Student Reflections
Reflections from Delegation to Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Oct. 13-15, 2006.
CYNTHIA EDWARDS, 1L
Life at the border
by Cynthia N. Edwards
[Cynthia is a first year law student at Northern Illinois University; she attended the delegation to Reynosa, Tamaulipas, October 13-15, 2006]
Photo by Christina Murrey
In October 2006, I participated in a delegation to the U.S.-Mexico border. As part of the 12 person delegation, which was partly organized by a professor at Northern Illinois University’s College of Law I traveled to Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Mexico, a town on the U.S.-Mexico border that is next to McAllen, Texas. The group was comprised of the professor, three other students at my law school, and National Lawyers’ Guild lawyers and staff.
The purpose of the trip was to meet Mexican factory workers and hear about their experiences working in American owned factories on the border, called maquiladoras, which owe their existence to the North American Free Trade Agreement. While in Mexico and through a workers’ activist organization called the CFO (Comite Fronterizo de Obreras) I met several workers, some who had been injured at work from unsafe conditions at the Emerson factory, others who were struggling to live on the minimal salaries they earned working at a factory, and others who were laid off from Delphi Electronics, because they couldn’t afford to buy the closed-toe shoes their jobs required. A significant number of the workers were single mothers who told of working long hours to earn enough money to survive while also struggling to find appropriate childcare for their children.
One part of the trip involved having a meal in the home of a former maquiladora worker, Alejandra, whom with a group of other Delphi workers some years past had pressed a grievance charge for unfair treatment by their employer and union. She had won her request for backpay and proper severance benefits and had used the settlement money to start a business of her own, a taco stand. In the end, the trip to the border allowed me to better understand corporate globalization, learn about Mexico's economy and the role of Mexican Federal Labor Laws.
Being at the border was a life-changing experience. It showed me the truth about life for maquiladora workers. Many of the maquiladora workers worked long hours yet still could not afford the necessary things in life. Most workers lived in small one-level houses with few rooms. It was amazing to actually go into their houses and see how they live day-to-day. One bathroom I used only had a bed sheet as the bathroom door, no light or mirror and no toilet seat. It was unbelievable to hear people’s first-hand stories and then see the reality of those stories.
I’ve been interested in Latino culture since I took an introductory Spanish class in middle school. Taking this trip to the border helped me learn about the pitfalls of corporate globalization at the U.S.-Mexican border and also helped me understand why many workers choose to come to the U.S. for better work. Once I earn my J.D. I plan to assist companies in establishing policies and programs that follow government regulations and help businesses deal with international issues such as short-term work assignments and creating companies abroad and assisting families in relocation abroad. My trip to Reynosa solidified my future interests, and I am grateful that I was part of such an exhilarating experience.
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NATALIE GONZALEZ, 2L
Delegation to Mexico – Reflection
December 2006
by Natalie Gonzalez
[Natalie is a second year law student at Northern Illinois University; she attended the delegation to Reynosa, Tamaulipas, October 13-15, 2006]
When I decided to attend the Fall 2006 NIU delegation to Mexico I thought that it would be a good opportunity to learn about how globalization affects working women in another country. The concept of globalization was fairly new to me and the delegation offered a unique personal perspective of another country’s approach to entering the global economy and how it ultimately affected its citizens. As it turned out, the delegation experience provided me not only with the educational information I desired but also an unexpected lesson on empowerment and courage.
The first day that our 12 person delegation arrived in Reynosa, we met with members of a workers’ group known as the CFO, or Comité Fronterizo de Obreras, (CFO) and attended a meeting they had planned with some maquiladora workers. It was early evening and raining lightly when we all filed into a small backyard of one of the workers to meet with about 10 male maquiladora workers at the Emerson factory, which makes motors for large appliances, like washers and dryers. The group of workers greeted us warmly but also nervously, probably because they were not sure who we were and what to expect from the meeting with CFO organizers, in which they were all about to take part. Because of the rain we all moved into the small house where workers shared their stories regarding the mistreatment and injuries they and others received while working at Emerson whose main buyer is Maytag, a well known seller of washing machines to American consumers. During this meeting, the stories that I had previously read began to seem more than just a report from an article but a reality that I was unable to experience until that moment. As, I looked around the small living room where 30 people or so were congregated, I noticed a picture on the wall of the male worker’s home with his wife; the furniture and toys in the photo told me the couple had a small child. I realized that he was just like any other man in America or the world for that matter trying to provide and care for his family. Meeting with the CFO, which teaches workers their rights under the law, was both a risk and a chance for this father and husband wanting to improve his opportunities for providing for his family. Little did I know that the drive and courage this man displayed that night by just having that meeting at his home, was a theme I would encounter the entire weekend.
