Page 12 - aruba-today-20190202

A12 WORLD NEWS
Saturday 2 February 2019
Mexican president unleashes labor unrest at border plants

demands may spread to
other areas along the bor-
der "where the industry is
present and will project a
very bad image for foreign
direct investment."
Still, most of the Matamoros
companies have quietly
agreed to the workers' de-
mands, and they would be
hard-pressed to find any
place near the U.S. market
where they could pay less
than $1 an hour.
Other Mexican border cit-
ies with assembly plants, like
Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez,
"don't have this point" in
their contracts, Quintero
noted. "But what is going to
happen is that workers are
going to demand their rais-
es to 176 pesos," the new
minimum, and probably
across the board, he said.
Lopez Obrador has come

In this March 21, 2017 file photo, workers gather outside a "maquiladora" for car accessories in Matamoros, Mexico. under pressure from the
Associated Press business sector to rein in
wage demands, but he is
By MARK STEVENSON Less than a week after the which is across the border cotton workers, is unusual in unlikely to do so.
Associated Press strike broke out, a major- from Brownsville, Texas, Mexico because it has won The only thing he has prom-
MEXICO CITY (AP) — A ity of the export plants in signed contracts indexed gains for its members that ised Mexico's labor move-
mass strike at 48 "maqui- Matamoros — 29 compa- to minimum wage hikes. It don't exist in contracts any- ment is to guarantee union
ladora," or manufacturer, nies with a total of about 34 was a way to keep wages where else in the country. freedom and stay out of
plants in Mexico's border factories — have agreed down, given that in most Far more common are pro- unions' internal affairs. For
city of Matamoros is head- to the union demands, a previous years, annual in- company "ghost" unions workers, that is a big step
ing for victory, bringing rare victory that owes a lot creases were about equal that sign contracts without forward in a country where
pay raises for laborers who to something the president to the inflation rate. consulting the workers they the labor movement has
make less than $1 an hour, probably didn't intend to One such contract signed purportedly represent. been smothered for de-
or about 100 pesos a day, happen. in March 2018 at the Kongs- Lopez Obrador has been cades by old-guard union
assembling auto compo- After taking office Dec. 1, berg Interior Systems plant, wary of antagonizing the bosses and pro-company
nents and TV sets for export Lopez Obrador doubled which makes automo- business sector, and he ap- "protection" contracts of-
to the United States — and the minimum wage in com- tive cables, stipulates that pears to be an unwilling ten signed before factories
causing jitters for the busi- munities along the U.S. bor- "the company will reach hero in opening the flood- even open.
ness community. der to 176.20 pesos a day, an agreement with the gates of labor discontent. Lopez Obrador also has
The labor battle broke out the equivalent of $9.28 at union to increase wages Both Quintero and Luis Agu- shown a certain fondness
in mid-January after Presi- current exchange rates. by the same percent that irre, the head of Mexico's for militant union bosses like
dent Andres Manuel Lopez With maquiladora pay av- minimum wages are in- association of maquiladora Mine Workers' head Napo-
Obrador decreed a dou- eraging about 146 pesos creased." companies, said federal of- leon Gomez Urrutia and the
bling of the minimum wage ($7.70) a day, the Matamo- In addition, many compa- ficials actively discouraged head of the Electrical Work-
in Mexico's border zones, ras workers went on strike nies' annual bonuses are the Matamoros union from ers Union, Martin Esparza,
apparently unaware that to demand the 20 percent calculated by multiplying seeking the pay increases. even though both have
some union contracts at raise be applied to every- minimum wage increases The Labor Department re- been accused of question-
the maquiladora plants are body — even those making by 365, a figure that in past fused to confirm that, say- able financial deals and of
indexed to minimum wage above the minimum — and years usually amounted to ing only that it sent media- holding more protests than
increases. The decree a one-time bonus of about only about $100. tors to Matamoros to try to negotiations.
sparked a wave of walk- $1,685. "They (the government) defuse the dispute. But Zuniga brushes off sug-
outs involving about 25,000 "Perhaps he didn't take never thought there was Aguirre also claims feder- gestions that Lopez Ob-
workers. into account what was in a real union, or that there al officials agree that the rador favors the miners'
The maquiladoras claim the labor contracts," said were (contract) clauses union's interpretation of the union, and he dismisses ac-
the strikes threaten the very Javier Zuniga, an activist like that," said Cirila Quin- contract clauses is errone- cusations that he and other
existence of their industry, with the Miners' Union who tero, a sociology professor ous, but he says the federal strike organizers are help-
which has attracted over has helped coordinate at Colegio de la Frontera government has been un- ing U.S. President Donald
5,000 mostly foreign-owned the strike. "The president Norte who has studied the willing to act. Trump's campaign to bring
plants and 2 million jobs by acted in good faith, but he Matamoros union that has "This will give rise to un- manufacturing plants back
paying very low wages. didn't measure the impact represented maquiladora employment and cause to the United States.
Union leaders say those that was going to have on workers for more than a at least 15 of these com- "Unfortunately, people here
worries are overblown, not- union contracts, and the quarter century. panies to flee," Aguirre in Matamoros live on very
ing that workers at the bor- workers came out winners The Industrial Workers and warned. His group, the Ma- low salaries," Zuniga said.
der plants still earn far less for once." Laborers' Union of Matam- quiladora and Export Man- "There is no plot, no conspir-
than their counterparts in Since the 1990s, many oros, which was founded ufacturers Industry, said in acy, other than to protect
the United States. companies in Matamoros, initially in 1932 to represent a statement that the wage and help the workers."q