Thanks to Dan Labotz, editor of Mexican Action News and Analysis  for the information contained in the footnotes.

Summary of Article:  In 1992 the UE entered into a "Strategic Organizing Alliance" with the Frente Auténtico del Trabajo (FAT), an independent Mexican labor federation. Our Alliance is an effort to build a new kind of international solidarityfocused on organizing.  We joined together with the goals of organizing, educating, promoting contact, and building cross-border solidarity between rank and file workers employed by the same transnational corporations in the United States and Mexico; promoting the organization of independent unions; protecting the human and labor rights of Mexican and U.S. workers; and working together to improve wages, benefits, and working conditions on both sides of the border. The vast majority of workers in maquila plants are women, and much of our work emphasizes the development of skills and full participation by women.

This article describes the two phases of work by the Strategic Organizing Alliance.  The first phase involved the initial agreement between our organizations, targeting  plants, several border campaigns and filing complaints under the labor side agreement of NAFTA.   The second phase involved a refocusing of the organizing work, establishment of a workers’ center in Cd. Juarez, development of a tri-national organizing and solidarity strategy directed at an auto parts manufacturer, as well as worker to worker exchanges, a cross-border mural project and a variety of other educational and fund-raising efforts.

The Problem: the Impact of Neo-liberalism and Globalization on U.S. and Mexican Workers Has Been
Devastating

The economic misery and devastating health and environmental hazards faced by workers on the U.S.-Mexican border have their origins in neo-liberal economic policies which fostered the integration of our economies and which pre-dated NAFTA by many years.  Over the last decade alone, the number of maquiladora factories along the U.S.-Mexico border has grown to over 4,000 plants and the number of workers has increased from 100,000 to almost one million   On the average, every month 5 new maquiladoras are established in Mexico. Most are textile, electronic or chemical and manufacturing plants. The total number of maquiladoras is now 3,403: 710 in electronics; 915 in textiles; 106 in food; 67 in leather and shoes; 384 in furniture; 236 in chemicals; 226 in automotive; 197 in services; 52 in toys; and 510 in other areas.  In 1995, 465 new maquiladoras were established; in 1996, 548, resulting in 100,000 new jobs. This was from an investment of 871 million U.S. dollars.  Exports from this industry amount to between 35 and 36 billion dollars, or one third of Mexico's total foreign sales. (Patricia Muñoz Rios, "Se establecen 5 maquiladoras cada mes en el país," LA JORNADA 7 March 97.). This maquiladora
work force is overwhelmingly female and is poorly paid.

A 1993 study by the Inter-Hemispheric Resource Center estimates that U.S. corporations moved up to 180,000 U.S. jobs to Mexico during the previous twelve years, primarily to take advantage of low wages and poorly enforced environmental controls south of the border.de Desechos Tóxicos," EXCELSIOR, 4 april 1996.)  Since the passage of NAFTA, U.S. companies have continued to move south at a rate of nearly one a day.   Although it clearly understates job loss, by December of 1997 the U.S. Department of Labor’s Trade Adjustment Assistance Program had certified that more than 150,000 jobs had been lost due to NAFTA-related imports and plant shut-downs.    This number is undoubtedly low as DOL denied certification in over half of the cases where petitions were filed; the Economic Policy Institute had previously estimated that the number was over four times that reported by the DOL.

Yet, even this massive influx of jobs has not solved the crisis faced by Mexican workers. Real wages in Mexico fell by 60% in the 1980s; the December, 1994 devaluation resulted in another 40% plunge in the value of the peso. Today, the minimum wage is approximately $3.00 a day   The Program of Cooperation with Mexico 19962001 of UNICEF, the United Nations Childrens' Fund, reports that about two million children less then five years old suffer from malnutrition. The problem is worse for Indian groups where 35.8% of the children are malnourished. (Fabiola Martínez, "Sufren desnutrición 2 millones de ninos," LA JORNADA, 10 March 1997.)  The Mexican National Institute of Nutrition reports that 50,000 children in the Valley of Mexico metropolitan area (Mexico City and its suburbs) suffer from malnutrition. (Alejandra Bordon, "Alerta: 50 mil niños sufren desnutrición," REFORMA, 14 March 1997.) .  Meanwhile, the destruction of small and medium sized Mexican firms, exacerbated by NAFTA and the subsequent devaluation, has left millions of Mexicans either unemployed or marginally employed.

