Mexican women describes sweatshop condition

[Bill Howard]

Communist Web Tuesday 14th March 2000 9.30pm gmt Mexican women describes sweatshop condition The following is testimony from a presentation in Eugene, Ore. Feb. 23. Margarita Diaz Lara toured Oregon and Washington February 22-28 to rally support for the workers of Congeladora del Rio (CRISA) in Mexico: My name is Margarita Diaz Lara. I'm 21 years old. I come from Irapuato, Guanajuato. I work for Congeladora del Rio (CRISA). I've been working there eight years. The company produces frozen fruits: strawberries, pineapple, mango, papaya and exports those fruits to the U.S. for a company called Global Trading. The owner of Global Trading is Arthur Price. He lives here in the U.S., in South Carolina. Our work consists of peeling and stemming the fruit, without         hygienic protection. We work with chemicals like bleach, which burn our skin. Our workday is from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., and when there's a lot of product, we work 15 hours a day. Our work is paid piece rate, by the number of boxes we process. In our work, we have to do this work quickly, without breaks, standing up and without going to the bathroom. One box has 8 kilos of strawberries, and we're paid 2.28 pesos (U.S. 24 cents) per box. The fastest, most skillful workers make 40-45 boxes per day. And they pay us 3.5 pesos (U.S. 37 cents) an hour, if you're paid by the hour. We don't have any kind of safety, hygienic protection. They give us none of the tools or clothing we need: aprons, gloves, boots, a special tool to remove the stems of the strawberries. We have no cafeteria or lunchroom. People who live close by can go home to eat, but for the rest, we must eat outside in the polluted air. We don't even have a first aid kit, so we have to go to the supervisor to request an aspirin, and they say, "Go to the supermarket." We don't have an infirmary or a nurse or any first aid facility. So if someone gets a cut on the job, there's nothing for dealing with it. The company gives us no profit- sharing [as         required by Mexican law] and almost no Christmas bonus. So we decided to contact the [Frente Autentico del Trabajo] FAT, and they told us the only way to confront these conditions was to organize an independent union. When we began to organize a union, that's when we were fired. When we filed to be represented by the FAT, we were told there was already a union. Suddenly... http://www.billkath.demon.co.uk/cw/mex/mex.html

Title: Mexican women describes sweatshop condition

Communist Web Tuesday 14th March 2000 9.30pm gmt Mexican women describes sweatshop condition The following is testimony from a presentation in Eugene, Ore. Feb. 23.    Margarita Diaz Lara toured Oregon and Washington February 22-28 to rally support for the workers of Congeladora del Rio (CRISA) in Mexico: My name is Margarita Diaz Lara. I'm 21 years old. I come from Irapuato,  Guanajuato. I work for Congeladora del Rio (CRISA). I've been working there eight years. The company produces frozen fruits: strawberries, pineapple, mango, papaya and exports those fruits to the U.S. for a company called Global Trading. The owner of Global Trading is Arthur Price. He lives here in the U.S., in South Carolina. Our work consists of peeling and stemming the fruit, without        hygienic protection. We work with chemicals like bleach, which burn our skin. Our workday is from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., and when there's a lot of product, we work 15 hours a day. Our work is paid piece rate, by the number of boxes we process. In our work, we have to do this work quickly, without breaks, standing up and without going to the bathroom. One box has 8 kilos of strawberries, and we're paid 2.28 pesos (U.S. 24 cents) per box. The fastest, most skillful workers make 40-45 boxes per day. And they pay us 3.5 pesos (U.S. 37 cents) an hour, if you're paid by the hour. We don't have any kind of safety, hygienic protection. They give us none of the tools or clothing we need: aprons, gloves, boots, a special tool to remove the stems of the strawberries. We have no cafeteria or lunchroom. People who live close by can go home to eat, but for the rest, we must eat outside in the polluted air. We don't even have a first aid kit, so we have to go to the supervisor to request an aspirin, and they say, "Go to the supermarket." We don't have an infirmary or a nurse or any first aid facility. So if someone gets a cut on the job, there's nothing for dealing with it. The company gives us no profit-sharing [as        required by Mexican law] and almost no Christmas bonus. So we decided to contact the [Frente Autentico del Trabajo] FAT, and they told us the only way to confront these conditions was to organize an independent union. When we began to organize a union, that's when we were fired. When we filed to be represented by the FAT, we were told there was already a union. Suddenly there was a union that we'd never heard of, never seen it, had never signed any union cards. The authorities told the company that we had filed to be represented by the FAT, and that's when they fired 200 of us. Among the fired are older workers and widows who are the sole support for their families. The fired workers sought an injunction to force management to recognize them, but we didn't get it. Currently, we're insisting that the government look at the irregularities in the plant, and we've filed a complaint for wrongful termination.