Super Shareware Collection/Super Shareware Collection.iso/info/nafta4.zip/NAFTA4.TXT

Text File | 1994-02-17 | 17KB | 292 lines

With the campaign to push NAFTA through heating up in the
U.S., I thought that many of you might be interesrted in this
amazingly-detailed interview [source information at the end].
It would be a great resource to download and repost on local
BBS's, to send to local newspapers, and for "letters to the
Editor"!:

"An estimated 5,000 trade unionists have been murdered in El
Salvador by death squads, etc. since 1980 [see also the recent
U.N. Report on Violations of Human Rights in El Salvador]. At
the Ford plant, in Hemofilio, Mexico [in a maquiladora], the
workers are reportedly paid 67c an hour, and one person was
reportedly killed and several injured when they tried to hold a
real election for a genuine union! Any attempt to form an
independent union which would actually bargain for improved
conditions and wages is apparently violently suppressed. In
Matamoros, where 27 U.S. companies have factories, the union
leader was arrested and imprisoned for 8 months, while
"negotiations" proceeded. In 1982, when Reagan and Bush were
pressing for the "Caribbean Basin Initiative", Bush said publicly
over and over again that "the CBI [essentially a free trade
agreement permitting Caribbean and Central American goods to
enter the U.S. duty free or at very low tariff rates] would be
the test of free trade, and that this would prove to the world
that free trade brings prosperity to the countries involved". The
CBI has actually proven an unmitigated disaster! It led to massive
job-flight from the U.S. to those regions, where wages were slashed
by up to 50% and union-busting and black-listing became rampant! So
the CBI, as a test of free trade, has been a dismal failure; and
exports from the region to the U.S. have DROPPED in value, and
their nature has been radically transformed. From 1984 [the date
of CBI implementation] to today, exports went down $1 BILLION! So
the CBI has actually HURT the economies of these countries
massively; 50% of their exports now come out of sweatshops or
free trade zones.

In 1990, full-page colour ads of a smiling women behind her
sewing machine appeared in U.S. industry magazines; the caption
read: "Rosa Martinez produces apparel for U.S. markets on her
sewing machine in El Salvador. YOU can hire her for 57c an hour...
she's not only colourful, but she's very industrious". The
same ad appeared in the same magazines in 1991, with the same
wording; but now she could be hired for 33c per hour! Her wages
had dropped in one year from 57c to 33c! The contact group listed
on the ads was CRUSADAS, "a private, non-profit organisation".
CRUSADAS is actually the SALVADOREAN FOUNDATION FOR SOCIAL AND
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, a business think tank and development group,
FUNDED BY U.S. TAX DOLLARS!  The Reagan/Bush administration gave
CRUSADAS, through USAID, $102 million; USAID, in their contracts,
instructed CRUSADAS [which has offices in N.Y., Miami and
California] to"run proactive, systematic, direct sales campaigns
in the U.S at targeted U.S. companies to convince them to go
off-shore"! USAID was directing this project, and told CRUSADAS "
to target the electronic and apparel industries, primarily in the
North and South East of the United States". CRUSADAS is not the
only group being funded in this way: the U.S. government [i.e.
U.S. taxpayers!] is funding 11 other industrial business promotional
groups for Central America, with a total of $300 billion, to take
out these ads etc. to aggressively target U.S. companies!


In El Salvador, beside the $102 million to CRUSADAS, USAID spent
$32 million to build 129 factories in export processing zones.
"Food for Peace" dollars played a part in this also; the
Salvadorean government sold food received under the FFP Program
on the open market, and kept the money: USAID then instructed
them to spend $5 million to build a 72,000 sq. ft. factory in the
San Bartello free trade zone, which a U.S. company then moved into!
USAID was not only providing the factories, but also training
workers offshore to do U.S. jobs. They put $27 million into a worker
training programme to meet the offshore training needs of export
processing zones; 50% of worker training is paid for by USAID
[i.e. the U.S. taxpayer!]. On top of that, they provided loans,
credits and insurance, etc. This happened in El Salvador, Honduras,
the Dominican Republic, Guatamala, etc. and led to a massive
migration of U.S. companies; from 1984 onward, apparel production
for export in the CBI area has jumped 700%, and today 58% of all
apparel imported into the U.S. comes from this area. This CBI
program came at a time when 2,000 U.S apparel jobs a month were
being lost in the U.S.; 500,000 U.S. textile and apparel jobs have
been lost since 1979!

So U.S. tax dollars are being used to lure U.S. companies offshore,
build them plants, train their workers, bust unions and blacklist
workers who areregarded as being "troublemakers"!

[The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is also building roads and
bridges to banana plantations in Central America "as a gift from the
American people"; and President Salinas of Mexico has asked for,
and will probably get, $5 BILLION from the U.S. to upgrade Mexico's
infrastructure to meet the transportation demands of NAFTA! All paid
for through the taxes of U.S. workers, who, in Ross Perot's
memorable phrase, will soon find their own jobs contributing to "the
sucking sound" as they join the job-drain down to Mexico!]