Until 1990, membership in the major labor federations in Mexico such as the CTM and CROC carried with it  mandatory membership in the ruling party, the PRI. This is still effectively the case. Because of government domination and corruption, the "official unions", as they are known, are undemocratic and generally provide little in terms of benefits for their members. For example, “ghost unions” and "protection contracts" are prevalent both in the interior and in many border cities.  Prior to the time workers are hired companies will often purchase contracts from one of the official unions.  The workers will have no idea a union exists and the contract will remain in a drawer and will be brought forward in the event that the workers attempt to organize.

Although Mexican labor laws are generally much better than those in the US and appear to provide ample protection for workers, government hostility renders them virtually meaningless where workers are attempting to organize independent unions.  The Mexican government has enormous power to intervene in the labor movement, to remove and replace union leaders, to declare strikes "illegal," to militarily seize work places, to grant or withhold legal recognition, and to delay the proceedings by which workers can change union representation.  Basic human rights such as free speech and association are frequently violated with impunity.  In the border area, where the government has assured special "protection" to the maquila plants, the violation of workers' rights is particularly notable.

Along the border, the intricate relationship among unions, political parties and government again distorts the perception of worker power.  The border cities of Matamoros and Reynosa are virtually 100% organized by “official” or government dominated unions which provide little in the way of protection to workers.  And there is no mistaking the position of the maquila owners farther to the west, in Ciudad Juarez.

A sprawling city of some 1.2 million people, Cd. Juarez is a kind of maquiladora success story.  The fast-growing city is home to 235 maquila plants, many of them state-of-the-art facilities, employing more than 175,000 worker, many of whom live in underdeveloped neighborhoods without paving or utilities.

Employers like General Electric have continued the strong, anti-union tradition that distinguishes Cd. Juarez.  Even the "official" unions are unable to claim representation rights at more than a few plants, and there has never been a successful drive by an independent union.  In the face of extremely harsh conditions and a viciously anti-union atmosphere, workers have developed a tradition of using wildcat strikes to address the worst conditions.

The challenge which has confronted independent unions in Mexico for more than half a century is disheartening in itself: how to effectively organize in the face of opposition by employers, official unions and the government.  When you add to this the issues of globalization, the decimation of national industry and the imperative to organize transnationals, the work ahead appears daunting indeed.

But in situations of crisis there are also opportunities.  In the dusty streets and sleek, modern plants of Cd. Juarez, an independent Mexican labor federation and progressive U.S. union confront a status quo of low wages, demeaning working conditions and corporate control.  The organizations are the Frente Auténtico del Trabajo (FAT) and the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE).

At a General Electric-owned motor production plant jointly targeted by UE and the FAT, union organizing by the FAT and solidarity by the UE set the stage for the first labor complaints filed under the North American Free Trade Agreement and Mexico's first-ever secret-ballot, union-representation election. Although the company won that election, the unions have not abandoned Cd. Juarez and its workers.  As a step toward changing the anti-union culture of Cd. Juarez, the FAT opened a workers' educational and legal assistance center in that border
city.

Building Real Solidarity

The UE-FAT Strategic Organizing Alliance is possible because both labor organizations share a tradition of independence and a history of militant struggle and grassroots democracy.    A federation of unions, cooperatives, farm workers and community organizations, the Frente Auténtico del Trabajo possesses more than three decades of experience in creating alternatives to the status quo.  The FAT is steadfastly independent of Mexico's "official" unions, government, and church.  "When we begin an organizing campaign," says Benedicto Martínez, a national FAT leader, "it is with the knowledge that we are taking on not only the company, but the government, and official
unions as well."

