Alcoa Threatens Its Mexican Workers: 'We Can Hire Three Hondurans for Each

[Robbien]

NEW YORK, July 13 (AScribe Newswire) -- Alcoa workers in Mexico, manufacturing auto parts for export to the U.S. earn a base wage of just $1.21 an hour, trapping them in deplorable living conditions. In Piedras Negras, many Alcoa workers sell their blood plasma twice a week in order to eke out an existence. In Acuna, Alcoa workers live in primitive one- and two-room cinderblock huts, lacking windows and potable water.

In the race to the bottom in the global economy - and moving from NAFTA to CAFTA - even these wages are too high and these living conditions too extravagant. Alcoa has shifted 2,500 jobs to Honduras and is now threatening its Mexican workers, "We can hire three Hondurans for each of you Mexicans." Alcoa is trying to slash wages and benefits in Mexico by 25 percent. Alcoa workers in Honduras earn 68 cents an hour. Like their colleagues in Mexico, they have no rights to freedom of association or to organize. Anyone even suspected of doing so will be fired and blacklisted.

Another multinational, Lear, already has 5,000 auto parts workers in Honduras, and plans to add 3,500 more jobs in a joint venture with Hyundai. The Lear workers earn just 65 cents an hour, face mandatory pregnancy tests, need permission to use the bathroom, face constant speed-ups, and live in poverty. Any worker asking for her rights will be fired.

. . .

Arnecom, a joint venture led by the giant Japanese corporation, Yazaki, has 3,000 auto parts workers in Nicaragua earning just 41 cents an hour, who are at this moment the target of an illegal union-busting drive-which the Nicaraguan Labor Ministry appears to be unable to stop. To get a job at the Arnecom factory, the workers have to parade naked before management to show they are "fit" for the job. On July 6, four of the newly-elected independent union leaders were fired.

Arnecom has also set up a pilot project in Haiti, where they can pay 30 cents an hour.

http://www.ascribe.org/cgi-bin/behold.pl?ascribeid=20050713.101342&time=11%2056%20PDT&year=2005&public=1

[leftofthedial]

1. DAMN capitalists

[SmileyBoy]

2. Disgusting.

These fucking corporations will do anything evil to squeeze out a few more pennies. This is greed, people. This is pure, unadulterated GREED.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

3. Brave New World.

Every nation, including the US, can be a 3rd world nation. That's what they want, too. The New Feudalism.

[SammyWinstonJack]

23. When we are all reduced to third world wages who is

going to be able to afford the products these GREED PIGS sell? Clearly they aren't thinking that far in the future, are they?

[ulysses]

4. I'd *really* like to hear from the DU free trade apologists

on this.

[Indy Lurker]

17. I'm NOT a free trader, but I do work in manufacturing

And I can say most compaines / industries don't want to go out of the country.

Sure there are a few that do it out of greed, but most are not.

You also have the problem of customers like Walmart and the auto makers squeezing every penny out of the manufactures.

The problem is when when one company does it, the rest have to follow or die.

And usually it's the crappy company that goes first. They are poorly run, and can't make any money on a level playing field, so they move their crappy ways to a low cost labor country.

As far as conditions go in these poor countries, they are terrible, but that's what makes them poor.

If the choice is between starving, and making $1 per hour, I'd choose the $1 an hour.

As strange as it may seem, slave wages are an improvment for many.

That dosen't make it right, but moving the jobs back to Mexico, would leave these poor people worse off.

Frankly, I have never seen the downside in restricting trade. I know you lose some exports, but as long as it's more than offset by limiting imports, it seems like a winner to me.

I'm told in about 4 years, China will start selling cars in the US for $5,000 each. If we don't have better trade polocies by then were doomed.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

22. Most free-trade apologists aren't really

Because they still want to keep them damn latinos out of the border.

If every free trade agreement had to include free transit of people (a la EU) things would develop much differently.

[no_hypocrisy]

5. At this rate, corporations won't be happy until we've resurrected

workhouses in the tradition of 19th Century Britain (Dickens).

[bullimiami]

8. tell me how this is not as bad as dickens already.

they are virtual slaves.

[jmowreader]

30. No workhouses. The companies won't stand for them.

You open a workhouse, all of a sudden you're a landlord in addition to being a...uhh, is there a nice, liberally-acceptable way to say "slavedriver"? One of those.

It's much cheaper to:

* petition George the Dumber to eliminate the minimum wage and the overtime laws, then when you get both...
* drop wages to $2 per hour
* increase the workweek to 75 hours
* fire anyone who complains or is late to work
* then make sure to leave plenty of shipping crates out behind the factory for employees' use. Six or seven nice big crates put together make a home with a living room, a kitchen, a dining room, a bathroom and three bedrooms. Just perfect for twelve or thirteen employees, plus their families, to live in.