The ads which USAID are sponsoring in U.S. industry magazines are
meant to pit the U.S. worker against the Third World worker in
"a race to the bottom"! This, of course, is ultimately what NAFTA
is all about, too! 76% of U.S. apparel workers in the U.S. are
women, and 36% are minorities; their wages are low, $6.70 an hour on
average [$13,000 a year], and they are being pitted by their own
government, and USAID, in a wage reduction race against teenagers and
poor women in the Third World who are forced to work for 40c an hour!
All financed by U.S. tax dollars!

The Reagan/Bush administration termed this run to the low-wage track,
"Trade, Not Aid"; instead of "welfare" for the Third World, jobs
would be "created" [read, "transferred"!]. U.S. foreign aid was no
longer to be given to governments, but to the private sector, which
would become "the engine of growth in those countries" and, in
providing jobs, would provide prosperity, education and stable
governments. Sounds wonderful! Instead, it's become an investment
scheme for the rich and an indirect way for U.S. banks to cover
their bad loans to these countries, all at the expense of the U.S.
taxpayer!

735,000 workers are now employed in these maquiladoras and export
processing zones in Mexico and the CBI area; that's 3,000 companies
all targeting the United States, with a total of $14 BILLION a year
in exports to the U.S.! At business conferences in the U.S. promoting
these export zones, people are talking about adding 1 MILLION new
maquiladora jobs by the year 2,000 - an avalanche of jobs from the
U.S.! These will be split equally between Mexico and the CRI area,
and San Pedro in Honduras will be made the manufacturing capital
of Central America.

This strategy was designed by the U.S. business community, and
adopted by both Reagan and Bush. They have tremendous clout! When
a military coup overthrew President Aristides of Haiti, in Sept.
1991, an embargo was placed on Haiti. In Dec. 1991, the apparel
businesses operating there went to Bush and demanded acce$$ for
their companie$, and got it on February 5th, 1992, when the embargo
was lifted [despite the continued OAS embargo]! U.S. companies
were producing in Haiti, and they used the military coup to
destroy the unions in the maquiladora zone, to lower wages,
and to increase the hours of workers! When Aristide was in office,
wages in the maquiladoras were $2.50 a day; he was going to raise
them to $5 a day. This had just gone into the Senate to become
law when [presto!] - a coup! When the U.S. companies returned to
Haiti, they lowered wages to between 76c and $1.60 a day!

The U.S. Commerce Department pays U.S. businessmen 65% of
their travel expenses just to go and take a look at these offshore
zones in El Salvador, up to a total of $30,000! In their "Investment
Climate Report for El Salvador", they say: "businesses with
significant labour requirements should consider the positive factors
of the Salvadoran labour market, and make technology decisions
reflecting the availability of an eager supply of inexpensive labour"
[this was aimed at U.S. businesses - i.e. "Don't invest in the U.S.
- go to El Salvador and pay 40c an hour"!]. At a big apparel
conference in Miami, a group called JENPRO, the Jamaica business
development group [they receive $34 MILLION from USAID], was pitching
for offshore relocation - "no trouble with unions, 50c wages, no
taxes, etc." - and this was being vigorously supported by a Stuart
Anderson of USAID! In Miami, USAID was actively encouraging U.S.
companies to shift production OUT of the United States, and
offering funding from U.S. tax dollars! A group called CIDE from
Honduras was present, as were the Salvadorean CRUSADAS group.

In the Honduran Zipsaloma free trade zone, funded by USAID, a
U.S. company called BethForm [makers of women's under garments
for Victoria's Secrets and Christian Dior, sold in J.C. Penney's,
Sears, etc.] assured U.S. businessmen brought round by CIDE that:
"It's terrific. People are docile", etc. They have 400 women working
for them, and "no troubles whatsover". In the barbed wire-protected
human resource centre, they were told by the same spokesman, there
is a computerised blacklist; anyone ever fired anywhere in the
country for organising, for religious reasons, or for being a
troublemaker is on this blacklist! Numerous U.S. companies happily
declare the same thing down there to visiting U.S. delegations,
including Tellwood, Osh-Kosh-my-Gosh{?} [at another free trade
 zone], all reportedly confirming the existence of the blacklist
and their co-operation with it! And the computers on which the
blacklist is maintained were all paid for by U.S. tax dollars,
as was the training of the management of the zones, and the cost
of the zones themselves!

In the Sandizel zone, in Honduras, which OPIC [the Overseas
Private Investment Corporation] financed for $3.6 million, unions
not only don't exist, but the women's washrooms in one factory
have glass walls, athough the stalls and doors are made of wood,
so that management can always watch the workers, and they don't
have the opportunity to quietly meet together. The workers are not
allowed to talk to each other in that plant! And, of course, they
also have the computerised blacklist. These are gleaming,
computerised, fully-monitored factories, far in advance of any
U.S. plants!

