Looking
for strategies to make corporate abusers accountable to the worker.
Hearing of the
National Administrative Office (U.S. Department of Labor) in San Antonio,
Texas on June 2000 complaint by workers in Matamoros against Custom
Trim and Auto Trim/Breed Mexicana. Workers provided anonymous testimony
of toxic exposure to workplace chemicals, solvents, glues and subsequent
disabling injuries, lung damage, genetic birth defects. Transcript of
Public Hearing available by contacting the U.S. Department of Labor,
www.dol.gov.
Complaint submitted
by Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras and various other organizations,
legal clinics and workers to the National Administrative Office (NAO)
of the International Labor Bureau (U.S. DOL) against the Mexican Government
for failure to comply with side agreement to NAFTA known as North American
Agreement on Labor Cooperation (NAALC). Complaint submitted June 2000,
by workers in Matamoras plants of Custom Trim/Auto Trim/Breed Mexicana.
Click here to read complaint: http://www.dol.gov/dol/ilab/public/media/reports/nao/Sub2000-01pt1.htm en
español
ACCOUNTABILITY
FOR CORPORATE ABUSE AT THE MEXICAN BORDER -- ADMINISTRATIVE COMPLAINTS
V. LAWSUITS
by Elvia R. Arriola, J.D., M.A., Executive Director, Women on the Border
Justice in the maquiladoras can be an arduous and elusive project. While
the labor rights articulated for Mexican workers are generous the biggest
obstacle is enforcement of those rights. A worker who doesn't know her
rights is unlikely to know how to navigate the system of compliance
under her country's system. It is even more frustrating to discover
that a factory is actually owned by a parent company headquartered far
away in the Northern U.S. Distance. Lack of access to the English language
and lack of funds to hire someone to represent her present the typical
obstacles.
Meanwhile the
rights of human dignity guaranteed to workers by their Constitution
are violated day in and day out. Now and then a worker can get help
from supportive groups who have learned how to work the system and
who may even seek alternative routes to seeking justice against corporations
that don't respect Mexican labor and health and safety laws or human
rights principles. The following is an attempt to summarize the basic
approaches such a worker might take.
