Buenas Noticias

In our time here on the border we have been working with Ed Krueger, a minister, community organizer, and passionate advocate for justice.  For the last 30 years, since before I was born, he has been organizing with women in northern Mexico spreading the “Buenas Noticias” or “Good News” of workers rights (already laid out in Mexican Labor Law) to the people of the region.  At nearly 80 years old Ed has dedicated a long life to activism serving missions in Latin American, working with the UFW, and most recently running this organization called “Comite de Apoyo.”   Carolyn and I have been honored to bear to witness his work.

We crossed the border last Tuesday, snaking through the industrial parks of Reynosa Mexico where huge billboards advertise the products being built in big gray factories running on either side of the highway: LG, Emerson, Brunswick, Zennith, Kohler, Eaton, the names look familiar and I think of my cell phone sitting in the bag on my lap.  When I bought it I remembered to ask about radiation levels, about the warranty, about the rebate—I did not remember to ask where my phone had been assembled, nor where the packing foam was produced (dangerous work that results in many steam related injuries), nor how much the workers were being compensated.  I did not think about it until the moment we drove past the LG maquiladora (or foreign owned factory) and made our way into one of the surrounding colonias (unincorporated housing developments).

This neighborhood, like dozens of others in the city, house some of the thousands of workers who come to northern Mexico to work in factories like LG where they will make between $1-2 an hour.  Tight square houses stand shoulder in this new development, the nicest I have seen in Reynosa.  The houses are identical except for the laundry hanging out front on makeshift clotheslines. I feel huge as I walk toward the house and am sure that if I pressed myself against the front  I could reach across and touch the outer walls on either side, but I resist the urge as a young woman beckons from the front door inviting us in.  She has an infant in her arms while a 2 and 3-year-old dart around her legs.  She sends them to play at the neighbor’s house and the girl complies, leaving her brother behind.  He is curious and hides behind the sofa watching as our meeting starts.

The woman, we will call her “Carla”, is a “Promotora” (or promoter) of worker’s rights.  She has been working with Ed for several years and while she already works a 48-hour a week job in a maquiladora, she spends her free time learning about Mexican labor law so she can advocate for her rights (and those of her fellow workers).  Carla presents us with case reports, each carefully handwritten (2 copies) with the vital information highlighted in bold yellow.  She goes through case by case, explaining to us the injustice she saw (or heard about), how she turned to the law to find support, how she brought the policy to the attention of the employer and ultimately (in many cases) how the injustice was rectified.  There were other cases, ones still open, that she discussed eagerly with Ed to get his second opinion.  In one case, women at the factory had to go through a metal detector to get into work.  For many, their under wire bras set off the detector.  These women (many as young as 16) were told to remove all of their clothing from the waist up for inspection.  Many of the women were very uncomfortable and Carla wondered if this would constitute sexual harassment.

Late in the meeting Carla’s neighbor made her way over and told us about the factory she used to work in.  51-hour weeks with no overtime compensation, only one 15 minute break for the entire shift, and if you refused to work extra hours or change your shift (say from day to middle of the night because it would leave your kids home alone) you were fired immediately.  Ed took down the name of the company and details– he and Carla would look into it later.

After leaving we met up with another promotora, we will call her “Pearla”.  She is the only full-time organizer for Comite, traveling from one neighborhood to the next by bus, listening to people’s stories. She takes us first to a house where a couple live with their 9 year old son.  The husband was laid off from his job last year during the economic recession.  He had worked in the kitchen of a maquiladora for years and was surprised when he was told he no longer had a job.  According to Mexican Law, if you are laid off the company must compensate you according to the length of time you have been employed with them– in addition to paying out unused vacation time, sick days etc.  When he was told he no longer had a job the company offered him an amount that he knew to be far too low.  He and his wife, having heard of Pearla, consulted her about the situation.  She advised the man not to sign anything and not to accept a check until it was for the appropriate amount.  They worked for months, fighting for meetings, conciliation and arbitration,  each time insisting upon the amount this man knew he deserved.  After four months the company finally agreed to compensate him appropriately, a sum 6 times higher than their original offer.  Many of his co-workers, unable to hold out without some sort of compensation for their families to live on, did not wait through the months of negotiations and were not compensated fairly in the end.  This gentleman and his wife explained how grateful they were to have learned about the process.  When asked how this process had changed his thinking he explained that he felt empowered to stand up for himself and his family.  He also felt aware of how the company attempted to wear workers down, threatening that if they did not take the money offered they would get nothing.  He said he would never again trust blindly in what management told him.  He has the tools to protect himself now and is willing to fight for just treatment.

At the next house the family (Mother, Father and teenage son) had all just arrived from work.  They insisted we sit on the only available couch with the only available fan pointed at us.  The husband was sent with an empty coke bottle to a local shop to get it refilled and cold drinks were poured all around.  Each member of the family shared the details of their work experiences.  The wife works at a place with no transportation, no cafeteria, no toilet paper in most of the bathrooms, low wages and insufficient lunch breaks—she hates her job but goes each day to contribute to the family’s finances.  The husband works at Emerson and expressed that his work was different, they got lunch included, transportation, potable drinking water and coffee.  He was very happy to work where he did and seemed content to picture himself there for years to come.  I couldn’t help but think that Emerson was smart to implement these simple measures to so drastically improve workplace satisfaction. The son was working at another factory and trying to pay his way through school.  He said he would be an engineer in five years and could make many times what his parents were paid.   As we sat in the blazing heat of their small home listening to the details of family finances, I was struck by the reality that this is how Ed and the promotoras have done three decades of activism—one story at a time, sitting on couches or perched in doorways drinking coke from Styrofoam cups and listening to people who have taken a leap of faith by inviting them in.

This work is not something easily captured in glossy promo materials or a regular training schedule. There is no website, as most of the people working in the maquiladoras have no computer.  The promotoras do not pass out pamphlets at factories or protest on the sidewalks outside the big buildings as this could endanger the livelihood of the workers, many of whom desperately need this income.  They do not arrive with food, clothes or toys for the kids—they come only to talk—case by case, home by home, person by person spreading the “Buenas Noticias” of Mexican Labor Law—and in so doing transforming the community through empowerment and hope.

Photo:  Ed (in the very front) with some of the Promotoras at a gathering we attended this Saturday!