REPORT ON NIU DELEGATION
TO THE US MEXICO BORDER (2005)
by Yvonne Lapp Cryns
Have you ever given any thought to who sews the
pants and shirts you wear? Who makes your Nike shoes? Who put the electrical
system together for your car? Five NIU College of Law students had the
opportunity to travel to Mexico and meet some of the people who work in
factories that make those consumer goods and learn about the effects of
globalization on these people who live so close to our U.S. border.
The Delegation OrganizersThe trip was organized by law professor
Elvia Arriola, whose home is in Austin, Texas. A few years ago, Prof. Arriola,
became aware of the horrific labor situation of those toiling in the
maquiladoras (big factories primarily owned and operated by non-Mexicans). In
1999, organizers of the grass-roots Mexican workers’ organization, Comité
Fronterizo de Obrer@s, CFO, (Border Committee of Women Workers)
www.cfommaquiladoras.org, visited receptive organizations in Austin. Following
this visit, the Austin Peace and Justice Coalition along with the American
Friends Service Committee, AFSC, www.afsc.org/austin, a branch of the Quaker
church that works toward social justice issues, founded Austin Tan Cerca de la
Frontera (Austin So Close to the Border). Austin Tan Cerca de la Frontera
promotes solidarity between people in the States and those defending the rights
of maquiladora workers in Mexico.
In 2000, Professor Arriola founded the
non-profit organization, Women on the Border, www.womenontheborder.org, to call
attention to the appalling conditions that exist for those so close to the
United States. About this same time, Austin Tan Cerca de la Frontera and the
American Friends Service Committee, AFSC initiated meetings between Americans
and some of the Maquiladora workers. The meetings proved successful and were
continued because they increase awareness of the problems the Mexican workers
face. Prof. Arriola participated in a few of these delegations.
Our group was the 34th such group to meet with
the Mexican workers. Nikki Cain, Yvonne Lapp Cryns, Kate Horozny, Sara Phalen,
and Heather Vaughn and Prof. Arriola represented NIU on this trip. The trip was
available to any NIU COL student and our group included three students from
Prof. Arriola’s seminar class and two from the student body at large. (It is
hoped that this opportunity will be available again in the future for NIU COL
students). A presentation of our delegation trip is planned for early November.
Joining us as part of the delegation, once we
were assembled in Austin, was a writer for a Quaker magazine, a psychiatrist
from Austin, Texas, a graduate student in Latin American studies, a bilingual
fellow with 10 years experience with worker solidarity in Chiapas, Mexico, and
Judith Rosenberg, the AFSC representative. It was a delightful blending of
people, which was good because we spent a lot of time in close quarters with
each other. Were fortunate to have four people on the trip with excellent
abilities to translate the fast Spanish of the people we met.
Meeting Maquiladora Worker-Organizers
Our first day in Mexico we went to the new
office of the CFO, in Piedras Negras in Coahuila. CFO is a Mexican organization
that was formed by and is led by workers and focuses on grass-roots organizing
to promote independent labor unions. Although factories have unions, most are
not separate from the management. This leads to workers having no real advocate
for their labor problems.
With the CFO in place, they have been able to
get independent unions started. The Mexican government, however, does not
necessarily support this kind of independence by workers. In 2004, CFO’s
complaint to the International Labour Organization, ILO was accepted. This
complaint states that the Mexican government fails to guarantee the right of
association of the workers.
We heard of workers who were fired by factories
because they became friendly with another worker or were seen talking to a
couple of other workers. The factory management, paranoid of union organizers,
simply fire those they speculate might be soliciting for independent unions.
Because many workers do not know their rights, the factories were able to
maintain control over the workers with occasional firings. The CFO tries to
keep under the radar by meeting with workers one-on-one in their homes to
educate them about their rights.
