A-Infos (en) Extracts from Mexican Labor News

[Platformist Anarchism <platform@geocities.com>]

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Extracts from MEXICAN LABOR NEWS AND ANALYSIS 
February 2, 1998 Vol. III, No. 3

IN THIS Extract 
*CTM Union Strikes 10 Maquiladoras; 13,000 
Workers Involved 
*Han Young Workers Still Have No Contract, 
Actions on Feb 7 
*Mexican Teachers Mobilize; Prepare for 
National Convention 
*Victor Flores Expels Dissident Railroad 
Workers 
*Farm Laborers Riot in Sinaloa over Wage 
Chiseling 
*Federations Jockey Over May Day March

Additional stories at 
HTTP://www.igc.apc.org/unitedelect/

CTM UNION STRIKES TEN MAQUILADORAS 13,000 
WORKERS PARALYZE PRODUCTION

by Dan La Botz

Thousands of workers in Matamoros, Tamaulipas 
stopped work in mid-January paralyzing 
production in electronic and autoparts assembly 
plants known as maquiladoras. Over 13,000 
workers, two- thirds of them women, 
participated in the strike at 10 plants, most 
of them owned by multinational corporations. In 
other plants workers engaged in escalating work 
stoppages of up to two hours at a time.

The strikes and work stoppages, called by the 
Union of Laborers and Industrial Workers 
(Sindicato de Jornaleros y Obreros Industriales 
- SJOI) lasted from January 14 to 16. SJOI is 
an affiliate of the Confederation of Mexican 
Workers (CTM).

This short strike over the issue of higher 
wages is the first major strike in the 
maquiladoras in several years, and may be 
another sign that Mexico's old industrial 
relations regime is changing dramatically and 
rapidly.

The union lifted the strike in part because of 
the intervention of Leonardo Rodriguez Alcaine, 
head of the Confederation of Mexican Workers, 
who called for a return to negotiations.

Some reports indicate that the union has 
extended negotiations until February 16. 
However, Marco A. Valenzuela of the National 
Council of the Maquiladora Export Industry 
(CNIME) reported on January 21 that the strike 
had been settled by granting wage increase of 
25 to 29 percent, raising workers' wages from 
70 to 95 pesos per day. (Eight Mexican 
pesos=3Dabout one U.S. dollar.) Other sources 
say the settlement was twenty percent, or six 
percent above the government's minimum wage 
increase. An Escalating Strike

The SJOI called the strike on January 14 
against five maquiladoras: Lucen Technologies, 
Gobar, Fabricacion Technologica de Mexico, 
Sunbeam and the General Motors subsidiary 
Componentes Mecanicos. Some 6,500 employees 
stopped work bringing production to a halt.

The next day the union struck another five 
plants, all affiliates of General Motors 
corporation's Delphi division, bringing the 
total number of workers on strike to 13,000, or 
almost one third of the 45,000 maquiladora 
workers who labor in 100 plants in Matamoros. 
The strike was supported by work stoppages in 
other plants.

Agapito Gonzalez Cavazos, the head of the SJOI, 
threatened to extend the strike from the 10 to 
another 50 plants if the employers did not meet 
the union's demand for a 27 percent wage 
increase. The Mexican government and employers 
have been trying to keep wage increases in the 
area of 17 to 20 percent. The maquiladora 
employers offered 20 percent.

The union is also demanding the "English week," 
that is a five-day work week with two days off. 
Many Mexican workers put in five and a half or 
six days a week. Gonzalez Cavazos declared that 
his union would carry out a general strike of 
the city's maquiladora plants if its demands 
were not. All Matamoros maquiladora workers 
belong to the SJOI.

This is not the first time that Gonzalez 
Cavazos, or Agapito as he is usually called, 
has stood up against the corporations. After 
violent riots in Matamoros in the early 1980s, 
Agapito began to resist the corporations, and 
over the years his union became one of the few 
in Mexico with a 40-hour work week and 
significantly higher wages than other 
maquiladora unions. In 1992 Agapito's SJOI also 
pressed the employers on economic issues. 
During those contract negotiations, the Mexican 
government helped the employers by arresting 
Agapito for tax evasion and carrying him off to 
Mexico City in order to remove him from the 
scene in Matamoros.

