[asia-apec 1725] Duro union under attack by Mexican government: letters

[APEC Monitoring Group]

De: Robin Alexander <international at ranknfile-ue.org>
Fecha: Tue, 30 Jan 2001 15:54:34 -0500
Asunto: EMERGENCY: Duro union under attack by Mexican government: letters
needed now!

Mexican Government to Hold Hearing Tomorrow Questioning Legitimacy of Duro
Workers' Union; 20 Duro Workers Fired as Fox Government Shows Its Hand

Instead of setting a date for an election in the case of Duro Bag
Manufacturing, the Federal Conciliation and Arbitration Board (FCAB) in
Mexico City has ruled that the independent union's leaders must come to a
yet another hearing on January 31st to determine if their union even has
standing to be on the ballot. According to the workers' lawyer, the FCAB
is violating its own procedures just to stall the election.

With this ruling, the new Fox administration has shed its populist mask
and revealed the true face of direct corporate rule. Despite his statement
last Friday in Davos Switzerland that, "Today I am telling the whole world
that Mexico is a great nation and that its power is in the soul of its
people who know how to struggle in the fervent desire to achieve a life
with dignity for all", and  despite his promises during the campaign to
respect Freedom of Association, Fox is doing nothing to help the workers
struggle for dignity.

In fact, he has appointed the former head of COPARMEX (the coalition of
industrial employers), Carlos Abascal, to head the Department of Labor and
Social Welfare, and it's a COPARMEX lawyer who has taken over
representation of Duro at the FCAB.

Meanwhile, last Friday night, as Duro Bag workers waited for a decision to
schedule the union election from the Federal Conciliation and Arbitration
Board (FCAB), management fired 20 workers for allegedly communicating
information to their union and for organizing. This culminated a week of
captive audience meetings in which Duro allowed the Secretary General of
the National Paperworkers Union (CTM) (the union that had made a series of
sweetheart contracts with Duro and which the independent union was trying
to replace), to shut down assembly line-by-line and take the workers to the
cafeteria to tell them not to vote for the Duro Workers Union because it
was a foreign union which wanted to take the work back to the U.S. and
close the plant. Then, at a meeting with the second shift on Friday, he
asked who would vote for the "outside" union. When all hands shot up, he
said, "This is not a threat but Alejandro de la Rosa (head of HR) is over
there taking notes, and he'll fire anyone who does." After that, they fired
twenty workers.

Actions Needed

1.      By Wednesday, please send a fax or email to President Fox with a
copy to Secretary of Labor and Social Welfare, Carlos Abascal and to
Virgilio Mena Becerra, President of the Federal Conciliation & Arbitration
Board. Sample letter below

Email President Vicente Fox from his web page either by going to

<http://www.vicentefox.org.mx/> then select Tablero de Mensajes or by going
directly to  http://www.melodysoft.com/cgi-bin/gbook.cgi?ID=fox2000&do=sign

Carlos Abascal's email is cabascal at stps.gob.mx <mailto:cabascal at stps.gob.mx>

Virgilio Mena Becerra is vmena at stps.gob.mx <mailto:vmena at stps.gob.mx>  and
fax is 011-52- 5761-0022 (but you have to say "tono de fax por favor" when
they answer).

Dear President Fox:

During your campaign you pledged to respect the Twenty Principles of
Freedom of Association, and in your speech last week at Davos you talked
about a "life with dignity for all", yet already the Federal Conciliation
and Arbitration Board is working hand-in-hand with COPARMEX and the Duro
Bag Company of Rio Bravo Tamaulipas to deny workers their legal right to a
union election or recuento for which they have been waiting for over four
months. In addition, on Friday, Duro fired  twenty workers for union
organizing, a flagrant violation of Mexican law. We ask you, how long will
the Duro workers have to wait for you to fulfill your
promises? Tell the Federal Conciliation and Arbitration Board to schedule
the recuento, to conduct a fair and democratic election in a neutral
location with secret ballot and independent monitors, and to order Duro to
immediately reinstate the fired workers.

Respectfully,

2.      We are planning to increase pressure on Duro and Hallmark with
demonstrations first for Valentine's Day against Hallmark and later at
Duro headquarters. If you can help organize a demonstration at a Hallmark
store in your city, please immediately contact Judy Ancel at
jancel at igc.org <mailto:jancel at igc.org>. We will provide advice on how to
do it, a flyer for duplication, and a press release.

3.      The Duro Workers need funds, especially now that twenty more are
fired. The constant trips to Mexico City for hearings, the hundreds of
flyers to distribute, and the gas for house calls are urgent needs. Please
send contributions made out to the "Emergency Support Fund" to The
Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras, 530 Bandera Road, San Antonio,
TX 78228. All funds raised go directly to the Duro workers.

4. Please help circulate this information as widely as possible

Robin Alexander
UE Director of International Labor Affairs
One Gateway Center, Suite 1400
420 Fort Duquesne Blvd.
PGH., PA. 15222-1416
412-471-8919
412-471-8999 FAX

Please note new e-mail address above.

Labor and related news from Mexico is reported bi-monthly in Mexican Labor
News and Analysis.  Check it out on our web site:
<HTTP://www.igc.apc.org/unitedelect/>