From the business section of Thursday's New York Times:
"Complaints that Mexico has failed to enforce union rights will not be pursued
by the United States, in the first test of a laobr side accord to the North
American Free Trade Agreement.[C7]"
REICH SUPPORTS MEXICO ON UNION ORGANIZING
BY ALLEN R. MYERSON
DALLAS, Oct. 12 The United States refused today to pursue complaints
that Mexico has failed to enforce union organizing rights at two
plants owned by American corporations.
The rulings, by Secretary of Labor Robert B. Reich, were the
first test of how far the Clinton Administation would go, under a
labor side accord to the North American Free Trade Agreement, in
taking up the cause of Mexican workers against their Government and
employers.
Although his department heard the two cases over protests by
the corporations and Mexican officials, who take a narrow reading of
the labor accord, he ultimately sided with them.
American and Mexican unions accuse Honeywell and General
Electric of dismissing doznes of workers and using other illegal
tactics, condoned by the Mexican government, to foil organizers.
In a report issued tonight, the Labor Department found that
the Mexican Governemt had not failed to protect worker rights and that
Mr. Reich had no grounds for bringing the cases to his Mexican
counterparts. The Labor Department did recommend that the Mexican,
Canadian and United States Governments hold some general, lower-level
meetings on labor rights.
Unions, lawmakers and corporations looked to the report and Mr.
Reich's decision as precedents for how far the Labor Department would
go in Mexican labor disputes. The department took up these cases under
pressure frrom unions and members of Congress who demand that the
Administration prove the potency of the side accord.
Irasema T. Garza, secretary of the Labor Deptarment's national
administrative office, reported that most of the dismissed workers
accepted severance pay rather than contest their dismissals, while the
cases of a few others are pending before Mexican labor officals.
The available information, she said in her report, "does not
establish that the Government of Mexico failed to promote compliance
with, or enforce the specific laws involved." But as she also
noted, "The timing of the dismissals appears to coincide with
organizing drives at the two plants."
One labor executive said tonight that the Administration had
let down Mexican and American workers. "We're quite disappointed," said
Mark A. Anderson, director of the AFL-CIO's task force on trade. The
Administration has decided against making the most of even a limited
labor accord, he said.
American unions, having failed to convince Congress last fall
that the free trade agreement would shift American jobs to lower-paid
Mexican workers, have been redoubling their efforts to organize
Mexican plants -- especially the maquiladora, or twin plants run by
American companies near the border. Only by organizing the Mexicans,
the unions say, can they improve conditions there and safeguard
American jobs.
With benefits, American factory workers earn about $16 an
hour, while Mexicans make about that much a day, sometimes less.
Although Mexico has tougher labor laws than the United States,
American organizers say that enforcement is lax, with leading unions
captive to the Mexican Government.
So far, American unions' efforts to organize on behalf of
Mexican unions have been futile. The United Electrical, Radio and
Machine Workers complained that General Electric has dismissed about
20 union sympathizers at an industrial motor plant near Juarez,
across the border form El Paso. G.E., which says that those dismissed
had violated work rules, won a union-representation vote Aug. 24.
The teamsters complained that a Honeywell thermostat and
switch plant in Chihuahua, a few hours drive form the border, also
dismissed aobut 20 union sympathizers. Honeywell says it has been
dismissing workers solely to cut costs.
The companies and the Mexican Government said that under the
labor accord, the complaints should not have been reviewed by the
United States agency because they largely concerned corporate rather
than government conduct.
P.S. I'm really alarmed by the growing pogromist atmosphere in Israel.
I hereby offer myself in place of Mr. Waxman, if he is still alive.
No kidding. Please forward my request to the appropriate authorities.
-bob naiman
