The Han Young plant makes truck chassis under contract for the huge Hyundai Corp. manufacturing complex. Hyundai is one of the largest investors in Tijuana. Early in June, the city's labor board, its maquiladora association, its government-affiliated unions and Baja California state authorities moved to crush the unprecedented strike, the first by an independent union among maquiladora workers. Police then opened the factory doors, and ushered in a contingent of strikebreakers. The government actions violate Article 123 of the Mexican Constitution, and the country's Federal Labor Law, which prohibit anyone from removing strike flags and entering a struck business until the dispute is settled.
Strikers charge that in return newspapers agreed to a press blackout along the border.
Irregularities in the labor board's procedures provoked federal Judge Maria Lourdes Villagomez Guillon to issue an order suspending their actions. In direct violation of her decision, however, the government reopened the plant the following week. Both company and city authorities allege that the strike is a provocation by U.S. unions who want to poison the climate for foreign investment in Tijuana. They keep wages low by encouraging corrupt unions to sign protection contracts with the maquiladora owners, guaranteeing labor peace. If our strike is successful, thousands of other workers will try to break out of that system.