On Saturday, the second day of the delegation, we met with another group of workers, also at a private residence. The workers we met at this particular meeting were part of a group of women who had been fired from their jobs at a factory that produced auto parts because they refused to obey a “closed toe shoe policy” that their employer recently implemented . At first I thought that it was not a serious issue and all they had to do was buy some new shoes and the company would give them their jobs back. However, I was very wrong and it was a more serious issue involving a newly implemented policy being used as a tactic by the company, Delphi Electronics, because if they could fire them for cause the company would be able to avoid paying the severance benefits required by law. These women had not been working since they were discharged in July and had filed a grievance against the company but many of them were getting concerned about the time it was taking for results. These women, like the men we met the night before, seemed worried that they were doing the right thing by meeting with the CFO and by deciding to press their actions against the company, now armed with the information about their rights and possible strategies that the CFO was providing them. The CFO was making the workers aware of their particular rights concerning this issue and allowing them to decide on further actions they should continue to take. I thought how courageous one would have to be to give up finding another job for three months so they could take a stand against an unfair policy and unfair dismissal. Even if the policy is wrong at the same time the workers must be scared about whether they would in fact get their jobs back or the severance package they deserved. But the information provided by the CFO seemed to provide further hope and motivation to pursue the claim before the labor board. Still these women who had every reason to be scared and unsure about what they had gotten themselves into, smiled at and were friendly toward the unexpected guests who were U.S. citizens and visitors to the border. I also felt a sense of worry for these women unsure of what would happen to them and whether they would win their claim against the employer. I wondered whether some would give up hope and just buy the required shoes and go back to work? Or would some have to look for another job at another maquiladora with the fear of being blacklisted because of their actions at their previous jobs. Uncertainty plagues us all but very few of us rise to meet it head on as these women were doing.
That same day I was also pleased to hear that a maquiladora woman worker, Alejandra, who was in the same position as the women we met with earlier prevailed after two years with other workers in an unfair firing charge against the very same employer. We had lunch at her home, which had a small outdoor food stand attached which she ran herself in the evenings. She had built this food stand with the money she received from her labor settlement and now was able to support herself and her family. Her story was also inspirational because she was clearly a mother figure that held the other workers together to continue with the suit against their employer. This woman, Doña Alejandra, was able to use her strength and courage that led others to a victory when she was probably also uncertain of the outcome herself.
It was refreshing to hear that progress can be made by a single worker or groups of workers at a time. Although there is much to address along the border with respect to the maquiladora industry and labor rights, disseminating knowledge of one’s rights to the workers does in fact empower them and can push multinational companies to obey the law and secure for workers the compensation they deserve.
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RACHEL CONRADT-ADAMS, 3L
Reflections on Reynosa
by Rachel Conradt-Adams
[Rachel s a third year law student at Northern Illinois University; she attended the delegation to Reynosa, Tamaulipas, October 13-15, 2006]
I thought I was being exploited and “treated badly” by radio and television stations who paid me 16 to 23 thousand dollars a year after I graduated from Northwestern University in 1998. I left the business and came to law school specifically because I wanted to join a less “exploitive” profession.
I sincerely believed that until I realized the scandalous treatment and wages workers along the Texas/Mexico U.S. Border received. The first night we were there, we visited an average “maquiladora” (Mexican factory) worker’s home. An entire family lived in a “house” smaller than the size of my senior year studio apartment in Evanston, Illinois.
During that night, a secret meeting of male maquiladora workers met at that home. Those Mexican men in the maquiladoras supporting their entire families spoke matter of factly that their wages totaled 36 U.S. dollars a week converted into American figures. While making 36 dollars a week, one worker who spoke to us in this secret meeting spoke of nearly losing his his leg at work because a faulty safety latch fell on him, requiring about 30 stitches. But his employer tried to avoid paying him any medical compensation or benefits. He told of finally getting help on getting proper workers’ compensation benefits from the CFO, an organization that is made up of maquiladora workers who teach each other how to organize for justice using the law and how to receive compensation for work related injuries.
