Sep 4 Global Day Of Action For Mexican Workers

Sep 4 Global Day Of Action For Mexican Workers

Defense of Trade Union Rights in Mexico
From Matamoros and Tecate to San Quintin:
• Stop the Firings of Union Organizers! • Contracts with Independent Unions Now!
• Rehire All Fired Workers with Back Pay!

Protest at Rockwell Automation in San José
Wed., Sept. 4 @ 10 a.m.
Rockwell Automation Electric Vehicle Innovation Center
111 North Market, San Jose, CA

Informational Picketing
in San Francisco, CA


Boycott Driscoll’s
Protest at Rockwell Automation in San José
Wed., Sept. 4 @ 10 a.m.
Rockwell Automation Electric Vehicle Innovation Center
111 North Market, San Jose, CA
Informational Picketing
in San Francisco, CA
Wed., Sept. 4 @ 6 pm
Whole Foods, Noe Valley 3950 - 24th Street, San Francisco
(also boycott picketing across Calif.)

Endorsed by
Sacramento Labor Council, AFL-CIO; LIUNA Local 270; UPWA.info; Sacramento Chapter, Labor Council for Latin American Advancement, AFL-CIO; and Binational Campaign Against "Free Trade," Privatizations and Deportations

For more information, contact: (916) 712-4251

Resolution in Support of Independent Trade Unionism in Mexico
[Note: Following are excerpts from the resolution adopted unanimously by the Delegates Assembly of the San Francisco Labor Council (AFL-CIO) on Monday, August 12, 2019.]
WHEREAS:
• More than 36,000 workers in the maquiladoras [export-oriented sweatshops] of Matamoros, Tamaulipas, went on strike at the beginning of the year for up to four months to demand a 20% wage increase and the promised 32,000 pesos end-of-year bonus — ultimately winning their strike, an historic victory, and winning federal government recognition of their independent union, the SNITIS, on June 27, 2019.
• What was accomplished in Matamoros quickly spread to the rest of the maquiladora plants across the entire border corridor, especially to the border town of Tecate, Baja California, where workers requested to join the newly formed SNITIS.
• In retaliation, U.S. transnational corporations in Matamoros and at the Rockwell Automation plant in Tecate fired hundreds of workers and black-listed them because of their union organizing efforts.
• Farmworker union leaders and organizers in the Valley of San Quintin, Baja California, also have been black-listed and thus prevented from getting jobs in the region, while Driscoll's Corp. refuses to break its sweet-heart contracts with its company unions (CROM, CROC and CTM).
• Mexico's new federal labor law, adopted in April 2019, calls for workers to be able to join the union of their choice without reprisals or intimidation by the bosses or local governments, as established in ILO Convention 98, also recently adopted by the Mexican Congress. Still, U.S. transnational corporations based in the maquiladora corridor and in the agricultural fields of Mexico, especially in the San Quintin Valley, continue to violate Mexico's federal labor law.
• Independent unionism is key to raising Mexico's wages and improving working conditions, thereby promoting economic development and lessening the pressure for people from Mexico (and this applies to Central America as well) to cross the border in search of the means to sustain their families; and
• Rockwell Automation (based in Milwaukee, but with an office in San Jose, CA), and Driscoll's Corporation (based in Watsonville, CA) have been targeted by a broad coalition of labor and community organizations spearheaded by Sacramento LCLAA (AFL-CIO) for cross-border labor solidarity actions on Wednesday, September 4, 2019, to demand full respect for labor rights in Mexico and for independent unionism, as stipulated in Mexico's federal labor law, and to demand that all workers fired for their trade union activity be reinstated, with back pay.
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED:
• That the S.F. Labor Council endorse and help publicize the September 4 Cross-Border Solidarity Day of Action to demand that U.S. transnational corporations — especially Rockwell Automation and Driscoll's — respect and abide by Mexico's federal labor law and that they reinstate all workers fired for their trade union activity, with back pay.
Hold the Date: September 16 March & Protest in San Francisco (and other cities) to Close the Camps and Free the Children!; Amnesty & Full Rights Now!; No Ban, No Wall; End ICE!
For more information, call 415-206-0577.