However after the 1992 experience, Fidel 
Velazquez, then head of the CTM, began to back 
Leocadio Mendoza, a rival leader of the SJOI. 
Mendoza came to control about half of the union 
contracts, giving employers a 48-hour work week 
and lower wages. We are informed by sources on 
the border that in this case Mendoza accepted 
management's offer, while Agapito's half of the 
union struck.

Maquiladora Owners Condemn Strike

Rene Gonzalez Rascon, the president of the 
National Chamber of the Transformation Industry 
(CANACINTRA) condemned the strike for having 
destroyed in just a few days the economic 
stability which was the result of years of 
work.

Head of the Association of Maquiladoras of 
Matamoros, Rolando Gonzalez Barron, accused the 
union of "...returning to its pressure tactics 
of 40 years ago."

Gonzalez Barron said that the SJOI had caused 
economic instability in Matamoros, leading 33 
companies with 10,000 jobs to leave the area 
between 1991 and 1993. Many companies, he said, 
prefer to relocate to Reynosa. Among the many 
companies which he says left Matamoros because 
of its labor union, Gonzalez Barron mentioned 
Fisher Price, Industrias Thompson and 
Internacionales Johnson.

Along the Mexican border where most of the 
maquiladoras are located, there are some areas 
which have no unions and others which have CTM 
unions or other "official" labor unions which 
maintain a "low profile," and do not really 
attempt to raise wages or benefits or to 
improve workers' working conditions. Management 
evidently prefers the union-free environment or 
do- nothing unions to the somewhat more 
aggressive unions of Matamoros.

Gonzalez Barron said that most employers had 
offered wage increases of between 20 and 28 
percent. The wage increase generally being 
offered was 20 percent for the 55 maquiladoras 
involved, he said.

Rolando Jimenez, a third shift worker from one 
of the plants said that it's easy for some 
people to criticize the strike, but one can't 
live on a wage of 63 pesos per day. The cost of 
living in Mexico tends to be higher along the 
U.S.-Mexican border.

  Pressure on the Maquiladoras Employers

The Matamoros maquiladora strike comes only a 
few weeks after a successful organizing effort 
by the Independent Metal Workers Union 
(STIMACHS) affiliated with the Authentic Labor 
Front (FAT) at the Han Young-Hyundai auto 
assembly plant in Tijuana, Baja California 
Norte. STIMACHS won two representation 
elections among Han Young workers, and then, 
with the help of the San Diego-based Support 
Committee for Maquiladora Workers, pressured 
the employer and the Baja California labor 
board to recognize the union.

Another form of pressure on the maquiladora 
industry has come through legal channels. Last 
month the U.S. Labor Department found that 
thousands of maquiladoras administer pregnancy 
tests to women to screen out pregnant 
applicants, and also coerce pregnant workers to 
force them to resign. U.S. Secretary of Labor 
Alexis M. Herman said the discrimination 
against pregnant women seemed to violate 
Mexican law. But she stopped short of calling 
those practices an illegal violation of the 
Mexican Constitution and Federal Labor Law 
which prohibit sex discrimination.

The charges had been brought under the North 
American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) side 
agreements which established a National 
Administration Office (NAO) as part of the U.S. 
Labor Department to hear such charges. The 
charges were made by Human Rights Watch and 
other U.S. and Mexican human rights and labor 
rights organizations.

International labor solidarity is also becoming 
an important factor in support for the 
maquiladora workers. While unions such as the 
United Electrical workers (UE) and the 
International Brother of Teamsters have been 
working with the Authentic Labor Front (FAT), 
the AFL had generally held aloof from such 
efforts. But in his recent visit to Mexico, 
AFL-CIO president John Sweeney told students at 
the National Autonomous University of Mexico 
(UNAM) in Mexico City, "We want to stand with 
you to organize workers in the maquiladoras 
beginning with the guarantee of an authentic 
union for the Han Young workers in Tijuana."

