Labor: Hyundai Crisis in Tijuana id AAA12035; Thu, 16 Oct 1997 00:42:31 -0400 Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit Labor Alerts/Labor News a service of Campaign for Labor Rights 1247 "E" Street SE, Washington, DC 20003 (541) 344-5410 http://www.compugraph.com/clr HYUNDAI: CRISIS IN TIJUANA Workers overwhelmingly vote pro-union ...but will labor board accept results? ******************************************* SEE ACTION COMPONENT AT END OF ALERT ******************************************* On Monday, October 6, workers at the Han Young factory near Tijuana cast ballots in a union certification election which could end up challenging sweatshop labor practices all along Mexico's border with the United States. But don't expect an easy or a quick victory. The Monday election was a dramatic lesson in blatant government corruption, with fraudulent workers literally bused in, some having to be coached in the name of their supposed employer. Even so, the mandated voice vote was unmistakably in favor of an independent union. The elections board has up to 30 days in which to certify the results. The next month, and the ensuing months, will see a struggle between workers and their international supporters vs. the Mexican power structure and its transnational corporate allies. BACKGROUND: Han Young is a feeder factory, producing chassis for a Hyundai tractor-trailer plant on the other side of Tijuana. Hyundai, the enormous Korean conglomerate, has other divisions producing computer chips and low-end economy cars. Hyundai Precision America, based just across the border in San Diego, is the division in charge of the Tijuana operation. Hyundai accepts no responsibility for Han Young, claiming that the latter is a distinct entity. Evidence suggests that Han Young is owned by Hyundai and was created by Hyundai in order to distance itself from labor troubles -- a common scam along the border region. Whatever the financial linkage between Han Young and Hyundai, the feeder plant produces only for Hyundai. Under Mexican law, that makes Hyundai responsible for any violations of the labor code by its contractor. Troubles abound at Han Young. Health and safety concerns include disabling of safety systems on dangerous equipment, inadequate to nonexistent protective gear and lack of ventillation. Workers report loss of fingers and hands, damage to vision and lead poisoning. Pay is subminimal at $36 to $48 per week in a country where grocery prices have more than doubled in the last three years. But the core issue at Han Young is whether workers will be represented by the union of their choice. On Monday, workers voted for the STIMAHCS (Union of of Metal, Steel and Iron Workers) division of the FAT (the Authentic Labor Front), an independent labor federation representing 50,000 Mexican workers and members of community organizations. The FAT is challenging the system of pro-company unions controlled by the ruling Institutional Ruling Party (PRI), which lately has begun to lose its stranglehold grip on politics as well as labor. At Han Young, the PRI union goes by the acronym CROC. Han Young workers had never had an opportunity to elect CROC leadership, have never been consulted by the CROC and usually see CROC representatives only when they show up for their check from factory management. Whatever labor agreements the Han Young workers operate under are negotiated in secret sweetheart deals between management and CROC operatives. If, as seems most unlikely, the labor board immediately validates the STIMAHCS/FAT victory, a precedent would be set which could provide an inspiration throughout the Mexican maquiladora (assembly for export) sector. The FAT is challenging the PRI union system elsewhere in Mexico as well. The FAT recently aided the formation of a new independent umbrella labor organization, most of whose 130 affiliated unions have begun to break away from the government machine. THE EVENTS ON MONDAY: When the polls opened on Monday, all the workers are lined up and ready to vote. Even before the casting of ballots, there was no doubting the workers' preference, since all 55 wore STIMAHCS t-shirts. Staff of the Conciliation and Arbitration Board (the Mexican labor board) questioned voters one by one, to determine their right to vote. The vote: STIMAHCS 55, CROC 1. The labor board declared the polls closed. According to law, when there is a break in voters, voting must end. After closure of the polls, a bus rolled up with 32 more "workers." These included a variety of people legally ineligible to vote: management, employees hired after the date that workers called for a union certification election and some who had no employment history at the plant. The pro-union workers blocked the fraudulent voters from entering the polls. Even though the polls had officially been declared closed, labor board officials insisted that the workers allow the latecomers to vote. If not, they warned, they would nullify the election. The workers relented. Labor