 FAT-affiliated unions represent workers in more than half the states of Mexico in a wide variety of industries, including textiles, garment, shoemaking, rubber, auto parts, agriculture and construction.  Although modest in size (the total membership is approximately 50,000), the FAT has an influence which greatly exceeds its size due to its principled determination to create independent, democratic unions under extremely adverse conditions.  Over the years the FAT has provided crucial and organizational support to many parts of the independent union movement formally outside the federation as well as to democratic currents within the official unions.

The FAT was a key founder and leading participant in the Mexican Action Network Against Free Trade (RMALC), the coalition of more than 100 Mexican organizations which opposed NAFTA, and which continues to promote alternatives to such commercial agreements.

 Opposition to free trade as conceived and promoted by transnational big business in its own interests provided the
crucial, initial link across the border between UE and the FAT.  The Pittsburgh-based United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE) unites a diverse membership, from assembly workers and welders to social workers and scientists, on the basis of working together in a democratic, rank-and-file union.  The union's commitment to democracy is encapsulated in its slogan, "The members run this union."

Although affiliated with the CIO in its early days, UE has steered an independent course for nearly half a century.   When a corporate official accused UE in the early Eighties of being "out of step," a UE leader retorted defiantly, "We're in a different parade, marching to the beat of a different drummer."

UE often seemed to be in a parade of its own with regard to trade and international issues.  When other unions preached "buy American," UE focused attention on U.S. corporate investment overseas.  As corporations like GE sent thousands of jobs south of the border, UE refused to blame Mexican workers, recognizing that such a condemnation only allowed U.S. companies to avoid responsibility.  UE calculates that some 10,000 members have lost their jobs as U.S. corporations shifted production to Mexico.

Initially UE and the FAT worked together in a cross-border campaign against their governments' approval of NAFTA.  Inevitably, discussions led to a new kind of cross-border solidarity that backed high-sounding phrases with deeds.   In the "Strategic Organizing Alliance" created by UE and the FAT in 1992, the two organizations agreed to target transnational corporations operating in Mexico that have a bargaining relationship with UE in the U.S.   For both organizations, the alliance was founded on a kind of principled self-interest, with each recognizing that the members'  interests would be best served in making common cause with potential allies across borders.

 Although organizing remains key, the alliance also came to involve grassroots education, building solidarity by romoting contact among rank-and-file workers, especially those employed by the same transnational corporations and industries in Mexico and the U.S. The UE-FAT alliance also means promoting the organization of independent unions; protecting the human and labor rights of Mexican and U.S. workers; and building the foundation for trade unionists to work together to improve wages, benefits, and working conditions on both sides of the border.

Five years on, UE's commitment to the day-to-day work of building real solidarity is still derived from its focus on the big picture.  Responding to questions from members as to why UE regards international solidarity work as so important, the union's general secretary-treasurer, Bob Clark says the answer is simple.  "We live in a global economy."  After first hearing that expression ten years earlier as a rank-and-file leader negotiating with the Allen-Bradley Co., Clark said, he quickly discovered that what it really means is "cheaper labor" -- the ability of bosses to get the same work done for less, here, or anywhere in the world.  UE has been, and will remain "front and center on this question," the union officer declared.

Both the UE and FAT recognize that when conditions facing workers are tough, women bear a disproportionate burden. Over the years the UE has fought vigorously for the rights of women.  The UE was also the first industrial union to elect a women as one of its top officers, and today women hold significant elected and appointed posts within the union, including General Counsel, Director of International Labor Affairs, as well as positions on the Union's General Executive Board.

The FAT shares the UE's perspective, and at its 1993 Convention initiated a discussion which led to an ambitious
women's project.  The FAT has also elected an extremely impressive woman, Bertha Luján, as one of its three top officers, has created a women’s organization within the framework of the FAT to increase the visibility and participation of women, and has provided the initiative and support for projects in both Central and Northern Mexico. In 1996 both organizations made great strides in our internal work with women.  The FAT organized its first national women’s conference and for the first time the UE and FAT exchanged delegations of rank and file women.  The second women’s meeting took place at the end of 1997, and additional women’s exchanges during 1997 and 1998 deepened the relationships which had previously been established.  In 1998 the FAT began two major national campaigns focused on women, and held a week-long training conference for women in leadership positions in the various sectors and geographic regions of the organization.  Two women from the UE participated, and the women from the FAT are currently reproducing that training for women in their own areas.
 