In addition, the International Metalworkers 
Federation (IMF) recently decided to work with 
its Mexican affiliates and other labor unions 
and non-governmental organizations to support 
maquiladora organizing. The IMF plans to 
organize a conference on "Organizing in the 
Maquiladoras." These efforts at international 
solidarity will be tremendously important for 
the maquiladora worker.

Economic Importance of Maquiladoras

According to Marco A. Valenzuela, president of 
the National Council of the Maquiladora Export 
Industry (CNIME) Mexico has 3,833 maquiladora 
assembly plants employing one million workers. 
Maquiladora production, he asserts, makes up 40 
percent of Mexico's total exports, and of the 
110 billion U.S. dollars in foreign sales in 
1997 the maquiladoras accounted for 42 billion. 
He predicts that there will be 5,000 
maquiladoras by the year 2000.

The Mexican Secretary of Commerce (SECOFI) 
gives somewhat different figures up through the 
month of November 1997. According to SECOFI 
Mexico had 3,819 maquiladoras employing 971,321 
workers. Of all maquiladoras, according to 
SECOFI, 1,665 or 43.6 percent are owned by 
Mexican capital; 1,459 with U.S. capital; 448 
with mixed U.S.-Mexican capital; 66 are 
Japanese; and the rest are owned by capital 
from other foreign countries. According to 
SECOFI the total value of maquiladora exports 
for 1997 was 4.18 billion dollars, making up 
42.5 percent of Mexican exports.

A Disastrous Social Situation

While maquiladoras make up an important 
contribution to the Mexican economy, this is 
seldom reflected in the lives of maquiladora 
workers. In Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, some 400 
maquiladoras provide employment to 200,000 
workers, 65 percent of whom are women. Most 
workers earn an average of 26 pesos per day, or 
about U.S.$3.25. In Juarez, the ten-hour day 
and the six day week prevail.

Juarez's government and employers simply do not 
permit union organization. Of 20 attempts to 
register unions since 1986, all have been 
rejected. The police generally break up workers 
movements for union recognition. Companies 
maintain blacklists of workers who participate 
in or sympathize with union organizing efforts.

All economic development in Juarez revolves 
around the needs of the maquiladoras and the 
industrial parks in which they are located. 
Consequently while fine roads lead to modern 
industrial parks, social problems abound in 
Juarez. Half of all births in Juarez are to 
single mothers under 20 most of whom are 
maquiladora workers. The city has a deficit of 
70,000 housing units, but 100 maquiladoras have 
sought an injunction against payments to 
INFONAVIT, the workers' housing program, 
claiming the national program is 
unconstitutional.

The pressure of human rights organizations 
pursuing legal cases under the NAFTA side 
agreements, the organization of independent 
unions, and most important the unions' and 
workers' exercise of economic power through 
work stoppages and strikes could begin to 
change all of that, and it appears to be 
beginning to happening.

   ###

  HAN YOUNG WORKERS' UNION IN TALKS WITH 
MANAGEMENT;   BUT NO NEGOTIATIONS YET; ACTIONS 
PLANNED FEB. 7

The Han Young workers' new independent labor 
union has held informal talks with management, 
but contract negotiations have not yet begun. 
Last month the Mexican federal government, the 
Baja California labor board, the Hyundai 
corporation, the Han Young company and the 
workers reached an agreement recognizing the 
workers' union, after it had won two 
representation elections at the Tijuana 
maquiladora plant. Under the terms of that 
agreement, the Han Young company which produces 
exclusively for Hyundai, was to begin contract 
negotiations with the new union.

The workers voted to join the Independent Metal 
Workers Union (STIMAHCS) which is affiliated 
with the Authentic Labor Front (FAT). The 
campaign was won both through the determination 
of the maquiladora workers and the support of 
the San Diego-based Support Committee for 
Maquiladora Workers. But despite two 
representation elections and the agreement 
reached last month, the Han Young company 
continues to violate both that agreement and 
Mexican labor law.