board officials rushed the fraudulent voters through the validation process in two's and three's. In line, some latecomers were overheard asking, "Who did they tell us to vote for?" Some could not even identify the company which supposedly was their employer. When the polls again were closed, the vote was STIMAHCS 55, CROC 33 P still a decisive victory for the independent union. Throughout, the process was observed and recorded by international monitors recruited by the Support Committee for Maquiladora Workers, based in San Diego. When officials from Gobernacion (the counterpart of the U.S. Justice Department) arrived and demanded that the foreigners exit, monitors complied rather than give the labor board an excuse of "foreign intervention" for nullifying the election results. BEHIND THE SCENES: Absent from the polling procedures was labor board President Antonio Ortiz, who resigned shortly prior to the voting. Rumor has it that his departure was forced by powers in the government, the CROC and the maquiladora owners association P all furious with Ortiz for allowing the election to take place at all. In support of that theory is the fact that Ortiz took the highly unusual step of personally announcing that the union certification election would be held. Presumably, everyone else at the labor board was too terrified of the CROC to make the announcement. On Thursday, October 9 Han Young workers held a press conference. The reported that lower level employees at the labor board are disgusted with the good old boy practices of the board and the way it allowed fraudulent workers to vote. With worker-friendly employees inside the board, officials can no longer count on keeping their maneuverings behind closed doors. POWERFUL ALLIES, FORTUNATE TIMING: The Han Young/Hyundai election is taking place against a backdrop of debate over fast track. Clinton and his "free trade" allies desperately want this legislation to go through. Fast track is more than a way to move new trade bills swiftly through Congress. It also is a strategy for keeping provisions for labor and environmental protection out of trade treaties. Backers of fast track hope to speed through several bills which will do much to make some stockholders and CEOs happy but which bode ill for workers and for the environment. Among the bills waiting in the tubes are the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI P "NAFTA on steroids"), an extension of NAFTA to Chile and the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). U.S. labor, which never wanted NAFTA, has lined up against fast track. Labor has found many friends in Congress. Both of these P heavy hitters in U.S. labor and Congressional foes of fast track P see the Han Young case as a focal point of the trade debate. Han Young workers' friends in San Diego and elsewhere are hoping that Clinton and his Congressional allies will be motivated to avoid a high-profile embarrassment in the midst of debate around fast track and that they will send the right signals to their counterparts in Mexico. Those eager to extend NAFTA do not want the Han Young situation to make the shortcomings of "free trade" public at this (of all) times. NAFTA REPORT CARD: Clinton and friends have tried to package NAFTA, GATT and other such treaties as good for consumers, good for workers and good for the economy. They also claim that free trade brings political freedoms. A look at the statistics since NAFTA's passage suggests otherwise. According to Rep. Peter DeFazio (D.-OR), "a $1.7 billion U.S. trade surplus with Mexico in 1993 (the year NAFTA passed) turned into a $17 billion trade deficit in 1996. The numbers are even worse than they look. Nearly two-thrids of U.S. exports to Mexico are Trevolving door' exports P parts that are assembled in Mexican plants and shipped right back to the United States for final sale." DeFazio continues: "The Department of Labor has reluctantly certified that more than 140,000 U.S. workers have lost their jobs as a result of NAFTA, but that's only the tip of the iceberg. Using standard employment multipliers, the huge and growing trade deficits with Mexico and Canada translate into the loss of 420,000 U.S. manufacturing jobs since 1993. As for "free trade" being a boon to political freedoms, consider the following from "Mexico: Human rights crisis," a report released by Amnesty International on September 24: "There is a human rights crisis in Mexico... Today the citizens of Mexico have no effective recourse before the law to seek redress and compensation when their rights are violated. The pattern of grave impunity for egregious crimes has progressively eroded the institutions responsible for protecting citizens' rights and security. Amnesty International has been monitoring the human rights situation in Mexico for more than two decades, and is deeply concerned about the serious deterioration that has taken place over the last three years." Nor has NAFTA proved an economic boon to the workers of Mexico,. An