Making the Road as We Walk

The work of the UE-FAT Strategic Organizing Alliance can really be viewed as occurring in two phases.  During the
initial stage we formed the Alliance, chose the Cd. Juarez/Chihuahua area as the focus for our organizing activity, selected target plants, evaluated them and initiated two organizing campaigns. When workers in both plants were fired, together with the Teamsters union we filed the first complaints under the Labor Side Agreement of NAFTA. The complaints focused attention both on the egregious company violations and the deficiencies in the labor side agreement. They also paved the way for subsequent cases which focused attention on the problem of interference by the Mexican government in the union registration process. Although this phase was invaluable in terms of developing the relationship between our organizations and evaluating the conditions on the border from an organizing perspective, the lack of a union culture and the fierce opposition by the companies and Panista government led us to conclude that an alternative to a plant by plant organizing approach was needed.

During the current phase the FAT and UE shifted the focus of the organizing work, expanded both the organizational and educational components, and worked on building infrastructure to support our work financially and in terms of solidarity. There is also a strong emphasis on leadership development to ensure full, meaningful participation by women.  We believe that all of our projects illustrate our commitment to exploring new approaches which are founded on a rank and file perspective.

The heart of the UE-FAT relationship is organizing, and this is will remain true in the years ahead.  This work now
includes an organizing team based in Mexico City, a tri-national organizing project, and the workers’ center (CETLAC) in Cd. Juarez.   The organizing experience obtained by the Alliance in Cd. Juarez had led to the conclusion that it was necessary to establish a workers center to educate workers about their rights, provide legal assistance designed to promote the development of workers' organizations, and to consistently put forward a different vision of how unions should and can operate.

After several long years of planning and fundraising CETLAC opened its doors.  On September 28, 1996 FAT hosted the official inauguration in Cd. Juarez with some 120 Mexican, U.S. and Canadian unionists and other supporters in attendance.

The program opened with a panel discussion on the effects of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) on the workers of all three countries. Speakers pointed out the decline in employment, the deterioration of wages, but also noted NAFTA had led unions to create new international relationships.  There were also cultural presentations: a bi-lingual poem by noted author Benjamin Alire Saenz and a one woman dramatic reading about maquila workers.  A second panel focused on international labor solidarity.

"We have a new era of international labor solidarity," said Bertha Lujan of the FAT, "as shown in the workertoworker, and factorytofactory approach of the FAT and the UE, as well as in new approaches to organizing working women."   Although the Mexican Telephone Workers Union (STRM) and the Social Security Workers Union were members of the Congress of Labor, both unions had come to know the FAT through their participation in the Foro Group;    Benedicto Martínez, General Secretary of STIMAHCS and a member of the national leadership of the FAT, was elected as one of seven vice presidents of the new organization.  His election represents a recognition of the FAT's role throughout the Foro process. both sent representatives to the CETLAC inauguration.  Their presence the year before would have been unthinkable.  In connection with the inauguration of the workers’ center, Professor Dale Hathaway wrote a short history of the FAT which was published by the UE in April of 1997.

The initial work of the Center involved dealing with the administrative and logistical necessities of getting a new
organization up and running, establishing relations with other organizations, and organizing a class schedule and attracting maquila workers to the classes.   It now has four full time staff people who are hard at work conducting classes, working with maquiladora workers and striving to provide an alternative vision of how trade unions operate.   In addition to their regular work, last Spring CETLAC co-hosted a labor symposium with the university of Juarez which featured Nestor de Buen, Graciela Bensusan and Arturo Alcalde, some of the foremost labor authorities in Mexico.   More recently, they conducted an intensive training for organizers in the border region.   They have developed some excellent materials and have exciting plans for the coming year.

