Mexico

No Sweat news

Bolshy brings you your regular round up of whats going on with the UK campaign against sweatshop labour... Mexican workers fight Levi’s at Tarrant Garments By the Centro de Apoyo al Trabajador (CAT – workers’ centre) On July 19 workers at Tarrant México – Ajalpan held a constituent assembly to form an independent union (SUITTAR, or Sindicato Único Independiente de Trabajadores de la Empresa Tarrant México). 700 of the thousand-strong workforce have joined the union. SUITTAR has now filed legal papers to obtain formal registration for the new independent union. It is common that registrations...

Mexican workers fight Levi's

By the Centro de Apoyo al Trabajador (CAT - workers' centre) On 19 July workers at Tarrant Mexico-Ajalpan held a constituent assembly to form an independent union (SUITTAR, or Sindicato Único Independiente de Trabajadores de la Empresa Tarrant México). Seven hundred of the thousand-strong workforce have joined the union. SUITTAR applied for formal registration for the new independent union. It is common that registrations for independent unions are denied because of the anti-union policies in Mexico. The most extreme violation of the workers' campaign so far has been the dismissal of seven...

Support Mexican Workers!

Facing competition from China's new capitalists, the Mexican bosses are driving down wages, imposing ever poorer working conditions and constantly violating labour rights. Workers face long hours, little or no health or safety guarantees, child labour, no freedom of association, and the violation of company Codes of Conduct. In November 2002, No Sweat organised a British speaker tour for Josefina Ponce from the Kuk Dong/Mex Mode struggle (at a Nike factory), and Gaby Cabrera from the CAT workers' centre in Puebla, central Mexico. We aimed to learn from these union activists, and help to create...

No Sweat launches £2,000 appeal: Support Mexican workers' organisation

By Mick Duncan Facing competition from China's new capitalists, the Mexican bosses are driving down wages, imposing ever poorer working conditions and constantly violating labour rights. Workers face long working hours, little or no health or safety guarantees, child labour, no freedom of association, and the violation of company Codes of Conduct. The Mexican workers are fighting back, and we want to help them. No Sweat has launched an appeal for £2,000 to fund two specific projects being undertaken by the CAT workers' organising centre in Puebla, Mexico. £1,700 will be used to pay for 15...

We want union rights, not just codes of conduct

By Mick Duncan The Ethical Trading Initiative conference took place in Westminster, London on 21 May. There was much talk of corporate responsibility, codes of conduct and good funding opportunities for NGOs. Meanwhile, a few miles south in Brixton a rather different meeting was taking place. London No Sweat hosted the first of what will become a regular series of meetings at the Ritzy Cinema with the help of Labour Behind the Label. We heard speakers from Sri Lanka, China and Mexico on the international fight against sweatshop labour. It would be wrong to completely dismiss codes of conduct...

Matamoros fight goes on

Centro de Apoyo al Trabajador (CAT, the local workers' support centre) The Matamoros Garment factory closed its doors on 24 March because of a supposed 15-day "technical work stoppage". The factory's remaining 130 workers are to be paid 50% of their wages during this 15-day period. This comes after PUMA, the German sportswear giant which sub-contracted at Matamoros, pulled production out of the factory, following an international campaign protesting at working conditions there. Agustina Garcia, leader of the new, independent Sindicato Independiente de Trabajadores de la Empresa Matamoros...

Mexico - Pile the pressure on Nike!

By Mick Duncan Representatives of the independent union representing workers at Mexmode-Kukdong sub-contracting factory, SITEMEX, have requested international solidarity support for salary negotiations that started on Wednesday 9 April. Mexmode is in the Puebla region of Mexico. Vast international solidarity helped the workers to win an independent union in the factory during 2001, in one of the most significant recent trade union battles against sweatshop working. The new union believes that this power can work once again. Mexmode workers make Nike clothing with the logos of many US...

Mexican workers take on the big brands

Workers in Matamoros Garments in Puebla, Mexico, are paid poverty wages for making expensive products for transnational sportswear giants like Puma. Workers took strike action in January to raise pay rates from (illegally low) $3.90 per day. The workers also objected to forced overtime, abuse from managers, disgusting food in the cafeteria and denial of union rights. Puma, the German-owned giant, a major contractor at the factory, heard about the dispute and panicked at a mounting wave of international support for the workers. They can cancelled their orders, fearing accusations of using...

Puma abandons Mexican workforce

By Mick Duncan Hip Hop Activists of the World is the latest group to back the struggle of the Mexican workers of Matamoros Garments, in Puebla, central Mexico. This group of workers sweated in Matamoros produce expensive clothes for companies like the well-known German brand, Puma. In January they struck, in a fight extensively covered in the pages of recent issues of Solidarity. The workers set up their own independent union, SITEMAG, filed for their union's official recognition, demanded decent pay and respect at work. The Hip Hop Artists rightly describe the workers' conditions as...

Victory for Mexican workers against Puma

By Mick Duncan, Secretary, No Sweat After Mexican workers' action against poverty-pay and anti-union management in Matamoros Garment, and a massive international campaign in support of their struggle, a victory has been won for militant, independent trade unionism. Workers' action began in January against illegal low-pay rates of US$3.90 per day, forced overtime, abuse from managers, disgusting food in the cafeteria and the denial of union rights. The sportswear giant, Puma, a major user of this sub-contracting factory in Puebla, Mexico, ran from the factory as soon as the struggle began to...

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