Mexico Labor

In the four years that 23-year-old Marco Antonio Gutierrez has worked at the Ford Motor Co. factory here, his supervisors have demanded world-class quality for the Escorts and Mercury Tracers the plant produces for the U.S. market. Last week, Gutierrez and his 2,100 co-workers walked out of the plant. Their demand: wages closer to world-class for world-class work.

At age 12, Raquel Guadarrama left the home of her poor, widowed mother to clean the houses of middle- and upper-class Mexican families. For 34 years, she scrubbed floors, washed dishes, hung laundry and baby-sat toddlers -- all the while cowering as employers called her stupid and sexually harassed her.

Despite Mexico's soaring interest rates, its sharply devalued peso and harsh government limits on wage increases, it isn't going to rain on Mexico's Labor Day parade this year. It was canceled. For the first time in the modern history of a nation where organized labor has ruled supreme, the leaders of Mexico's largest unions announced this week that there will be no official parade on May 1, the day most of the world celebrates Labor Day with millions of workers taking to the streets.

Roberto Chavez was 8 years old when he began fantasizing about the inevitable day he would follow his brother to the U.S., then return to his poor Mexican village smelling of money. What he did not know, in fact never could have imagined, was that the Los Angeles employer that helped him buy a home and raise five children would ship his job to Mexico after 15 years of loyal service.

If the United States and Mexico conclude a free-trade agreement, sweeping away restrictive tariffs and other commercial barriers, a fast-growing neighborhood here known as El Ejido Chilpancingo may offer a glimpse into the future. In a bustling desert valley along this border city's eastern edge, life already resonates to the rhythms of what now passes for free trade--the plethora of mostly U.S.

A new minimum wage of $3.80 an hour, an increase of 80 cents, went into effect over the weekend in Mexico, and labor leaders warned businesses to obey the law or be faced with fines and imprisonment.

Mexico's largest labor union on Monday named a temporary successor to Fidel Velazquez, the longtime labor boss who died over the weekend. The Federation of Mexican Workers picked Leonardo Rodriguez Alcaine, substitute secretary-general of the labor organization. The Federation of Mexican Workers, which claims 5 1/2 million members, said Rodriguez Alcaine, 78, will serve until a workers congress in February. The congress will either vote to extend his term or choose another leader.

The attraction for most of the 1,800 foreign companies that have set up manufacturing plants in Mexico is the cheap cost of labor. But a growing number of Southern California furniture makers hear another siren call: more lenient environmental laws. During the past two to three years, at least 40 Southern California furniture makers have relocated or made plans to open plants, called maquiladoras, in the Tijuana area, a migration that is still gathering steam.

Labor Secretary Alexis M. Herman should meet with her Mexican counterpart to determine why unsafe working conditions persist at a closely watched Tijuana factory despite repeated inspections and fines, a federal agency recommended Tuesday. So-called ministerial consultations were urged by the National Administrative Office, an arm of the Labor Department that monitors complaints about working conditions in Mexico and Canada under the North American Free Trade Agreement.

In a case that could ultimately lead to sanctions against Mexico under the North American Free Trade Agreement, a U.S. Department of Labor panel Wednesday heard hours of testimony alleging unsafe working conditions and union busting at a Tijuana border factory.

Breakaway union leaders on Friday inaugurated an independent labor federation claiming more than 1.5 million members, infusing yet another pillar of Mexican society with an unaccustomed spirit of democracy.

U.S. poultry companies could process birds in Mexico to take advantage of cheaper labor costs, then ship them back for sale in U.S. supermarkets, under new rules proposed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Under the proposal, published in Friday's Federal Register, Mexico would become the sixth country permitted to export poultry to the U.S. U.S.

The U.S. Labor Department launched an investigation Monday of a frustrated attempt by Tijuana factory workers to create an independent union, a move that will mean deeper scrutiny of labor practices in Baja California's growing maquiladora industry. The independent union won a 54-34 majority of the votes in an election at the Han Young factory Oct. 6, but a dozen of its supporters have lost their jobs and the Tijuana labor board has refused to recognize the union.

Congressional opponents of the Clinton administration's bid for increased authority to negotiate free trade accords are pointing to a grimy Tijuana factory where they say workers won an uphill election for what is being billed as the first independent union of the border maquiladora factories--but lost their jobs. Even a manager of the Han Young plant, which supplies tractor-trailer chassis for Hyundai Precision America in San Diego, concedes that the independent union won the Oct. 6 election.

Mexico's largest labor coalition nominated its 96-year-old leader for another term. Fidel Velazquez, secretary general of the government-backed Mexican Worker's Confederation, was nominated for a term that would keep him in power until 2004. Velazquez faced no opposition, and questions about his health were played down. "Don Fidel is still going strong," said Leonardo Rodriguez Alcaine, head of the electricians union. Velazquez has often sided with the government in labor disputes.

The formation last week of a breakaway coalition of Mexican unions signals the profound changes here assailing organized labor, which up to now has been a monolithic but docile pillar of the nation's ruling party.

Most foreign companies that operate Mexican manufacturing plants called maquiladoras accept high employee turnover as a fact of life, and regard it as one of the biggest downsides of doing business here. For the managers of Mexico's 2,700 maquiladoras, which are concentrated mainly along the U.S.-Mexico border, the fact that entire work forces can change over the course of a year takes an enormous toll on productivity and pushes recruiting and training costs up.

The formation last week of a breakaway coalition of Mexican unions signals the profound changes here assailing organized labor, which up to now has been a monolithic but docile pillar of the nation's ruling party.