Our most significant organizing campaign in 1997 involved the tri-national alliance around Echlin, a transnational auto parts manufacturer.   That Spring, unions from the U.S. and Canada which represent workers at organized plants and representatives of the FAT’s metalworkers’ union gathered in Chicago to pledge their mutual support in negotiations and organizing.  The FAT was the first union to run a campaign.  At an election where fifty out of three hundred workers had been fired, where workers had to vote out loud, and where 170 armed thugs had been brought in the night before, the outcome was no surprise.   But what was new was that the FAT is part of what is now an alliance of ten unions from the US, Mexico and Canada which represent workers at the same transnational, and which have pledged to support each other in negotiations and organizing.   The FAT was simply the first union to run a campaign, and to call on the Alliance for assistance.     Among the things we did was file complaints under the labor side agreement of NAFTA which were signed by some fifty organizations from all three NAFTA countries in both the US and Canada, as well as by the AFLCIO, the Canadian Labor Congress, and the newly formed National Workers Union (UNT) . It was the first time that labor federations from any of the three countries had
participated in a complaint under the labor side agreement of NAFTA.

Bob Kingsley, UE Director of Organization led off the US hearing with a powerful statement in which he explained, "We formed this Alliance in the belief that we cannot allow workers in our three countries to be pitted against one another in a race toward the lowest labor standards. Instead, we intend to use the strength of union solidarity across national borders to protect ourselves from corporate exploitation across those same national boundaries."

An excellent decision recommending ministerial consultations was recently handed down by the U.S. National
Administrative Office and we just received a strong decision in the associational rights part of the Canadian case; a decision on the occupational health issues is expected early in 1999.  At the time this article is being written, we do not yet know the result of the consultation process.

 It is important to emphasize that we view our work as a binational partnership which benefits workers on both sides of the border.  In this context, it should be noted that one of the demands in the Echlin campaign was that the company sign a code of conduct which would apply to plants in Mexico, the U.S. and Canada.

 Similarly, although the UE has had occasion to support the FAT in a number of campaigns, this too, is definitely a  two way street.  The FAT provided critical support for a successful UE organizing campaign in a Milwaukee foundry.  At the UE’s request, a rank and file activist from the FAT traveled to Milwaukee for two weeks in December to accompany UE organizers. In meetings with the workers, who were predominantly of Mexican origin, he was able to speak from his own experience in telling them that the UE is a democratic union, unlike the “official” unions in Mexico.  More recently, Benedicto Martinez, one of the FAT’s national coordinators, attended a UE convention.  While at the convention he joined workers in Chicago during the first day of their strike and met with workers at another plant who had an election scheduled for the week following the convention.  That election also resulted in a victory!

 Our cultural and educational work has also moved forward.  On the artistic front, labor muralist Mike Alewitz from New Jersey and community muralist Daniel Manrique Arias from Mexico City produced terrific murals at the FAT’s headquarters in Mexico City and at the UE District Hall in Chicago with a common theme of cross-border labor solidarity.

Although planning and fund raising for this project also took several years, the production of both the Mexico City and Chicago murals occurred in 1997.  The muralists met in Mexico City in the Spring where Alewitz was the principal artist on a mural entitled “Sindicalismo Sin Fronteras” (Trade Unionism without Borders) in the FAT’s auditorium and Manrique on a mural entitled “Marcha Por la Autogestion” (March for Self-Management) in the area used for celebrations.  The inauguration was timed to coincide with the FAT’s national meeting on April 5th and couldn’t have been better, with hundreds of workers, artists, and intellectuals and an appropriate dedication.

In the Fall, three young muralists from the Chicago Public Art Group assisted Manrique in Chicago on a mural entitled Hands in Solidarity, Hands of freedom; Manos Solidarios, Manos Libres.  Meanwhile, Alewitz painted a mural in commemoration of the UPS victory at Teamster City, several blocks away.  The inauguration brought together a wide variety of organizations and individuals to focus on some of the problems facing workers and immigrants and generated such energy and enthusiasm that we have little doubt that we will continue to see the impact of this project in the months ahead.