article authored by Abid Aslam and posted on the Internet on October 2 argues that Mexican workers have fared even worse than their NAFTA counterparts: "TThere is a belief in some quarters that U.S. losses (under NAFTA) have been Mexico's gains and that there will be gains for Chile, too' if the latter is admitted to the trade pact, says Carlos Heredia, newly-elected Mexican Congressman with the opposition Revolutionary Democratic Party (PRD). TThat's not the case.' The economist and former finance ministry official challenges the notion Tthat NAFTA (is) a tool for the United States to help other countries, that promoting trade is a way of improving the standard of living in those countries. On the contrary,' says Heredia, Tthe polarization of our country and of our economy has worsened,' as have environmental conditions. He blames the malaise on structural adjustment policies (SAPs) put in place in the early 1980s at the behest of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF), adding that TNAFTA has accelerated that deterioration.' The trade pact, like the SAPs, Thas benefitted only a small circle of people, mainly in the political and economic elites (who belong to the dollar-denominated export and financial sectors) to the detriment of the domestic market,' where most workers and consumers live." NO QUICK VICTORIES: The labor board has 30 days in which to announce the results of the Oct. 6 voting. Given the board's willingness to allow clearly fraudulent voters to participate in the polling P in full view of a New York Times correspondent and others from the media P there is little reason to hope that the board will deliver justice in the near future. A few weeks from now, the fast track debate will be over and the Han Young workers should not expect much more help from Congressional allies. It's obvious that international solidarity will be crucial to victory. The workers are strong and united. But they face powerful forces. We need to be prepared to take up this struggle for several months at a minimum. The coincidence of the fast track debate with the union certification election has involved some of the biggest players in U.S. labor in the Han Young struggle in way that is unprecedented in a sweatshop campaign. International labor rights advocates should not let this alliance slip away. On the local level, this is an excellent opportunity for community-based activists to forge partnerships with organized labor. There is talk in the air of a coming boycott of Hyundai Motors, the one division of the Hyundai conglomerate greatly susceptible to a consumer campaign. At this point, the Support Committee for Maquiladora Workers has not called for such a boycott. However, they have been talking with the AFL-CIO, the UAW and Korean labor representatives to discuss that strategy. ********************************** REQUESTED ACTION AT THIS TIME: Please send a letter to the labor board. Sample letter: Carlos Perez Astorga Secretary General Conciliation and Arbitration Board Tijuana, Baja California Mexico By fax: (011-52-66) 86-33-00 Dear Mr. Perez Astorga, I am writing to insist that the Board certify, with all due speed, the results of the Oct. 6 election in which it was well documented that the Han Young workers voted overwhelmingly to be represented by the independent union STIMAHCS and that the minority who voted for the CROC were not eligible to vote because they were management personnel, were hired after August 6 (when the union's demand for recognition was filed) or they were not employed by the plant at all. The Board should comply with its promise to disqualify ineligible voters and should demonstrate that Conciliation and Arbitration will not be complicit in attempted fraud by company management and the company-paid union, CROC. Han Young management have told the workers that the plant will close if STIMAHCS wins. Articles 434 and 435 of Mexican Federal Labor Law stipulate that companies must obtain Board permission before closing and prove that such closure is allowable in a special proceeding as defined by article 892-899. I call upon the Board to consider that the company clearly is threatening to close as a means to defy the workers' right to organize. Sincerely, [name and, if applicable, your position] CC: Support Committee for Maquiladora Workers (619) 295-5879 Peter Ahn, Hyundai Precision America (619) 209-5609 Governor Hector Teran Teran (011-52-65) 58-11-78 Won Young Kang, Gerente General, Han Young de Mexico 011-52-66-80-44-81 If you do not have access to a fax machine, please mail your letter, with 4 cc's, to: Support Committee for Maquiladora Workers Craftsmen Hall 3909 Centre Street, #210 San Diego, CA 92103 ********************************** FOR MORE INFORMATION: Contact the Support Committee for Maquiladora Workers at scmw@juno.com or (619) 542-0826. CAMPAIGN FOR LABOR RIGHTS newsletter subscriptions: Send $35.00 to 1247 "E" Street SE, Washington, DC 20003. 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