The Support Committee for Maquiladora Workers 
and the Campaign for Labor Rights have prepared 
to hold local protest demonstrations throughout 
the United States on February 7 to support the 
workers and keep pressure on the company. 
Demonstrations will be held at the Mexican 
consulates or at government buildings, though 
organizers say these are not demonstrations 
against any government.

In addition, the National Administrative Office 
of the U.S. Labor Department which oversees the 
labor side agreements to the North American 
Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) will hold hearings 
on the Han Young case on February 18.

The Support Committee and the Campaign for 
Labor Rights urges supporters of the 
maquiladora workers to send a fax such as that 
below to Han Young's attorney:

Lic. Ricardo Estrada Tijuana, Mexico Fax: 011-
526-634-3554

Dear Mr. Estrada:

In open defiance of the January 14 agreements 
signed by your client, Han Young, a 
representative of the CROC continues to be 
allowed to function in a "human relations" 
capacity at the factory. Also, management 
continues to take illegal punitive actions 
against workers who press for contract 
negotiations to begin. Han Young management has 
cited you as its counsel when blatantly 
violating Mexican labor law and blatantly 
violating the terms of the existing contract.

You have a reputation as an intelligent and 
knowledgeable lawyer. Certainly, you would not 
want to risk your professional stature for the 
sake of one rogue client, the Han Young 
management.

The Mexican federal government has emphatically 
stated its intention to enforce the terms of 
the January 14 agreements and to implement 
Mexican labor law with regard to the Han Young 
situation.

Barring a satisfactory resolution of the 
situation at Han Young, the U.S. National 
Administrative Office will press forward with 
its hearing still scheduled for February 18. I 
hardly need to remind you of the urgency which 
the Mexican government feels about resolving 
this situation and avoiding a hearing.

Time is running short. I urge you to steer your 
client in a direction which will not put you on 
a collision course with the Mexican federal 
government. Please see to it that Han Young 
management immediately ceases its violations of 
the January 14 agreements and its violations of 
Mexican labor law.

Sincerely,

295-5879

-----

[Based on a report by Labor Alerts from 
Information provided by the Support Committee 
for Maquiladora Workers, who ask that activists 
seeking updates contact Campaign for Labor 
Rights: (541 344-5410, <CLR@igc.apc.org>].

###

  MEXICAN TEACHERS MOBILIZE AS OPPOSITION 
PREPARES FOR CONVENTION

Mexican teachers of the 1.2 million member 
National Teachers Union (SNTE) have begun a 
series of mobilizations aimed at state 
teachers' conventions and at the national 
convention to take place in March 10-13. In a 
shift from his usual policies, SNTE general 
secretary Humberto Davila Esquivel has called 
for a national demonstration to protest 
violence against teachers, and promised to meet 
with the opposition before the convention.

In mid-January 25,000 teachers in different 
cities throughout the state of Oaxaca 
demonstrated to demand of the SNTE national 
leadership the right to hold a state convention 
to elect a new leadership for SNTE Local 22. 
They also demanded payment of the remaining 50 
percent of their Christmas bonus (aguinaldo) 
still owed them, and for the withdrawal of the 
Mexican Army from the indigenous zones of 
Oaxaca, Chiapas and Guerrero. Oaxaca represents 
one of the strongest bases of the National 
Coordinating Committee of the Teachers Union 
(la CNTE), the union's principal opposition 
caucus.

Taking a cue from the opposition, SNTE head 
Davila Esquivel has called for a national day 
of protest against violence against teachers on 
February 14. Esquivel spoke out against 
violence against teachers in Oaxaca, Chiapas, 
Guerrero and Sinaloa, and called for 
demonstrations in cities throughout Mexico, as 
well as a major demonstration in Mexico City. 
Mexican paramilitary organizations, police 
forces, and the Mexican Army have arrested, 
kidnapped, tortured and murdered a number of 
teachers in those states.

