U.S., Mexican Unions Reach Agreement Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit U.S., Mexican Unions Reach Agreement By Michael White AP Business Writer Tuesday, May 18, 1999; 7:35 p.m. EDT LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Leaders of a union local representing thousands of low-wage California workers and Mexican labor leaders on Tuesday signed a mutual assistance pact aimed at curbing the strength of corporations that operate on both sides of the border. The agreement links Service Employees International Union Local 1877 and Section 87 of Mexico's telephone workers union with commitments to support one another's negotiations by picketing, distributing fliers and other actions. ``This demonstrates to the corporate world and targets that we have that our union's fingers reach across the world,'' said Mike Garcia, president of Local 1877, which represents 22,000 California janitors and other service workers. The alliance underscores a trend of cross-border labor alliances that has grown as unions try to keep pace with companies that do business in more than one country. Communications workers, steelworkers and dock workers in recent years have worked out similar agreements to join in international actions, analysts said. ``We need to change the attitude of international corporations through these types of alliances because of their anti-union policies,'' said Francisco Hernandez Juarez, secretary general of Sindicado de Telefonistas de la Republican Mexicana, parent of Section 87. He said he plans to ask his U.S. allies to send organizers into border communities to help maquiladora workers organize. The maquiladora industry, which assembles finished goods from parts shipped into Mexico from other countries, is one of the fastest-growing sectors of the Mexican economy. The agreement unites unions that have been leaders in their respective countries. Service Workers International has enjoyed dramatic growth in recent years by targeting traditional non-union service jobs ranging from janitors and home healthcare providers to doctors. Mexico's telephone workers have been influential in shaping Mexican labor policy, said Harley Shaiken, labor analysts said. ``It's a growing phenomenon. As the economy has gotten more global, unions have understood their strength depends on international solidarity,'' said Kate Bronfenbrenner, a professor of labor and industrial relations at Cornell University. The agreement isn't even the first act of cooperation between Local 1877 and Section 87 of the Sindicado de Telefonistas de la Republica Mexicana. In 1996, Section 87 members picketed Hewlett-Packard Co. offices in Mexico City to support the U.S. local's campaign to boost wages for janitors cleaning Hewlett-Packard offices in Sacramento, Calif. The Mexican local's members primarily are janitors employed by Telefonos de Mexico, the former state-owned telephone company. Other unions have forged similar international agreements in recent years. The Communications Workers of America has solidarity agreements with telecommunications workers in Mexico, France and Germany. And the Farm Labor Organizing Committee, has negotiated agreements on workplace standards in the U.S. and Mexico with Camden, N.J.-based Campbell Soup Co., analysts said. The agreement also reflects the significance of cultural and economic ties linking U.S. Hispanics with workers in Mexico. A majority of Local 1897's members are Hispanic, many of them immigrants from Mexico. Such pacts, however, carry significant risk of misunderstandings and cultural mistakes and create tension between unions, said Bronfenbrenner. ``Global solidarity only works if it goes both ways and it's sincere. It has to be mutual,'' she said. (c) Copyright 1999 The Associated Press ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytcamer-05.22.99-01:47:08-12017