<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div class=""><a href="https://progressive.org/latest/fight-for-labor-rights-in-mexico-goodman-220405/" class="">https://progressive.org/latest/fight-for-labor-rights-in-mexico-goodman-220405/</a></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><div id="title" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: auto; padding: 0px; order: 0; clear: both; word-wrap: break-word; max-width: 75vw; caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: rgb(69, 69, 69); font-family: capitolium-news-2, serif; font-size: 16.799999237060547px;" class=""><h1 itemprop="headline" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-size: 45.36000061035156px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 54.432003021240234px; font-family: adelle, serif; order: 0;" class="">The Fight for Labor Rights in Mexico</h1><p class="subtitle" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.3rem 0px 1.2rem; padding: 0px; font-size: 20.159997940063477px; order: 0;"><span style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; order: 0;" class="">Activists are beginning to undo the damage done by NAFTA.</span></p></div><div id="pageinfos" class="pageinfos" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.6rem 0px 1.2rem; padding: 0px; order: 0; border-width: 1px 0px 0px; border-style: solid; border-color: rgb(222, 222, 222); caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: rgb(69, 69, 69); font-family: capitolium-news-2, serif; font-size: 16.799999237060547px;"><div style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0.3rem 0px 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(153, 153, 153); font-family: helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 0.7em; order: 0; display: inline-block; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.05em; font-weight: 700;" class="">BY <a href="https://progressive.org/topics/james-goodman/" rel="author" itemprop="author" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(0, 132, 104); order: 0;" class="">JAMES GOODMAN</a></div> <time itemprop="datePublished" datetime="2022-04-05T08:28:47.930105" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; order: 0; display: inline-block; margin-right: 0.3rem;" class=""><div style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(153, 153, 153); font-family: helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 0.7em; order: 0; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.05em; display: inline-block;" class="">APRIL 5, 2022</div> <div style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(153, 153, 153); font-family: helvetica, clean, sans-serif; font-size: 0.7em; order: 0; text-transform: uppercase; letter-spacing: 0.05em; display: inline-block;" class="">8:28 AM</div></time></div></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><div style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; color: rgb(69, 69, 69); font-family: capitolium-news-2, serif; font-size: 17.639999389648438px; order: 0; line-height: 30.8700008392334px; caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69);" class="">The recent win of an insurgent union to represent workers at the Tridonex auto parts plant in the city of Matamoros, on the Mexico side of the U.S. border, was a blow to the long unholy alliance between corporations and subservient unions in Mexico.</div><blockquote style="position: relative; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.6em 2.6em 1em 0px; padding: 1.6em 2em 1.6em 0px; order: 0; font-family: Adelle, sans-serif; border-top-width: 3px; border-top-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(57, 130, 106); border-bottom-width: 3px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(57, 130, 106); width: 385.921875px; float: left; caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: rgb(69, 69, 69); font-size: 16.799999237060547px;" class=""><div style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: capitolium-news-2, serif; font-size: 21.84000015258789px; order: 0; line-height: 38.220001220703125px; font-weight: bold;" class="">“Finally, the workers have an independent union that is going to be fighting for their rights.”</div></blockquote><div style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; color: rgb(69, 69, 69); font-family: capitolium-news-2, serif; font-size: 17.639999389648438px; order: 0; line-height: 30.8700008392334px; caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69);" class="">But Susana Prieto Terrazas, a leader in this struggle, could not be there to celebrate the <a href="https://mexicobusiness.news/automotive/news/independent-victory-tridonex-could-open-door-other-unions" target="_blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(57, 130, 106); order: 0; border-bottom-style: none;" class="">February 28 win</a>. Until next January, she is <a href="https://www.borderreport.com/news/juarez-labor-lawyer-freed-from-tamaulipas-jail-but-told-not-to-come-back/" target="_blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(57, 