific Continental continue sewing
together garments for American consumers.