Can the Opposition Unite?

Meanwhile, dissident teachers are still trying 
to come up with a unified slate to oppose 
Davila Esquivel's group which is loyal to the 
Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). The 
union has three dissidents currents--the 
National Coordinating Committee (la CNTE), the 
Democratic Factions, and New Unionism-- which 
are seeking unity to the pro-government 
leadership.

In a departure from the leadership's usual 
practice, the SNTE chief Davila Esquivel has 
promised to hold a dialogue with the opposition 
groups in February to prepare for the March 
convention. The proposal for such a dialogue 
had been made by New Unionism, the most 
moderate of the opposition groups. Esquivel 
promised to meet with New Unionism and la CNTE; 
whether or not Democratic Factions would be 
excluded remains unclear.

New Unionism has also called for a change from 
the union's centralized structure to a more 
federal structure, reflecting the 
decentralization of Mexico's educational system 
since 1992.

Toward the end of January, Democratic Fractions 
accused Esquivel and the union's executive 
committee of failure to properly convene the 
national convention. Esquivel denied the 
charges saying the 3,000 delegates would 
convene for the March convention as previously 
announced.

The Education Budget

One of the teachers' biggest concerns is the 
education budget. In December the conservative 
National Action Party (PAN), which had been in 
opposition, joined the ruling Institutional 
Revolutionary Party (PRI), in voting for 
president Zedillo's budget. Based on a fall in 
petroleum prices and therefore in revenues to 
the state-owned Mexican Petroleum company 
(PEMEX), Zedillo presented a reduced education 
budget, which was passed by the PRI-PAN 
majority.

The center-left Party of the Democratic 
Revolution (PRD) criticized the PRI's education 
budget, saying it would provide for no more 
than 17.2 percent in wage increases for the 
SNTE's 1.2 million members. SNTE head Esquivel 
says that a 17.2 percent wage increase would 
not recover the teachers' lost purchasing 
power.

    ###

VICTOR FLORES EXPELS DISSIDENT RAILROAD 
WORKERS; NEARLY COMES TO BLOWS WITH OPPOSITION 
CONGRESSMEN

Victor Flores Morales, head of the Mexican 
Railroad Workers Union (STFRM) nearly came to 
blows with opposition congressmen and expelled 
a group of dissident railroad workers from his 
union last month. Both acts were part of his 
effort to prevent any political or union 
opposition to his complete support for the 
privatization of the Mexican National Railways.

As hearings were about to be held on the 
Mexican railways before the labor commission of 
the Mexican House of Representatives on January 
16, some dissident railroad workers showed up 
to protest the government's privatization 
policies. Flores Morales, who in addition to 
heading the STFRM is also a congressman, also 
showed up to the session accompanied by a 
hundred union goons. The presence of the 
opposing groups of railroad workers led Juan 
Moises Calleja, a congressman of the 
Institutional Revolutionary Party, to cancel 
the session.

Meanwhile Flores Morales got into a shouting 
match with Javier Paz Zarza of the conservative 
National Action Party (PAN) and with Pablo 
Sandoval Ramirez and Rosalio Hernandez Beltran 
of the Party of the Democratic Revolution 
(PRD). Flores Morales accused the PAN and PRD 
delegates of interfering in the life of the 
Railroad Workers Union. Flores Morales and PAN 
Congressman Paz Zarza had to be separated to 
prevent them from coming to blows. Paz Zarza 
accused Flores Morales's goons of threatening 
to kill him. Expels Dissidents

Immediately after leaving the House of 
Representatives, Flores Morales went straight 
to STFRM Local 16 to break up a meeting of the 
"Heroes of Nacozari," a dissident railroad 
workers' group. Now accompanied by as many as 
300 toughs, Flores Morales entered the hall and 
broke up the meeting.