130, 106); order: 0; border-bottom-style: none;" class="">banned</a> from setting foot in the state of Tamaulipas, which includes Matamoros, after being arrested in 2020 for her union organizing activities. </div><div style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; color: rgb(69, 69, 69); font-family: capitolium-news-2, serif; font-size: 17.639999389648438px; order: 0; line-height: 30.8700008392334px; caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69);" class="">The irrepressible Prieto, now also a member of Mexico’s Chamber of Deputies, was not to be silenced. On election night, she streamed her <a href="https://www.facebook.com/susana.prietoterrazas/videos/281853924062932" target="_blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(57, 130, 106); order: 0; border-bottom-style: none;" class="">victory speech</a>live on Facebook to her more than <a href="https://www.facebook.com/susana.prietoterrazas" target="_blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(57, 130, 106); order: 0; border-bottom-style: none;" class="">155,000 followers</a>.</div><div style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; color: rgb(69, 69, 69); font-family: capitolium-news-2, serif; font-size: 17.639999389648438px; order: 0; line-height: 30.8700008392334px; caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69);" class=""> “We are taking a step forward,” she rejoiced. “We hope to do it in the whole republic.”</div><div style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; color: rgb(69, 69, 69); font-family: capitolium-news-2, serif; font-size: 17.639999389648438px; order: 0; line-height: 30.8700008392334px; caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69);" class="">Prieto’s exile from Tamaulipas—itself a sign of resistance to labor reform—is a condition of her release from three weeks in jail following her <a href="https://www.elpasotimes.com/story/news/local/juarez/2020/06/10/susana-prieto-terrazas-border-labor-lawyer-arrested-mexico/5336835002/" target="_blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(57, 130, 106); order: 0; border-bottom-style: none;" class="">June 2020 arrest</a> on charges of inciting a riot and related offenses. </div><div style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; color: rgb(69, 69, 69); font-family: capitolium-news-2, serif; font-size: 17.639999389648438px; order: 0; line-height: 30.8700008392334px; caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69);" class="">Prieto, in a recent interview with The Progressive, says she expects several new challenges to company unions in Tamaulipas, as she fights for “an egalitarian world, with justice for poor people.”</div><div style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; color: rgb(69, 69, 69); font-family: capitolium-news-2, serif; font-size: 17.639999389648438px; order: 0; line-height: 30.8700008392334px; caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69);" class="">The February win by the National Independent Union of Industry and Service Workers, 20/32 Movement (SNITIS) was the second insurgent victory that month. <a href="https://aflcio.org/2022/2/4/gm-silao-facility-workers-vote-overwhelmingly-favor-sinttia-union" target="_blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(57, 130, 106); order: 0; border-bottom-style: none;" class="">Four weeks earlier</a>, the National Independent Union for Workers in the Automotive Industry won an election to represent workers at the General Motors plant in Silao, central Mexico.</div><div style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; color: rgb(69, 69, 69); font-family: capitolium-news-2, serif; font-size: 17.639999389648438px; order: 0; line-height: 30.8700008392334px; caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69);" class="">Both Tridonex and GM are among the multitude of U.S.-based corporations that set up shop in Mexico following the 1994 implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).</div><div style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; color: rgb(69, 69, 69); font-family: capitolium-news-2, serif; font-size: 17.639999389648438px; order: 0; line-height: 30.8700008392334px; caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69);" class="">“Finally, the workers have an independent union that is going to be fighting for their rights,” labor organizer Israel Cervantes tells <span style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: italic; order: 0;" class="">The Progressive</span>. Cervantes led the grassroots effort, <a href="https://www.industriall-union.org/trabajadores-de-gm-crean-el-sindicato-independiente-en-silao-para-dar-pelea-por-el-contrato" target="_blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(57, 130, 106); order: 0; border-bottom-style: none;" class="">Generando Movimiento</a>(Generating Movement), to oust the incumbent union at the GM facility.