The majority of women in one factory making sporting goods and
clothing in the Tipsaloma zone in Honduras are between 12 and 15
years old: the first thing the boss does in the morning is go down
the aisle and fondle them; if they resist, he hits them with a stick.
If they aren't working fast enough, their head is pushed into the
sewing machine, or they're forced to take the bench that they're
sitting on and hold it above their head until they collapse!
The worst punishment is to be sent home without pay for 89 days.
These workers work 54 hour weeks for $24.60! They have to travel
two hours back and forth to the zone, since they can't possibly
afford the rents nearer to them. These areNEAR-SLAVERY conditions!
Then these products enter the United States without quota and often
duty free; how could any U.S. worker compete with that? And why
should ANY manufacturer stay in the United States? There are no
benefits, safety inspections, medical plans, etc. [it costs a U.S.
auto company $10,000 for medical insurance for one of its workers;
you can buy the same coverage in El Salvador for $88, though few
companies do]. If THEIR worker rights aren't protected and improved
quickly, soon NORTH AMERICAN workers will be experiencing the same
sorts of attitudes - there's a linkage.

[In Indonesia, workers earn about 20c an hour, and are given
different coloured T shirts every day, so that if someone wearing
a green T shirt is seen in part of the factory where only yellow
ones are worn, he's presumed to be organising and fired! We'll soon
seen these kind of techniques creeping back into the U.S. and Canada].
It might be worth going back and re-reading that excellent
PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER series, entitled "AMERICA: WHAT WENT WRONG?"!]

CBS's "60 MINUTES" did a brief segment on some of these conditions
in Honduras and El Salvador a while ago; it might be worth getting
hold of a copy of that, since that story was apparently the work of
a good, objective producer. All USAID wanted to talk about [on a
hidden camera!] was blacklisting, and the USAID official in Honduras,
Scott Teller, confirmed that: "the unions would never penetrate the
zones. They run a top-notch operation in the zones to keep the unions
out - you have nothing to worry about!", in a taped phone call. John
Sullivan, Deputy Director of USAID's Investment Promotion Program in
El Salvador, operates out of the Embassy and eagerly lures U.S.
companies down with offers of factories in free trade zones, worker
education, worker vocational training, technical assistance, etc. The
zone management, he said, weeds the troublemakers [i.e. people who have
tried to form unions] out from your hirees on your behalf [using those
handy-dandy U.S.-supplied computers, no doubt!] He added: "Put the
workers on piece-rate and speed it up, you'll make more money like
that"; then he said: "And fire them every year, don't let them
build up any severance fund...the best thing to do is form a credit
association, a Company union"! These guys are working on behalf of,
and paid by, the American taxpayer, but they certainly don't seem to
have the U.S. taxpayer's interests at heart! U.S. unions DELIVERED
the story and research to 60 MINUTES, yet still had a struggle to
get it aired!

The U.S. Commerce Department has been organising conferences for
businessmen, in support of NAFTA, all over the U.S., some in
conjunction with Peat, Marwick [e.g. recently in Charlotte,
N. Carolina]. They were laughing outright there at the U.S.
government's published estimate that 5,000 apparel jobs would be
lost through NAFTA: "Listen", they said,"we're going to lose
500,000 jobs!" They urged businessmen present, in a private
meeting, to "get out of your labour, get rid of your labour,
because you're not going to compete. Go toward the high
specialties - the $3,000 dresses - or go to automation. Get rid of
your work force!"  So it's one statement for public consumption,
but a very different message in private.

At the Nestle's factory in Ontario, employees are re-negotiating
their contract. Just this past week, their union received a letter
from Nestle's Head Office saying that the union would have to do
better. They would have to scrap their contract proposal and accept
the Company's contract proposal, period, because the Nestle company
in Canada is now going to be competitive in a market with Nestle
plants in the U.S. and Mexico, and the Canadian plant is just costing
too much. So the employees have a choice: throw out the union
contract or else compete with workers making 57c an hour in Mexico
and workers in the U.S., Nestle's strategy appears to be: "listen,
fight it out: we've got four factories, one in Canada, two in the
U.S. and one in Mexico. Who's going to take the lowest wages, because
there's only going to be TWO or THREE factories which survive?". The
"race to the bottom" comes to Canada! It's happening everywhere in
North America now.

In Tiahuana, they're building a huge, modern facility to do airline
maintenance, which will have 5,000 technicians and mechanics. So
it's the high-tech as well as the low-paying jobs which are going
offshore! The biggest single employer in Mexico right now is General
Motors! Working, safety, environmental, and living conditions are far
worse, and U.S. Commerce Department people privately laugh at the
idea that Mexico will increase its wage levels to those of the
U.S:"In 17 generations!", they say [i.e. "Never!"]. The low wage
track is the accepted and ONLY reality!"

Source of this information:  CHARLIE KERRIGAN [phonetic spelling],
of THE NATIONAL LABOR COMMITTEE, EDUCATION FUND IN SUPPORT OF
WORKER AND HUMAN RIGHTS IN CENTRAL AMERICA, formed by 23 U.S. unions
in 1980. [This material was transcribed from a short-wave interview
with him by CHUCK HARDER on "FOR THE PEOPLE", broadcast on WWCR
[shortwave] on or about 2nd/3rd of April, 1993.]

                   Get working, folks!

                         Cheers!

                         John W.