On the spot Flores Morales convened a court 
made up of several local union general 
secretaries in his entourage, and expelled from 
the Railroad Workers Union both Vicente 
Valencia and Antonio Sanchez, the leaders of 
the dissident group, and all of their 
followers. The union dissidents were charged 
with having distributed propaganda paid for by 
the PRD. Then, to chants of "Out Traitors!" the 
union dissidents were driven from the hall.

Afterwards, Flores Morales defended the trial 
and expulsion, saying that the workers had 
published a leaflet, a manifesto of their 
views, which is prohibited by the union 
statutes. In any case, he said, they were only 
ten workers, some active and some retired, and 
didn't represent anybody anyway.

###

FARM LABORERS RIOT IN SINALOA

Some 150 agricultural laborers rioted and 
destroyed buildings and equipment at the Bon 
Bustamante packing plant at Estacion Bamoa, 
Guasave, Sinaloa on January 19. The company 
employs 4,800 laborers, most of them from the 
southern states of Oaxaca, Guerrero, Michoacan 
and Hidalgo.

The rampaging workers burned a tractor, damaged 
five trailers, broke windows and destroyed 
buildings to protest Bon Bustamante's failure 
to pay them 40 pesos per day as they had been 
promised. The company had instead been paying 
them only 35 pesos per day. (Eight 
pesos=3Dabout one U.S. dollar.)

>From five until nine in the morning the workers 
armed with metal tubes, iron bars, and stones 
moved through the packing plant shutting down 
operations. After bringing production to a 
halt, they began to demolish the building and 
vehicles belonging to the company. Then they 
went through the town shouting and threatening 
those who got in their way.

The workers only agreed to cease their 
activities when the company accepted Ricardo 
Armenta Beltran, a congressman of the Party of 
the Democratic Revolution (PRD) as a mediator. 
Armenta Beltran said the workers wanted their 
40 pesos per day plus transportation and 
medical care. They also demanded that the 
company stop deducting union dues, because they 
did not want to belong to the union of the 
Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM).

The mayor of Guasave, Jaime Saul Leyva Diaz 
sent 20 patrol cars and 160 police to protect 
the company and its property. The farm workers 
broke the windows of at least one police car.

  LABOR FEDERATIONS JOCKEY OVER MAY DAY MARCH

The Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM) has 
led the annual May Day march in Mexico City 
since the 1930s, bringing hundreds of thousands 
of workers to the Zocalo, the National Plaza, 
to salute the President as he stood in the 
balcony of the National Palace. While in some 
other countries May Day was a day of 
international labor solidarity, in Mexico it 
became a day of working class submission to the 
national state.

Then four years ago, CTM leader Fidel Velazquez 
decided to cancel the May Day march, and 
independent unions, workers, and the poor took 
to the streets. For three years the parade has 
been a glorious independent working class 
affair.

Now the Congress of Labor is considering 
renewing the practice of leading the May Day 
parade, and denying the new opposition union 
federation, the National Union of Workers (UNT) 
the opportunity to lead the march. At the same 
time the UNT has said it will ask the May First 
Inter-Union Coordinating Committee (CIPM) to 
join sponsoring an independent May Day workers' 
march. The UNT says it will march for higher 
wages, better benefits, and improvements in the 
pensions of retirees.

Thus the May Day march takes on new importance 
as a symbol of the struggle between the old 
federations controlled by the state-party and 
the new more independent federations.

About Mexican Labor News and Analysis

Mexican Labor News and Analysis is produced in 
collaboration with the Authentic Labor Front 
(Frente Autentico del Trabajo - FAT) of Mexico 
and with the United Electrical Workers (UE) of 
the United States and is published the 2nd and 
16th of every month.

MLNA can be viewed at the UE's international 
web site: HTTP://www.igc.apc.org/unitedelect/. 
For information about direct subscriptions, 
submission of articles, and all queries contact 
editor Dan La Botz at the following e-mail 
address: 103144.2651@compuserve.com or call in 
the U.S. (513) 961-8722. The U.S. mailing 
address is: Dan La Botz, Mexican Labor News and 
Analysis, 3436 Morrison Place, Cincinnati, OH 
45220. 
-- 


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