The Quest for Social Justice in the Border Factories known as “maquiladoras.”
In 2000, several years into the implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement, a lawsuit, or complaint of sorts was filed by workers in Matamoros (Brownsville,TX) against Custom Trim and Auto Trim/Breed Mexicana. Workers provided anonymous testimony of toxic exposure to workplace chemicals, solvents, glues and subsequent disabling injuries, lung damage, genetic birth defects. The issues raised a generalized complaint against the Mexican government for failure to comply with NAFTA’s labor side agreement (NAALC).
The question of accountability is always present for workers under NAFTA. Below is an analysis on the question of holding companies liable for the harms incurred by workers because of workplace practices seen as abusive:
ACCOUNTABILITY FOR CORPORATE ABUSE AT THE MEXICAN BORDER — ADMINISTRATIVE COMPLAINTS V. LAWSUITS
by Elvia R. Arriola, J.D., M.A.
Justice in the maquiladoras can be an arduous and elusive project. While the labor rights articulated for Mexican workers are generous the biggest obstacle is enforcement of those rights. A worker who doesn’t know her rights is unlikely to know how to navigate the system of compliance under her country’s system. It is even more frustrating to discover that a factory is actually owned by a parent company headquartered far away in the Northern U.S. Distance. Lack of access to the English language and lack of funds to hire someone to represent her present the typical obstacles.
Meanwhile the rights of human dignity guaranteed to workers by their Constitution are violated day in and day out. Now and then a worker can get help from supportive groups who have learned how to work the system and who may even seek alternative routes to seeking justice against corporations that don’t respect Mexican labor and health and safety laws or human rights principles. The following is an attempt to summarize the basic approaches such a worker might take.