We also toured all of the companies that unions complain have left America for “cheap” Mexican wages. The conditions described were deplorable, and reminded me of the stories I heard in elementary school about African American slaves on southern plantations living in small cabins for their masters. One of the workers showed us deeply mud infested yards fenced in, with mini shacks, where Mexican workers must live because they can’t afford to buy better housing or because the tiny government backed housing ties them down with lifelong debt repayment plans.
Ironically, however, we learned that Mexican law actually offers more benefits to workers and women with children, in theory, than American laws. But the problem, C.F.O. members explained, is enforcement. Not just in Mexico, but the United States, laws serve no purpose unless people are aware of them. The conditions in these factories frequently violate Mexican law. But workers do not realize they have legal rights against these deplorable conditions, and therefore seek no recourse to enforce them.
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Poem: The
Delegation
The van shot straight down the Texas portion of
interstate 35 and then 57 south
meeting brush, dead armadillos
and the bones of old land and racial wars
buried underneath concrete
highways
and the forgotten archives of what was once
Old Mexico
The travelers hailed from the
North to meet women who toil
72 hour weeks to earn un dolar
per 60 minutes of repetitive motion
to feed tiny malnourished kids
playing near railroad tracks
who are then carried by swollen
hands that ache from carpel tunnel syndrome
and that cook the best meal possible
on the cheap budget of the maquiladora worker
The visitors' privilege screamed
quietly from their casual clothes
and backpacks filled with food
that the border Mexicanos never see
their good questions about the life
of the oppressed and the absence
of decent lawyering to enforce their rights
fluttered over increasingly sad scenes
of poverty despite hard work and
occasional gestures of
American goodwill
they offered a handshake and hug of compassion
parted with smiles of gratitude
that those who shared their humble shacks
and photos ops for digital cameras
had also shared the indomitable spirit
of survival, struggle and hope for a brighter
future from making alliance with
those willing to admit they Did Not Know
and now must return to their comfortable homes
denial shattered
guilt and confusion sitting like throw pillows
on the couch of despair
as they sit back and try to make sense
of all they saw, felt and cannot ever forget.
Elvia Arriola, Oct. 12, 2005
(written following the Delegation to Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Oct. 7-9 (2005))
Article
by
Yvonne Lapp Cryns, J.D. 2006
Report on the NIU Delegation to Mexico (Piedras Negras and Ciudad Acuña, Oct.7-9, 2005).
Have you ever given any thought to who sews the pants and shirts you wear? Who makes your Nike shoes? Who put the electrical system together for your car? Five NIU College of Law students had the opportunity to travel to Mexico and meet some of the people who work in factories that make those consumer goods and learn about the effects of globalization on these people who live so close to our U.S. border.
The Delegation Organizers
The trip was organized by law professor Elvia Arriola, whose home is in Austin, Texas. A few years ago, Prof. Arriola, became aware of the horrific labor situation of those toiling in the maquiladoras (big factories primarily owned and operated by non-Mexicans). In 1999, organizers of the grass-roots Mexican workers’ organization, Comité Fronterizo de Obrer@s, CFO, (Border Committee of Women Workers) www.cfomaquiladoras.org, visited receptive organizations in Austin. Following this visit, the Austin Peace and Justice Coalition along with the American Friends Service Committee, AFSC, www.afsc.org/austin, a branch of the Quaker church that works toward social justice issues, founded Austin Tan Cerca de la Frontera (Austin So Close to the Border). Austin Tan Cerca de la Frontera promotes solidarity between people in the States and those defending the rights of maquiladora workers in Mexico.
In 2000, Professor Arriola founded the non-profit organization, Women on the Border, www.womenontheborder.org, to call attention to the appalling conditions that exist for those so close to the United States. About this same time, Austin Tan Cerca de la Frontera and the American Friends Service Committee, AFSC initiated meetings between Americans and some of the Maquiladora workers. The meetings proved successful and were continued because they increase awareness of the problems the Mexican workers face. Prof. Arriola participated in a few of these delegations.