</div><div style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; color: rgb(69, 69, 69); font-family: capitolium-news-2, serif; font-size: 17.639999389648438px; order: 0; line-height: 30.8700008392334px; caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69);" class="">These victories, however, are the exceptions, not the rule, in a collective bargaining system dominated by the cozy relationship between corporations and employer-friendly unions that has a history of suppressing wages.</div><div style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; color: rgb(69, 69, 69); font-family: capitolium-news-2, serif; font-size: 17.639999389648438px; order: 0; line-height: 30.8700008392334px; caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69);" class="">“Protection contracts,” as these collective bargaining agreements are called, have become the norm in Mexico. They account for at least 75 percent of the collective bargaining agreements in Mexico, says a <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JeZvnTmewpUx-hkNqeoFu-Zb2fELVWn0/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(57, 130, 106); order: 0; border-bottom-style: none;" class="">2021 report</a> by the Independent Mexico Labor Expert Board, established by the U.S Congress and the Labor Advisory Committee.</div><div style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; color: rgb(69, 69, 69); font-family: capitolium-news-2, serif; font-size: 17.639999389648438px; order: 0; line-height: 30.8700008392334px; caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69);" class="">“The purpose of the protection contract,” notes the report, “is to lock in low wages and poor conditions and ‘protect’ the employers from having to negotiate with an independent and democratic union.”</div><div style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; color: rgb(69, 69, 69); font-family: capitolium-news-2, serif; font-size: 17.639999389648438px; order: 0; line-height: 30.8700008392334px; caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69);" class="">What’s more, the report says, “the employer-dominated union and the government have often colluded to intimidate workers through delays, threats and physical violence, and dismissal.”</div><hr style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; order: 0; clear: both; background-color: rgb(222, 222, 222); height: 1px; border: 0px; max-width: 80%; margin: 1.2em auto; opacity: 0; caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: rgb(69, 69, 69); font-family: capitolium-news-2, serif; font-size: 16.799999237060547px;" class=""><div style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; color: rgb(69, 69, 69); font-family: capitolium-news-2, serif; font-size: 17.639999389648438px; order: 0; line-height: 30.8700008392334px; caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69);" class="">Insurgent unions are needed in order to challenge this entrenched system solidified by NAFTA, which <a href="https://nacla.org/article/mexico%27s-haves-and-have-nots-nafta-sharpens-divided" target="_blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(57, 130, 106); order: 0; border-bottom-style: none;" class="">opened the door for multinational corportations</a> bent on cheap labor and big profits by reducing trade barriers.</div><div style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; color: rgb(69, 69, 69); font-family: capitolium-news-2, serif; font-size: 17.639999389648438px; order: 0; line-height: 30.8700008392334px; caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69);" class="">Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel Lopéz Obrador, who was elected in 2018, has raised the national <a href="https://www.gob.mx/conasami/articulos/incremento-a-los-salarios-minimos-para-2022?idiom=es" target="_blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(57, 130, 106); order: 0; border-bottom-style: none;" class="">minimum wage</a>, which is about $13 a day for businesses in the border region of Mexico and about $8.60 for the rest of the nation.</div><div style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; color: rgb(69, 69, 69); font-family: capitolium-news-2, serif; font-size: 17.639999389648438px; order: 0; line-height: 30.8700008392334px; caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69);" class="">But whether workers are actually paid that wage is another question. “Enforcement is the biggest problem,” says Jorge Mujica, who serves in the Chamber of Deputies. Abuses, he says, are common, with workers often not getting the wages owed them.</div><div style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; color: rgb(69, 69, 69); font-family: capitolium-news-2, serif; font-size: 17.639999389648438px; order: 0; line-height: 30.8700008392334px; caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69);" class="">And there are huge disparities to close.