In support of female Mexican maquila factory workers

The article to Work and Die in Juarez by Evelyn Nieves in 2002 shows that Juarez across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas and the 4th largest homicide capital in the world is most notorious as a place that draws tens of thousands of young women from small, poor towns to take $55-a-week jobs in assembly plants, known as maquiladoras, operated by some of the wealthiest corporations in the world -- companies like General Electric, Alcoa, and DuPont. More than 60 percent of maquiladora workers are women and girls, many as young as 13 or 14. At least 200 young women, many of them factory workers and most fitting the same description -- slim, pretty, long dark hair -- have been raped and murdered here since 1993, according to most accounts.

The Maquiladora Solidarity Network reported that on December.3rd 2008 that there was a tri-national North American Free Trade Agreement(NAFTA) stakeholder conference in Mexico with representatives from the government of Canada, Mexico and the United States addressing the Puebla case. In the Puebla case the Matamoris Garment and Tarrant Ajalpan factories violated the rights of workers imposing long working hours, health and safety violations and failure to pay wages. Although NAFTA and the North American Agreement on Labour Cooperation states that Unions should represent workers if governments havent protected their workers, no labour unions were at the Conference. In 1994 Honeywell , General Electric and Sony created obstacles toward Union representation and 18 years later the three governments working within the NAFTA agreement still had not made access available for unions to protect the rights of the employees. The three governments violated the NAFTA agreement by not letting the Unions be part of the December. 3rd meetings giving corporations an example to follow keep the unions out of their business. This leaves the worker without anyone speaking up for them to make sure they too have a voice.

Would you agree that the following proposals would provide redress to the workers of Maquiladoras, and equal rights for equal work:

-The firm only invest in a plant with a monetary policy whereby the Mexican worker can be able to be paid a basic wage that enables the Mexican workers to live with dignity.

-The firm invest only in a plant where the Mexican worker can anticipate that the factory environment will be safe in terms that the work practices are safe.

-The firm only invest in plants where the air quality in the factory will meet a minimum standard as in Canada and the United States.

-The firm only invest in plants that have any equanimity that is included by the Mexican governments.

-The firm only invest in plants that support the right to unionize

We the undersigned believe that the working people in Mexico in those plants that are funded by Canadians and Americans should have basic health and safety rights