From: harelb@math.cornell.edu (Harel Barzilai)
Subject: NAFTA: BACKGROUND: "Free" Trade -- Enslaved Labor
Originator: daemon@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: misc.activism.progressive on UseNet ; ACTIV-L@UMCVMB
Date: Sun, 16 Aug 1992 06:59:29 GMT

..and lowest common denominators in environmental protection...

"Being Competitive" -- having U.S. workers compete with workers
earning $2 due to repression and undemocratic conditions keeping them from
organing for decent wages and working conditions, health/safety
standards on the job, and community/environmental protection.

Summary from previous articles:
[references by email]

			    =============
			    M e x i c o :
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    In Mexico there is little regard for health and safety, little  
    knowledge about issues of occupational health, there are serious 
    problems with environmental issues [...] 
 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
    The general attitude of the two organisations responsible [Mexican 
    Institute of Social Security and the Secretary of Labour] is one 
    of collaboration with the employer rather than an attempt to 
    protect the health of the worker. This is well-documented [..] 
 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
    The second aspect is that Mexico's labour union courts, its  
    labour laws and its Secretary of Labour have put great obstacles  
    in the path of any independent union organisation. Labour unions  
    have to be officially registered (Registro), and the state simply 
    denies registration to most independent labour unions. 
 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
    Also the labour boards, which are known as the Boards of Conciliation 
    and Arbitration, have to determine whether or not a strike is 
    legitimate, and if they decide that your strike is not legitimate, 
    they declare it inexistente, that is, non-existent in the eyes of 
    Mexican labour law. 
 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
    In 1959, the railroad workers, attempting to  
    recoup their wages, carried out a nationwide series of strikes.  
    The government called out the army, suppressed the strike, killing  
    several workers in the process, fired about 8,000 or 10,000  
    workers, and, under the crime of being communist agitators,  
    arrested and jailed the top seven or eight leaders for terms of up 
    to10 or 11 years and destroyed the strike 
 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

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    The whole policy of the Mexican government and of its official labour 
    unions has been to attempt to keep wages down. And this has acted to 
    make Mexico more attractive to foreign investors and to subsidize 
    those foreign investments [...] Over the last ten years Mexican 
    wages have been reduced by 50% [...] 
 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
    The course of almost every Mexican strike is the same: workers become 
    disgusted with their wages, they start to organize, their [government- 
    controled] union will not take up their demands, they call a special 
    emergency meeting, they throw out the old union leaders, they 
    neelect a w slate, the government refuses to recognize their 
    neslate. 

    So the dynamic is very similar to that we saw in Eastern Europe ... of 
    1980, to that we saw in the fight against company unions in the US in 
    the '20s, or against the fascist unions in Spain [...] 
 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
    And in all these strikes the workers were organizing for higher wages 
    and for union democracy. The government, the Secretary of Labour, and 
    the federal Boards of Conciliation and Arbitration were used to 
    discourage them; union goons were used to beat them up, the police 
    were used to arrest them, and after really months of very admirable 
    struggle on the part of the these workers their union movements 
    were feated. 
 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
    Apart from the low wages, the Maquiladora workers face the problems of 
    occupational health hazards and environmental hazards.  Toxic dumping 
    in the area seems to be a widespread problem. There is also an 
    extremely high level of sexual harassment. 
 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
    What it [NAFTA] will mean for the workers of all three countries is 
    that capital will have tremendous mobility, and labour will find 
    itself - unless it becomes organized on a more international scale 
    with greater collaboration between workers and labour unions in all 
    three countries - at an extreme disadvantage [...]  if you are a rich 
    businessman in the US, you'd go: well, we'll have the natural 
    resources of Canada, the capital of the US, and the cheap labour 
    Meof xico, and we'll control all three. 


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=============================
Meanwhile back in El Salvador
=============================

"All sectors of Salvadorian society have been the target of ``death
squad''-style killings...in a great many cases the choice of victim
has been indicator of who lies behind the ``death squads''. Those
targeted have been members of groups perceived to be in opposition to
the government, or to represent a nucleus around whom such opposition
could coalesce, including students, trade unionists, members of
cooperatives, church workers and peasants." [Page 25]

From AI's report:
******************************************************************
[This 50 page report, with pictures (which are clearer in the Spanish
edition), is only $5 from Amnesty International, Publications, 322
Eighth Ave., New York, NY 10001. Ask for "El Salvador: ``Death
Squads'' -- A Government Strategy", first published in October, 1988;
or call Amnesty at: (212)807-8400 (ask for "publications")]
******************************************************************

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and 
			  =================
			  G u a t e m a l a
			  =================

"A 1991 study by the Guatemalan Labor Ministry found that some  
maquila owners practice "forced labor, for adults as well as 
minors...At the end of the day, workers who have not met their 
production goals are obligated to stay, (and) in some businesses 
the workers are locked in." 

[...]

"Attempts to organize unions have met with harsh resistance. At 
Confecciones Unidades, a maquila factory in Guatemala City, 76 
workers were fired last October after trying to unionize. 

"Workers who have participated in organizing efforts variously 
report receiving bribes, death threats and increased workloads. 

'The report says that two unions have formed inside maquilas but 
neither is active according to labor officials. They say that 
the government is not serious about enforcing labor law or 
protecting worker's rights. 

[...]

The article states that the women who work in the maquiladoras 
face daily an exhausting production pace, the noise from hundreds 
of machines, high temperatures, poor ventilation, and five toilets 
for 500 workers. It also says that many of the workers are single 
mothers working for about $2 a day.