</div><div style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; color: rgb(69, 69, 69); font-family: capitolium-news-2, serif; font-size: 17.639999389648438px; order: 0; line-height: 30.8700008392334px; caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69);" class="">“NAFTA really polarized Mexican society even more than it already was,” says Howard Campbell, a professor of anthropology and sociology at the University of Texas, El Paso who has written four books about Mexico.</div><div style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; color: rgb(69, 69, 69); font-family: capitolium-news-2, serif; font-size: 17.639999389648438px; order: 0; line-height: 30.8700008392334px; caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69);" class="">Foreign-owned companies in Mexico—<span style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: italic; order: 0;" class="">maquiladoras</span>—have deservedly been the target of criticism. “The wages are so bad that everybody has to work in the household,” says <a href="https://creativetime.org/summit/author/carlos-marentes/" target="_blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(57, 130, 106); order: 0; border-bottom-style: none;" class="">Carlos Marentes</a>, director of the Border Agricultural Workers Project in El Paso.</div><div style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; color: rgb(69, 69, 69); font-family: capitolium-news-2, serif; font-size: 17.639999389648438px; order: 0; line-height: 30.8700008392334px; caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69);" class="">He tells of a Mexican woman who recently crossed the border looking for work because she could not make a living as a factory worker across the Rio Grande in Ciudad Juárez.</div><blockquote style="position: relative; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.6em 2.6em 1em 0px; padding: 1.6em 2em 1.6em 0px; order: 0; font-family: Adelle, sans-serif; border-top-width: 3px; border-top-style: solid; border-top-color: rgb(57, 130, 106); border-bottom-width: 3px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(57, 130, 106); width: 385.921875px; float: left; caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: rgb(69, 69, 69); font-size: 16.799999237060547px;" class=""><div style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: capitolium-news-2, serif; font-size: 21.84000015258789px; order: 0; line-height: 38.220001220703125px; font-weight: bold;" class="">Tridonex retaliated against workers who signed petitions to stop payments of dues to the incumbent union. As a result, more than 600 workers were fired.</div></blockquote><div style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; color: rgb(69, 69, 69); font-family: capitolium-news-2, serif; font-size: 17.639999389648438px; order: 0; line-height: 30.8700008392334px; caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69);" class="">NAFTA has also driven many subsistence farmers off their land. They could not compete with U.S. agribusiness exports. Between 1993 and 2002, the number of Mexicans trying to make a living in agriculture dropped by 1.3 million, according to a <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/12oiphBlKTnCDOQEdKnVxr2a1U0T9Dkm4/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(57, 130, 106); order: 0; border-bottom-style: none;" class="">Carnegie study</a>. This contributed to the three million <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/07/09/before-covid-19-more-mexicans-came-to-the-u-s-than-left-for-mexico-for-the-first-time-in-years/" target="_blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(57, 130, 106); order: 0; border-bottom-style: none;" class="">Mexicans who migrated</a> to the United States between 1995 and 2000. </div><div style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; color: rgb(69, 69, 69); font-family: capitolium-news-2, serif; font-size: 17.639999389648438px; order: 0; line-height: 30.8700008392334px; caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69);" class="">Changes in Mexico’s labor law in 2019 have provided an avenue to break the undemocratic hold of company unions. A key provision creates a “<a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1h6Fac7EF-UZOvOEwYa94R2ptytODvxak/view" target="_blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(57, 130, 106); order: 0; border-bottom-style: none;" class="">legitimization process</a>,” which requires that by May 2023 all collective bargaining agreements be put up for a vote.</div><div style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; color: rgb(69, 69, 69); font-family: capitolium-news-2, serif; font-size: 17.639999389648438px; order: 0; line-height: 30.8700008392334px; caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69);" class="">If the workers at a plant reject their existing contract, the union representing them is ousted.