by Tony Magliano
During the ceremony welcoming Pope Benedict XVI to predominately Catholic Mexico, the leader of the Catholic Church offered these words of encouragement to the many Mexicans who suffer numerous injustices: “Confidence in God offers the certainty of meeting him, of receiving his grace; the believer’s hope is based on this.”
But mindful that those who suffer should not hope in isolation, the Holy Father had words for all of us: “And, aware of this, we strive to transform the present structures and events which are less than satisfactory and seem immovable or insurmountable, while also helping those who do not see meaning or a future in life,”
Among those who do not see meaning, or a future in life, are many of Mexico’s workers whose suffering is largely due to unscrupulous corporations based north of their border.
Charles Kernaghan, executive director of the highly reputable Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights (www.globallabourrights.org), told me that the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has given American and Canadian corporations hugely expanded access to the Mexican market, where Mexican workers are exploited as a cheap labor force.
Kernaghan said the multinational corporations that have established themselves in Mexico, being world-class competitors, will employ Mexican workers for as little as they can get away with, place them in miserable working and living conditions, and push them to the limit to maximize production.
A typical example, according to Kernaghan, is the giant U.S. aluminum company Alcoa. In the Mexican border cities of Acuna and Piedras Negras where Alcoa operated 13 factories, over 15,000 workers earned on average less than $1 an hour assembling automotive electrical systems for U.S. companies like Ford and Harley Davidson.
During investigative visits between 2002 and 2007, Kernaghan found many of the workers subsisting in desperate poverty. He saw them living in one-room shacks made of scrap wood, old shipping pallets, cardboard and tar paper, with no running water.
He said a wage of under $1 an hour is not nearly enough to live like a human being. To survive, many workers still cross the U.S. border to regularly sell their blood!
Kernaghan added that many Mexican workers lost their jobs when they spoke out against Alcoa injustices.
Kernaghan said in 2009 Alcoa sold its wire harnessing plants in Acuna and Piedras Negras to PKC Group, which continues to export automotive electrical systems to auto makers in the U.S.
But according to local worker rights advocates, conditions have not improved. The workers still earn a base rate of about $40 a week, and they are not allowed to have an independent, democratic union.
During his visit, Pope Benedict urged Mexicans “not to yield to a utilitarian mentality which always leads to the sacrifice of the weakest and most defenseless.”
But because the globalized economic system in place overwhelmingly favors rich individuals and rich corporations, poor workers in Mexico and throughout the world have little choice but to yield to the utilitarian mentality of most American and Canadian corporations, who treat workers with less dignity than the things they make.
Catholic social teaching insists that workers deserve a living wage and the right to form independent unions.
Therefore, please e-mail U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk (contactustr@ustr.eop.gov) urging him to investigate and correct the serious wage and union busting abuses suffered under NAFTA by employees now working for PKC Group in Mexico.
Tony Magliano is an internationally syndicated social justice and peace columnist. Please contact your diocesan newspaper and request that they carry Tony’s column.
When the NAFTA act expands to include Free Access for Mexican – based Trucking Companies which hire low-wage workers driving inadequately maintained vehicles – expect a major ‘hit’ to the U.S. Teamsters Union & American Independent truckers …. so severe that it may cause a tail-spin that the traditional United States worker might not survive !