wfn.org | Agency directors bear witness to Mexican workers' struggles

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

March 21, 2002  News media contact: Tim Tanton7(615)742-54707Nashville,
Tenn.  10-32-71BP{120}

NOTE: A photograph is available with this report.

By Frances S. Smith*

SAN DIEGO (UMNS) - A living wage is a myth in Mexico, particularly for
workers in factories along the U.S. border. This was one of the findings
uncovered by members of the United Methodist Board of Pension and Health
Benefits during a one-day fact-finding trip to Tijuana, Mexico.

International companies operating south of the border to take advantage of
cheap labor say they pay low wages because the cost of living is low. 

"That is not true," Martha Ojeda told board members on March 14. Ojeda, the
executive director of the Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras
(assembly plants), briefed 18 board members, spouses and board staff before
they crossed the border by bus to Tijuana. Ojeda said she had worked in
maquilas for 20 years.

About 900,000 Mexicans work in 4,000 maquilas along the U.S.-Mexican border,
she said. They assemble components shipped in from other countries, and the
finished products are sent duty free to the United States.

The trip to Tijuana preceded the board's March 15-16 meeting in San Diego
and was organized to inform members about working conditions in factories
owned by companies in which the board invests. 

Vidette Bullock-Mixon, director of Corporate Relations and Social Concerns,
said the United Methodist Church's Social Principles maintain that every
person has the right to a living wage and the right to refuse to work in
conditions that threaten their health (Paragraph 163 of the Book of
Discipline).

The visitors to Tijuana divided into three small groups to talk directly
with workers who have been helped by the Center for Information for Male and
Female Workers, led by Jaime Cota. The center supplies information on labor
laws, offers legal advice and defends workers who have grievances. 

Manuel, who said he had worked at Sony and Sanyo, was laid off when the work
force was reduced. He showed pay slips recording earnings of $46 a week, but
he estimated he needed $250 to live. He found the 10-hour days "very
stressful." 

Leticia said women are 56 percent of the production force. Some work as much
as 48 to 56 hours a week, some on the night shift. They get 42 days of
maternity leave under the law. However, all are given pregnancy tests before
employment. 

Rosa, a 26-year-old single mother of three - ages 1, 5 and 6 - worked three
years for Sanyo, a Japanese firm, making batteries, refrigerators, TVs and
videocassettes. As a quality controller, she earned 57 pesos a day (nine
pesos equal US$1). Her mother kept the children while she worked the 4 to 11
p.m. shift. When the company moved, she had to quit because the commute took
two hours and her bus fare doubled. She has spent six months looking for
work, but the market is tight, she said.

Eva, another Sanyo worker, has children ages 8, 10 and 12. She lost an eye
in an industrial accident. The government provided health care, and she has
filed a complaint against the company for lack of safety equipment. 
 
Board members were particularly shocked to see an abandoned factory where
Metals Derivatives had recycled old batteries. Seven tons of lead buried
underground in 1972 contaminated ground water. During periods of rain, the
runoff polluted a creek and wells in the valley below. Lead poisoning
produced infertility in the men and mental retardation in children. In 1993,
residents' complaints forced the government to close the plant. However, the
area has not been cleaned up, and children still play in the vacant lot
outside the building despite graffiti on the wall warning "peligroso"
(dangerous) and "contaminacion."  

Ojeda said the workers' biggest concern is wages. The North America Free
Trade Agreement promised jobs and an increased standard of living. "As a
result of the free trade agreement, the only ones getting benefits are the
companies. The workers are the losers," she said. 

Mexico has some good labor laws, she conceded, but they are not enforced.
The law provides the right to organize and strike, and it forbids child
labor. It also dictates that 10 percent of company profits go to the
workers, but maquilas claim they don't profit so they don't pay. 

To check out the cost of living, board members visited a big supermarket
accompanied by the workers and saw how little US$25 buys.

Board member Keith Ewing of Lakeland, Fla., commented afterward on "the
injustice inflicted on the folks in the valley" below the polluting plant. 

"They have a higher percentage of birth defects than the rest of Mexico.
That factory closed in 1994. It's a long time to sit there without any
action," he said.

Sue Schoener of Columbus, Ohio, another board member, said: "It grieves my
soul that American companies exploit people in other countries for personal
gain - greed. We're complicit when we accept that and don't speak out. It
causes me to examine my conscience."

Joel Huffman of Phoenix said in the debriefing: "We have a third world
country in our backyard. Sooner or later, we'll have to reach out to get
economic justice for those people. Mexico is a bomb waiting to go off. I
have yet to cross the border that my heart is not touched. The profit makers
are up here, not down there."

Bullock-Mixon noted that in the last 10 years, the Board of Pension has
engaged 12 companies with stockholder resolutions related to the
maquiladoras. Currently, the board continues in conversation with Delphi,
maker of auto parts, about better wages and working conditions. 

En route to Tijuana, board members viewed a video titled "A Voice for
Justice," which recounted the agency's dialogue with the Walt Disney Co.
concerning conditions in the many factories where Disney products are made.

The Committee on Social Responsibility strongly encouraged the full board to
continue using its influence to raise concerns about labor practices,
environmental health, safety and wages paid to workers in Mexican factories.

                               
During its meeting, the board heard a report on the working conditions in
the maquiladoras and discussed a variety of other concerns, such as progress
on Benefits 2004, which focuses on the status and future of the
denomination's pension and health benefits.

Bishop Ben R. Chamness, who leads the church's Fort Worth (Texas) Area, was
elected as an at-large member of the Pension Benefits Committee. 

The board also adopted a withdrawal fee for annual conferences that withdraw
cash from their conference deposit accounts in the board's Diversified
Investment Fund. Effective May 1, annual conferences will have a withdrawal
fee if the reserve level is less than 3 percent.

The next board of directors meeting will be July 18-20 in Skokie, Ill. 
# # #
*Smith, a retired United Methodist News Service staffer, lives in Claremont,
Calif.
    

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United Methodist News Service
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