</div><div style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; color: rgb(69, 69, 69); font-family: capitolium-news-2, serif; font-size: 17.639999389648438px; order: 0; line-height: 30.8700008392334px; caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69);" class="">“It was intended to get rid of the old system, which was very boss-friendly,” says Daniel Rangel, Research Director for <a href="https://rethinktrade.org/" target="_blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(57, 130, 106); order: 0; border-bottom-style: none;" class="">Rethink Trade</a>. Until recently, he held a similar position with Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch and has been involved in helping secure labor rights at Tridonex.</div><div style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; color: rgb(69, 69, 69); font-family: capitolium-news-2, serif; font-size: 17.639999389648438px; order: 0; line-height: 30.8700008392334px; caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69);" class="">The 2020 United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which <a href="https://www.citizen.org/news/the-revised-nafta-one-year-later/" target="_blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(57, 130, 106); order: 0; border-bottom-style: none;" class="">replaced</a> NAFTA, empowers the U.S Trade Representative to respond to disputes, as happened in the Tridonex and GM cases.</div><div style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; color: rgb(69, 69, 69); font-family: capitolium-news-2, serif; font-size: 17.639999389648438px; order: 0; line-height: 30.8700008392334px; caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69);" class="">But by the end of last year, according to a January USMCA <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1h6Fac7EF-UZOvOEwYa94R2ptytODvxak/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(57, 130, 106); order: 0; border-bottom-style: none;" class="">monitoring report</a>, just sixteen of the 2,749 collective bargaining agreements voted on had been rejected.</div><hr style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; order: 0; clear: both; background-color: rgb(222, 222, 222); height: 1px; border: 0px; max-width: 80%; margin: 1.2em auto; opacity: 0; caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: rgb(69, 69, 69); font-family: capitolium-news-2, serif; font-size: 16.799999237060547px;" class=""><div style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; color: rgb(69, 69, 69); font-family: capitolium-news-2, serif; font-size: 17.639999389648438px; order: 0; line-height: 30.8700008392334px; caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69);" class="">Prieto is determined to break the stranglehold of “protection contracts” with insurgent unions—free from corporate control and the grip of the Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM), an umbrella group for protection unions.</div><div style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; color: rgb(69, 69, 69); font-family: capitolium-news-2, serif; font-size: 17.639999389648438px; order: 0; line-height: 30.8700008392334px; caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69);" class="">“If the workers get enough information, they will vote to destroy the power of the CTM,” says Prieto. “The companies say most of the time, ‘If you vote no, you will lose everything.’ ”</div><div style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; color: rgb(69, 69, 69); font-family: capitolium-news-2, serif; font-size: 17.639999389648438px; order: 0; line-height: 30.8700008392334px; caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69);" class="">Prieto’s confrontational style was an effective counterpunch in the wildcat strikes over wages and bonuses three year ago in Tamaulipas.</div><div style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; color: rgb(69, 69, 69); font-family: capitolium-news-2, serif; font-size: 17.639999389648438px; order: 0; line-height: 30.8700008392334px; caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69);" class="">“She likes facing down the bosses,” says Ben Davis, director of international affairs for the United Steelworkers. “Instead of doing it in a closed room, she was doing it on the street.”</div><div style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; color: rgb(69, 69, 69); font-family: capitolium-news-2, serif; font-size: 17.639999389648438px; order: 0; line-height: 30.8700008392334px; caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69);" class="">The grievances of Tridonex workers came to a head last spring. Global Trade Watch, along with the AFL-CIO, the SEIU and SNITIS, the insurgent union, <a href="https://aflcio.org/press/releases/afl-cio-seiu-snitis-and-public-citizen-announce-filing-first-usmca-rapid-response" target="_blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(57, 130, 106); order: 0; border-bottom-style: none;" class="">filed a complaint</a> with the U.S government.</div><div style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; color: rgb(69, 69, 69); font-family: capitolium-news-2, serif; font-size: 17.639999389648438px; order: 0; line-height: 30.8700008392334px; caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69);" class="">Rangel, who helped draft the complaint, says SNITIS members faced threats and dismissals for their activism. The complaint also criticized the arrest, detention, and punitive terms of Prieto’s release from jail.