Viewing the Maquiladoras
We hustled from the office to the industrial
area where numerous maquiladoras are located so we could see them when the
shifts changed at 5 pm. The factories are large. Except for the front offices,
there are no windows in the factory areas for the workers. Guards stood at the
entrances to all the plants. We saw the Malcomex plant and others. Malcomex
(ALCOA) makes parts for Ford, Subaru, Harley Davidson, GM and others.
Meeting Maquiladora Workers Where They
Live
We went to the homes of a number of maquiladora
workers during our visit. The paved roads end far from some of their homes.
Although it hadn’t rained recently, when we visited, our van got stuck on a mud
road and needed to be pushed out. The poorest workers live as squatters in
shelters made of whatever materials they can find: old blankets, tarps, tin,
wood slats from platforms. We visited with one such worker whose house is in
the shadow of a huge maquiladora plant in Piedras Niegras.
Leticia
Leticia lives in a humble squatter’s home
cobbled together from wood platforms and lined with cardboard. A couple of
years ago she was able to get a cement floor poured. Although the outside is
dusty and barren, the inside is clean. She has adorned the walls with a few
decorations.
Initially the squatters at this area “borrowed”
electricity from the maquiladora, but now pay a fee for it. Like every home we
visited, Leticia has a television and it is turned on. The very rustic toilet,
a one-seat outhouse, is a couple of steps from the back room. She has running
water, although it comes from a two-foot high faucet that resembles one we’d
use for a hose. The home has two rooms—a dining room/kitchen and a
bedroom/living room.
Leticia has three children: an 18-year old
daughter who lives with her, a 16 year-old who is married and a 3 year old,
“Chewey.” She tells us her oldest child cannot work at the plant next door
because they fear independent unions, and prohibit more than one person from a
family working there. There is nowhere else nearby the daughter can work. So,
the daughter stays home with Chewey while her mother toils at the factory.
A neighbor boy of about 9 arrives. He is
fascinated by my digital camera and grabs my arm and drags me outside to the
home next door. An elderly woman is sewing. He wants me to take a photo of her.
I do, and then let him take one of me with her. I learn later she is his
grandmother. She was a very good sport and seemed to like the photo I took. I
will send them copies.
Dinner arrives, made by some other maquiladora
workers: tamales, rice and beans. It is delicious. We eat and then must leave.
We go back to our tourist-grade hotel. The court
yard must be beautiful in summer, but now the pool is drained leaving a huge
dangerous hole 12-feet deep. In the morning we will eat in the restaurant, most
of us bravely ordering a Mexican version of breakfast.
Ángela
The next morning, we travel to visit with Ángela
in Acuña. There are 40 maquiladoras in Acuña. Enroute we pass signs on the side
of the road warning in Spanish, “Danger!” with pictures of snakes and bugs.
Ángela lives in a remote area called Colonia Morenes. We ditch the van and walk
the last couple of blocks.
Her house is in a little valley. She works in
the Alcoa plant making electrical harnesses for cars. Her home is one room,
made of scavenged wood. The television is on. There are lots of cracks where
daylight shines through. She points to the electric heater she’ll use in
winter. She feels lucky that she now has water – along with seven neighbors,
they hooked up PVC pipe and brought water to their homes. It is very
basic.
Her grandson is with her today because her
daughter works 6 days a week from 7 am to 7 pm at the ALCOA plant in order to
make $950 pesos – about $95 per week. We learn that the average worker at these
plants makes about $500 pesos ($50 per week). It is not enough money to cover
the basic necessities of life.
What the workers want
In our conversations with the CFO, we are told
that the workers only want humane work conditions and a living wage. It is not
uncommon for workers to put in 72 hours in a week every week. Workers who sew
experience some of the most awful abuses because frequently they are paid per
item they sew. We heard of women who forego bathroom breaks out of fear of
losing their pay for falling behind in production. Their diligence on the job,
however results in serious health consequences.
The CFO teaches workers about their rights.
However if a worker decides to stand up for their rights and must go to court,
they frequently discover that it is difficult to find honest lawyers to take
their kinds of cases.
