MEXICO CITY — Alicia de la Cruz Martinez and 23 of her co-workers recently lost their jobs in a lingerie factory. The boss said it was because the company was not prepared for free trade.

"The companies that are not closing down are laying people off," said Martinez, who after 26 years in the industry--often laboring for less than the $4-a-day minimum wage--can't find work to help support her three children. "They say it is because of free trade, because they are not competitive."

The proposed North American Free Trade Agreement negotiated by the United States, Mexico and Canada to reduce trade barriers on the continent is still subject to legislative approvals. But many workers from the Yucatan to the Yukon already count themselves as victims.

In the United States, where a million textile and garment-making jobs disappeared in the 1980s because of competition from low-cost Asian imports, workers fear that more will vanish if the proposed agreement encourages U.S. manufacturers to move south for lower-cost labor.

"We think it's going to be hard for the workers here," said Maria Guadalupe Escobar, a 40-year-old garment worker at a bathing suit factory in Vernon. "There are a lot of companies going to Mexico, and I think work is going to go there little by little. We're already noticing that work isn't coming in. The workers talk about it every day."

But in Mexico, many workers do not see themselves benefiting from a rush of new jobs. Instead, they are worried that companies are so nervous about their ability to compete under a more open North American trading system that they are already throwing in the towel--and throwing them into the streets.

"We are already seeing the effects of free trade," said Dora Elvira Banos, a 29-year-old Mexico City garment worker who recently lost her job. "A lot of companies want to close because they say they cannot compete with U.S. industry. They have started firing workers, beginning with the union activists."

Some Mexican companies are thriving--particularly the garment-making \o7 maquiladoras \f7 along the border that sew for export markets. But industry leaders in Mexico say their textile and garment sectors overall are substantially weaker than the U.S. and Canadian industries they would compete with under the proposed agreement.

The presidents of Mexico's textile and garment industry associations bluntly predict that most of their members will disappear over the next decade as various provisions of the trade agreement take effect.