</div><div style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; color: rgb(69, 69, 69); font-family: capitolium-news-2, serif; font-size: 17.639999389648438px; order: 0; line-height: 30.8700008392334px; caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69);" class="">Tridonex, says Rangel, retaliated against workers who signed petitions to stop payments of dues to the incumbent union. As a result, more than 600 workers were fired. And the company, according to Rangel, required those fired to sign “voluntary” resignations in order to receive severance pay.</div><div style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; color: rgb(69, 69, 69); font-family: capitolium-news-2, serif; font-size: 17.639999389648438px; order: 0; line-height: 30.8700008392334px; caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69);" class="">U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai intervened under the <a href="https://www.dol.gov/newsroom/releases/ilab/ilab20210820" target="_blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(57, 130, 106); order: 0; border-bottom-style: none;" class="">Rapid Response Mechanism</a> of the USMCA. The resulting action plan led to the February vote for union representation, which <a href="https://mexicobusiness.news/automotive/news/independent-victory-tridonex-could-open-door-other-unions" target="_blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(57, 130, 106); order: 0; border-bottom-style: none;" class="">SNITIS overwhelmingly won</a>. </div><div style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; color: rgb(69, 69, 69); font-family: capitolium-news-2, serif; font-size: 17.639999389648438px; order: 0; line-height: 30.8700008392334px; caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69);" class="">Still, only about 200 of the 600 fired Tridonex workers are expected to get severance pay, says Rangel.</div><hr style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; order: 0; clear: both; background-color: rgb(222, 222, 222); height: 1px; border: 0px; max-width: 80%; margin: 1.2em auto; opacity: 0; caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: rgb(69, 69, 69); font-family: capitolium-news-2, serif; font-size: 16.799999237060547px;" class=""><div style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; color: rgb(69, 69, 69); font-family: capitolium-news-2, serif; font-size: 17.639999389648438px; order: 0; line-height: 30.8700008392334px; caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69);" class="">At the GM plant in Silao, Cervantes tells how Generando Movimiento grew out of weekly Sunday meetings that began last April, when he and a handful of co-workers gathered to review Mexico’s revised labor law. “Every Sunday more workers arrive,” says the forty-four-year-old Cervantes.</div><div style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; color: rgb(69, 69, 69); font-family: capitolium-news-2, serif; font-size: 17.639999389648438px; order: 0; line-height: 30.8700008392334px; caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69);" class="">The company union, commonly known as <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/sustainable-business/gm-workers-historic-vote-mexico-tests-new-trade-deal-2021-08-17/" target="_blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(57, 130, 106); order: 0; border-bottom-style: none;" class="">Miguel Trujillo López union</a>, had not held elections for representatives, failed to provide a contract, and did not fight for higher wages, according to Cervantes. After thirteen years at GM, says Cervantes, he was earning a mere 440 pesos—about $22—for a twelve-hour shift. He worked four days a week.</div><div style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; color: rgb(69, 69, 69); font-family: capitolium-news-2, serif; font-size: 17.639999389648438px; order: 0; line-height: 30.8700008392334px; caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69);" class="">Establishment of Generando Movimiento occurred at the time the existing collective bargaining agreement at the plant was put to a vote.</div><div style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; color: rgb(69, 69, 69); font-family: capitolium-news-2, serif; font-size: 17.639999389648438px; order: 0; line-height: 30.8700008392334px; caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69);" class="">But the vote turned into a scandal. The company union, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/latin-america-global-trade-business-canada-c2c06563e94f509bf10a2ca4310a75e3" target="_blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(57, 130, 106); order: 0; border-bottom-style: none;" class="">according to</a> the Associated Press, had apparently destroyed ballots. Mexico Labor Secretary Luisa María Alcalde then weighed in, saying “some people haven’t gotten the message” that “the rights of workers are going to be respected.” Trade Representative Tai intervened as well.