Info on Maquilas

La narcoviolencia en Juárez marcada por la excepción a las maquiladoras

25 ago 2010

Los parques industriales de las ciudades fronterizas mexicanas se han convertido en una “Zona segura” en la guerra contra las drogas

Por Bill Conroy
Especial para The Narco News Bulletin
25 de agosto 2010

Los impactantes titulares e imágenes que invaden nuestras vidas cotidianas al sur de la frontera de los EEUU puede llevarnos a pensar que Ciudad Juárez, México es una ciudad agonizante desangrándose por las mil heridas de la violencia diaria de la narcoguerra.

La ciudad fronteriza mexicana ha visto más de 1,900 asesinatos en lo que va del año y más de 6,200 desde enero de 2008, cuando la violencia escaló con el arribo de los militares mexicanos para brindarle “protección” a los habitantes de la ciudad.

Pero si Juárez en verdad está apunto de ser aniquilada por el derramamiento de sangre generado por el narcotráfico, entonces ¿por qué la violencia no está afectando a toda la ciudad—en donde 10,000 pequeños negocios han cerrado desde 2008 debido, en gran parte, a la ola de robos, secuestros, extorsiones y asesinatos que han sucedido en la ciudad en los últimos dos años y medio?

Casi siempre hay una excepción a la mayoría de las reglas, y en el caso de Juárez, el imperio de la violencia no se extiende a las zonas industriales, que son el hogar de al menos 360 maquiladoras que emplean a más de 190,000 personas...

English version
Juarez Narco-Violence Marked by Maquiladora Exception

Posted by Bill Conroy - August 22, 2010 at 7:46 pm
Mexican Border Town’s Industrial Parks Have Become a “Green Zone” in the Drug War

The screaming headlines and shocking images that invade our lives daily from south of the U.S. border might lead many of us to believe that Juarez, Mexico, is a dying city bleeding out from a thousand cuts of daily narco-war violence.

The Mexican border city has seen more than 1,900 murders so far this year alone and in excess of 6,200 since January 2008, when the violence escalated with the arrival of the Mexican military to provide “protection” to the residents of the city.

But if Juarez is truly being killed off by the bloodshed spawned by the narco-trafficking trade, then why is that violence not affecting the entire city – where some 10,000 small businesses have closed their doors since 2008 due, in large part, to a wave of burglaries, kidnappings, extortion and murders that has washed over the city during the past two and a half years?

Maquilapolis

MAQUILAPOLIS [city of factories]
A film by Vicky Funari and Sergio De La Torre
A co-production of the Independent Television Service (ITVS).
A project of Creative Capital.
This film was supported by a grant from the Sundance Institute Documentary Fund.

THE FILM

Carmen works the graveyard shift in one of Tijuana’s maquiladoras, the multinationally-owned factories that came to Mexico for its cheap labor. After making television components all night, Carmen comes home to a shack she built out of recycled garage doors, in a neighborhood with no sewage lines or electricity. She suffers from kidney damage and lead poisoning from her years of exposure to toxic chemicals. She earns six dollars a day. But Carmen is not a victim. She is a dynamic young woman, busy making a life for herself and her children.




TRW Workers need your support for the "final push" on Aug 9

Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras

AUGUST 9, 2010, WILL BE THE LAST HEARING FOR THE TRW WORKERS.
YOU CAN AFFECT THE OUTCOME OF THEIR STRUGGLE FOR JUSTICE.

YOUR LETTERS AND PHONE CALLS ARE CRUCIAL ON AUGUST 9.

On August 9, a hearing is scheduled that is the last step in the legal process of the TRW workers’ struggle. Without public pressure, the company’s lawyer could succeed at postponing the hearing once again. In the past, he has done so by asserting that the company witness is sick and therefore not available to appear. As evidence, he provides notes from a massage and therapy center.

After the August 9 hearing, the President of the labor board will have one month to review the case and issue a decision. The workers will win the case from a legal standpoint, but the TRW company could take one of the following steps to subvert justice:

Pressure the President of the labor board to rule in favor of the company.

Insist that the CTM Union President Reynaldo Garza mediate with the labor board President, thus allowing her to rule in favor of the company.

The hearing and its aftermath will be a crucial time for the w

 orkers legal case. They are prepared to mobilize to protest the company’s persistent impunity.


HERE’S WHAT YOU CAN DO:

Global Electronics Factories In Spotlight -- Occupational Health & Safety

Aug 04, 2010

Recently, a model of genuine worker participation has surprisingly emerged in China.

By Garrett Brown

Brand-name and contract electronics manufacturers have been rocked this year by a series of ongoing scandals about working conditions in the Asian plants that work day and night to produce the vast majority of the world’s consumer electronics. The worker suicides and cancer cases have called into question the effectiveness of electronics brand's elaborate 'corporate social responsibility' (CSR) programs, their contradictory business model, and the near-zero participation by workers in factory health and safety programs.

In the first five months of 2010 at Foxconn Technology Group's giant 300,000-worker electronics assembly plant in Longhua, China, 16 workers had attempted suicide by jumping off the top of tall dormitory buildings, resulting in 12 deaths and four crippling injuries, and at least 20 other workers were restrained before committing suicide. All workers were between 18 and 24 and were migrants from rural areas of western China. By the end of May 2010, at least 49 young semiconductor workers had contracted cancer -– including 32 brain, leukemia, and lymphoma cancers -– while working at Samsung’s huge electronics plants throughout Korea. Nineteen deaths have occurred, mostly to workers in their 20s. Samsung denied the cancers were work-related, but a Korean magazine reprinted an internal Samsung handbook outlining the use of at least six carcinogens at its plants, including arsine, benzene, and trichloroethylene...

General Motors invertirá 500 millones de dólares en Coahuila

8/4/2010

Casi la mitad se aplicará en la producción de un vehículo de nueva generación, anuncia
El mandatario de Coahuila, Humberto Moreira Valdés, agradece a General Motors la inversión anunciada en el municipio de Ramos Arizpe, con lo que se crearán alrededor de 800 empleos en la industria automotriz

De la redacción
Periódico La Jornada
Miércoles 4 de agosto de 2010, p. 38

La empresa General Motors (GM) anunció que invertirá 500 millones de dólares en su complejo automotriz ubicado en Ramos Arizpe, Coahuila, con lo que se crearán alrededor de 800 empleos en la industria automotriz.

Lo anterior se dio a conocer durante una ceremonia efectuada en la ciudad de México, en la que participaron Grace D. Lieblein, presidenta y directora general de General Motors México; el gobernador coahuilense, Humberto Moreira, y Bruno Ferrari, secretario de Economía, éste último en representación del titular del Ejecutivo federal, Felipe Calderón Hinojosa...