Our group was the 34th such group to meet with the Mexican workers. Nikki Cain, Yvonne Lapp Cryns, Kate Horozny, Sara Phalen, and Heather Vaughn and Prof. Arriola represented NIU on this trip. The trip was available to any NIU COL student and our group included three students from Prof. Arriola’s seminar class and two from the student body at large. (It is hoped that this opportunity will be available again in the future for NIU COL students). A presentation of our delegation trip is planned for early November.
Joining us as part of the delegation, once we were assembled in Austin, was a writer for a Quaker magazine, a psychiatrist from Austin, Texas, a graduate student in Latin American studies, a bilingual fellow with 10 years experience with worker solidarity in Chiapas, Mexico, and Judith Rosenberg, the AFSC representative. It was a delightful blending of people, which was good because we spent a lot of time in close quarters with each other. Were fortunate to have four people on the trip with excellent abilities to translate the fast Spanish of the people we met.
Meeting Maquiladora Worker-Organizers
Our first day in Mexico we went to the new office of the CFO, in Piedras Negras in Coahuila. CFO is a Mexican organization that was formed by and is led by workers and focuses on grass-roots organizing to promote independent labor unions. Although factories have unions, most are not separate from the management. This leads to workers having no real advocate for their labor problems.
With the CFO in place, they have been able to get independent unions started. The Mexican government, however, does not necessarily support this kind of independence by workers. In 2004, CFO’s complaint to the International Labour Organization, ILO was accepted. This complaint states that the Mexican government fails to guarantee the right of association of the workers.
We heard of workers who were fired by factories because they became friendly with another worker or were seen talking to a couple of other workers. The factory management, paranoid of union organizers, simply fire those they speculate might be soliciting for independent unions. Because many workers do not know their rights, the factories were able to maintain control over the workers with occasional firings. The CFO tries to keep under the radar by meeting with workers one-on-one in their homes to educate them about their rights.
Viewing the Maquiladoras
We hustled from the office to the industrial area where numerous maquiladoras are located so we could see them when the shifts changed at 5 pm. The factories are large. Except for the front offices, there are no windows in the factory areas for the workers. Guards stood at the entrances to all the plants. We saw the Malcomex plant and others. Malcomex (ALCOA) makes parts for Ford, Subaru, Harley Davidson, GM and others.
Meeting Maquiladora Workers Where They Live
We went to the homes of a number of maquiladora workers during our visit. The paved roads end far from some of their homes. Although it hadn’t rained recently, when we visited, our van got stuck on a mud road and needed to be pushed out. The poorest workers live as squatters in shelters made of whatever materials they can find: old blankets, tarps, tin, wood slats from platforms. We visited with one such worker whose house is in the shadow of a huge maquiladora plant in Piedras Niegras.
Leticia
Leticia lives in a humble squatter’s home cobbled together from wood platforms and lined with cardboard. A couple of years ago she was able to get a cement floor poured. Although the outside is dusty and barren, the inside is clean. She has adorned the walls with a few decorations.
Initially the squatters at this area “borrowed” electricity from the maquiladora, but now pay a fee for it. Like every home we visited, Leticia has a television and it is turned on. The very rustic toilet, a one-seat outhouse, is a couple of steps from the back room. She has running water, although it comes from a two-foot high faucet that resembles one we’d use for a hose. The home has two rooms—a dining room/kitchen and a bedroom/living room.
Leticia has three children: an 18-year old daughter who lives with her, a 16 year-old who is married and a 3 year old, “Chewey.” She tells us her oldest child cannot work at the plant next door because they fear independent unions, and prohibit more than one person from a family working there. There is nowhere else nearby the daughter can work. So, the daughter stays home with Chewey while her mother toils at the factory.
A neighbor boy of about 9 arrives. He is fascinated by my digital camera and grabs my arm and drags me outside to the home next door. An elderly woman is sewing. He wants me to take a photo of her. I do, and then let him take one of me with her. I learn later she is his grandmother. She was a very good sport and seemed to like the photo I took. I will send them copies.
Dinner arrives, made by some other maquiladora workers: tamales, rice and beans. It is delicious. We eat and then must leave.
We go back to our tourist-grade hotel. The court yard must be beautiful in summer, but now the pool is drained leaving a huge dangerous hole 12-feet deep. In the morning we will eat in the restaurant, most of us bravely ordering a Mexican version of breakfast.