</div><div style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; color: rgb(69, 69, 69); font-family: capitolium-news-2, serif; font-size: 17.639999389648438px; order: 0; line-height: 30.8700008392334px; caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69);" class="">A revote was held in August, with workers rejecting the contract and leading to the ouster of the incumbent union. This set the stage for this past February’s vote to determine union representation. </div><div style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; color: rgb(69, 69, 69); font-family: capitolium-news-2, serif; font-size: 17.639999389648438px; order: 0; line-height: 30.8700008392334px; caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69);" class="">Generando Movimiento became the driving force for the creation of <a href="https://www.laborpress.org/gm-workers-in-mexico-unionize-with-sinttia/" target="_blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(57, 130, 106); order: 0; border-bottom-style: none;" class="">SINTTIA</a>.</div><div style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; color: rgb(69, 69, 69); font-family: capitolium-news-2, serif; font-size: 17.639999389648438px; order: 0; line-height: 30.8700008392334px; caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69);" class="">But this victory was not without casualties. GM fired Cervantes in August. The pretext, Cervantes tells <span style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; font-style: italic; order: 0;" class="">The Progressive</span>, was that the company tested him for drugs and said the results were positive. Cervantes subsequently had a drug test taken on his own, which he says showed no drug use. He has appealed his firing to Mexico’s <a href="https://www.stps.gob.mx/bp/secciones/english/history.html" target="_blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(57, 130, 106); order: 0; border-bottom-style: none;" class="">Federal Conciliation and Arbitration Board</a>.</div><div style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; color: rgb(69, 69, 69); font-family: capitolium-news-2, serif; font-size: 17.639999389648438px; order: 0; line-height: 30.8700008392334px; caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69);" class="">As further evidence that his firing was politically motivated, Cervantes notes that other pro-SINTTIA workers were also fired.</div><div style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; color: rgb(69, 69, 69); font-family: capitolium-news-2, serif; font-size: 17.639999389648438px; order: 0; line-height: 30.8700008392334px; caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69);" class="">Undeterred, Cervantes formed an activist group, <a href="https://www.cuentameleon.com/a-traves-de-la-casa-obrera-del-bajio-extrabajador-de-gm-israel-cervantes-supuestamente-lucra-con-trabajadores/" target="_blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(57, 130, 106); order: 0; border-bottom-style: none;" class="">Casa Obrera del Bajío</a>, which leafleted and held rallies about the February election, which <a href="https://www.laborpress.org/gm-workers-in-mexico-unionize-with-sinttia/" target="_blank" style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(57, 130, 106); order: 0; border-bottom-style: none;" class="">SINTTIA handily won</a>.</div><div style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; color: rgb(69, 69, 69); font-family: capitolium-news-2, serif; font-size: 17.639999389648438px; order: 0; line-height: 30.8700008392334px; caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69);" class="">In the battles ahead, Prieto is mapping out her strategy and stressing the importance of changes coming from the workers.</div><div style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; color: rgb(69, 69, 69); font-family: capitolium-news-2, serif; font-size: 17.639999389648438px; order: 0; line-height: 30.8700008392334px; caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69);" class="">She is comfortable with the label of “troublemaker” and hopes that the organizing efforts will spread to her hometown of Ciudad Juárez, where she estimates there are 380,000 workers.</div><div style="position: static; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0.9rem; padding: 0px; color: rgb(69, 69, 69); font-family: capitolium-news-2, serif; font-size: 17.639999389648438px; order: 0; line-height: 30.8700008392334px; caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69);" class="">And she says, “Many people in Juárez are enthusiastic about the victory in Matamoros.”</div></div><br class=""><div class="">
Arthur Stamoulis<br class="">Citizens Trade Campaign<br class="">(202) 494-8826<br class=""><br class=""><br class=""><br class="">
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