The UE is the only union in the United States to employ a labor cartoonist on staff, demonstrating the union’s recognition of the importance of art within the labor movement.  Nevertheless, this project represents a bold new approach: uniting U.S. and Mexican artists, labor and community struggles, and viewing art as a way of moving our work forward and reaching new communities at the same time.  Thanks to Steve Dalber of Labor Beat in Chicago, a half hour video documents the production of the Mexico City and Chicago murals and provides insight into our work.

UE and the FAT continue to use worker-to-worker exchanges to deepen understanding and relationships on both sides.  These exchanges demonstrate that the most effective way to educate workers in the United States and in Mexico -- and to motivate them to educate others -- is through direct contact with each other.

Instead of the larger size of the five previous delegations, over the past few years we have generally organized more frequent exchanges of a smaller size, where workers stay in particular cities for a longer period of time. Again, there was an emphasis on women.

On one recent trip two women from the UE spent three days with their sisters at the FAT’s women’s center in  Leon, accompanied them during the  second national women’s meeting, and remained for the FAT’s National Congress.  As expressed by Marianne Hart: “The experience was overwhelming... both in terms of what I learned, the breadth of the work the FAT does, and their commitment to organizing.  On a personal level I was able to share very personal experiences and feelings with women from the FAT because they were so open and generous. There were no walls between us. This experience actually made solidarity without borders real for me.”

The experience has had a similar impact on the Mexican workers.   Juan Sauza, a rank and file worker from a
cooperative just outside of Mexico City that makes window glass observed: “I learned that although a nation may be very powerful it does not mean that the people don’t have a lot of problems.  It is only by getting to know people like the brothers and sisters in the UE and others in the US and Canada that we can really begin to work together.”

Over time we have also developed an extensive solidarity network in the U.S.  This network is composed of local unions and other organizations, and of activists who support our cross-border work through small financial contributions, through targeted letter-writing and petition campaigns, by hosting delegations, and in various other ways. More recently, organizations have been working with the UE to develop geographical bases of support for the organizing work of the FAT.

The UE has also established an international web page, which can be viewed at HTTP://www.igc.apc.org/unitedelect/.
Since January of 1996 author Dan LaBotz has edited the Mexican Labor News and Analysis, which is published electronically every two weeks.  It focuses on labor and related events in Mexico, and is an excellent source for Mexican labor and related information in English.  In January of 1997 we were named “Labour web site of the week!”

 Perhaps most significant, the UE and FAT have developed an excellent relationship based on mutual respect trust and an innovative organizing model which may serve as an example to others in the labor movement.
 

Conclusion
 

Given the growth of transnational corporations, it is imperative that we begin to really think about how to support the work of unions in other countries. If we face our common employers together, we can succeed in improving wages and benefits everywhere.  However, if we permit the transnationals to pursue a low wage strategy and play us off against each other, we share a future of common misery.

Our work with the FAT represents one model of how two labor organizations can benefit from working together.  Our relationship has worked for a number of reasons.  We share a similar organizational approach: a common commitment to building democratic unions which are controlled by our members.  In this sense, the UE principle of rank and file unionism is strikingly similar to the broader concept of “autogestion” or self-management that the FAT applies throughout their organization.  Second, both organizations are pragmatic, accustomed to working with limited resources, and neither is bureaucratic.  This has allowed us to move forward rapidly, evaluate the work as we proceed, and make changes where warranted.  Third, our work involves real, important project with tangible results.  Fourth, we have come to know and really like each other as people, trade unionists, and as part of a movement for workers’ rights.  Last, and perhaps most important, our relationship has from the beginning been based on mutual respect and over time has become firmly based on mutual trust --a product of working closely together over time.

There can be no doubt that this has benefitted our organizations, and has inspired many other locals and activists to
participate with us or through their own initiatives.  We welcome that participation, as we believe that the future of our labor movement depends on it.  Together we are creating the road upon which we are walking.  Adelante!