Ángela
The next morning, we travel to visit with Ángela in Acuña. There are 40 maquiladoras in Acuña. Enroute we pass signs on the side of the road warning in Spanish, “Danger!” with pictures of snakes and bugs. Ángela lives in a remote area called Colonia Morenes. We ditch the van and walk the last couple of blocks.
Her house is in a little valley. She works in the Alcoa plant making electrical harnesses for cars. Her home is one room, made of scavenged wood. The television is on. There are lots of cracks where daylight shines through. She points to the electric heater she’ll use in winter. She feels lucky that she now has water – along with seven neighbors, they hooked up PVC pipe and brought water to their homes. It is very basic.
Her grandson is with her today because her daughter works 6 days a week from 7 am to 7 pm at the ALCOA plant in order to make $950 pesos – about $95 per week. We learn that the average worker at these plants makes about $500 pesos ($50 per week). It is not enough money to cover the basic necessities of life.
What the workers want
In our conversations with the CFO, we are told that the workers only want humane work conditions and a living wage. It is not uncommon for workers to put in 72 hours in a week every week. Workers who sew experience some of the most awful abuses because frequently they are paid per item they sew. We heard of women who forego bathroom breaks out of fear of losing their pay for falling behind in production. Their diligence on the job, however results in serious health consequences.
The CFO teaches workers about their rights. However if a worker decides to stand up for their rights and must go to court, they frequently discover that it is difficult to find honest lawyers to take their kinds of cases.
NAFTA: Free Trade does NOT mean Fair Trade
NAFTA, the U.S. trade agreement with Mexico appears to be a good arrangement. However, it benefits big business and causes the workers to be forced into greater poverty. Before NAFTA, the maquiladora workers made about $100-200 per week, I learn. After NAFTA, they are making $30-$40 per week.
Fair Trade would not mean unduly high costs for consumers in the U.S. It would take only pennies from the pockets of shareholders in these large corporations to provide a living wage to the workers so that they could heat their homes, buy clothes and shoes for their children, feed them nutritious meals, and pay for school.
Dignidad y Justicia -- “Dignity and Justice
During our last visit with the CFO staff, we were told about their new venture, Dignidad y Justicia, and given an opportunity to purchase some of the products they are marketing. The CFO began a project to provide some former maquiladora garment workers employment. CFO began its own maquiladora sewing bags and T-shirts. The bags are well-made and reasonably priced. The T-shirts are made of organic cotton. In addition, coffee grown in Chiapas through a cooperative arrangement, is sold for a fair price -- $3.50 per pound. It is excellent quality and delicious. They need help in marketing these items in this country. If you are aware of some potential sources, please contact Judy Rosenberg, Austin Tan Cerca: chelarose@grandecom.
Conclusion
It is uncomfortable to ponder the Nike’s on my feet and wonder whether some young woman, with small children milling about her shack-like home, made my shoes and in doing so exposed her family to the toxic fumes of the adhesives. As I consider which one of my many pairs of pants I’ll wear today, I think of the garment workers who are psychologically chained to their sewing machines so they make quota and get rewarded with less than a living wage. And as I drive to school, I consider the auto plant workers who made the components in my car and wonder how many months they and their children have gone without eating a fresh fruit or vegetable because their wage does not provide enough to pay for such luxury.
This report is a very short glimpse of what I experienced over one weekend. I feel so honored to have been part of the delegation and humbled to have been so graciously invited into the homes of the maquiladora workers. The poverty was everywhere and in such enormity I have difficulty comprehending it: Acuña, a city of 150,000, where the best homes are cement 12 x 30 foot utilitarian rectangles 3 feet from the next; the worst homes are cardboard boxes; and, as of 2001, about half the residents use backyard latrines!
Yet in spite of these enormous difficulties, I witnessed the strong and supportive relationships of the women and men who struggle to make the lives of those around them better. They do this by educating one person at a time about their rights. These people are heroes for the incredible barriers they must overcome daily to achieve the victories that make life in the Mexican border towns more humane for the maquiladora workers.
SPECIAL THANK YOU to the NIU COL Italian-American Organization and the Second Amendment Society for their very generous donations that made the purchase of school supplies for needy maquiladora workers’ children possible. The CFO representatives were overwhelmed by your kindness.