[sadiesworld]

6. I'm not seeing the light at the end of this tunnel.

Maybe one of our resident free-traders can cheer me up. :eyes:

[ulysses]

7. don't count on their presence here. n/t

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

9. Kicked and nominated

[zalinda]

10. Okay, I don't know if I'm a free trader, but

I'll give it a shot. Corporations/companies have forever taken advantage of their workers, there is not one era that you can point to where this hasn't happened. They will continue to do it until the government slaps them down. That's where the problem lies. If every government on the planet had minimums that a corporation/company had to adhere to, then, and only then will things get better. Corporations, especially must reduce expenses, so that their bottom line looks good to their investors. If the investors started to pay attention to what their investments do, that would also be helpful.

Also, some of the wages look like it would be awful according to our standards, but in reality, may be their minimum wage and is sustainable. Now, before anyone starts yelling, I'm not saying that $.30 an hour is livable. But, for some countries, making $5 and hour there would be like making $20 an hour or more here. Just keep everything in perspective. Usually the harsh treatment of workers is not company policy, but a foreign supervisor that has let power go to his head. Does that let the corporation/company off the hook, of course not. You always have to shine a light on injustice, but more importantly, you have to work to reign in the injustices.

zalinda

[mikehiggins]

11. Nah, its too easy

writing a snarky response to your post won't solve anything.

To me, I generally consider things such as were reported in the article heading this thread as being actively, consciously evil.

Love of money is the root of all evil, whether it is done by individuals or by companies. Capitalism, at root, is an evil system that will inevitably collapse when the last exploitable resource is exhausted.

Then, Soylent Green.

[Strelnikov_]

13. I Think The Collapse Will Come When A Required 'Nutrient' Becomes Limited

And that nutrient is cheap oil. I think peak oil will bring an end to globalism, and probably capitalism, since contracting energy supplies will not permit growth.

[ulysses]

12. if their wages keep workers from having to sell their blood to survive,

maybe then we can talk about sustainability.

They will continue to do it until the government slaps them down.

Right. That's why initiatives like NAFTA and CAFTA are such bad ideas.

[rman]

14. "but in reality, may be their minimum wage and is sustainable"? --

- "no potable water", "one- and two-room cinderblock huts".

Sure, such wages can be "sustained" as long as the representatives of the people side with corporate interests instead of with the people they supposedly represent.


Are you not aware that according to those who support the various *FTA's and "Globalization", things such as Worker Unions and Environmental Protection Laws are considered to be "trade barriers" that have to be removed?
In spite of this, directly or indirectly this so-called "free trade" is supported by all western nations - primarily because these 'details' are hardly ever mentioned in the western MSM.


In the mean time the powers that are delegated to large corporations by means of these FTA's (which are created by organizations that are initiated by corporate interests), supercede the powers of national governments. Can you say "corporate rule"?

for one example: google NAFTA Metalclad


It is not sufficient to say that 'governments need to set minimums that a corporation/company to adhere to'.
The only way to correct the situation is for us to elect governements that will set those standards, and for us to not support anything or anyone that opposes this.

[knitter4democracy]

18. I think you need to go there and talk to people.

In college, I did some mission trips, and one of the places I went to was Nicaragua. The only place in the States I saw that came even close to the poverty I saw there was on the Hopi Reservation, not something we should be proud of.

On our trip, we stayed with families, not in hotels or anything like that. They would give us the mattress (1" thick foam, that's it), and we were the ones in luxury, sleeping on cement and tile floors on the mattress. We gave them money for our upkeep, and one family confided that it was the best they'd all eaten in a month. I felt so guilty.

Go down there and see how these people live. Go to the Dominican and have a family try to talk you into adopting their children so that they have a chance at a better life. See how these people are breaking their backs (literally) so that we can buy more crap and then throw it away. It'll change your mind.

[ulysses]

15. .

:kick:

[bvar22]

16. Fair Trade NOT Free Trade

"FREE TRADE" has become a mantra, and many use it to END any discussion. I believe that this is a cleverly crafted "meme" that has been successfully marketed by the Corporatists using our CorpoMedia propaganda network. Even John Kerry used it to end a discussion in the Primary Debates when asked about outsourcing.

Many proponents argue that FREE TRADE is INEVITABLE. Globalization and the InterNet cannot be stopped!
This is completely BOGUS. Globalization is NOT some NEW THING that is a product of the InterNet. Globalization started when the first primitive man/woman gathered up the stone tools he/she had crafted, journeyed to the next cave, and traded them for some food. Globalization has been happening for thousands of Years and has NOTHING to do with the InterNet. The InterNet makes it possible to access information; it does NOT make it any easier or inevitable to trade goods and services. It does not even make it easier to transfer capital. Wire Transfers have been around for longer than 1/2 century.


The stated GOAL of the FREE TRADERS is to "Remove the Barriers to Trade!" What they fail to mention is that those "Barriers to Trade" were in EVERY case put there for a reason, and that reason is ALWAYS to protect something worthwhile. What the FREE TRADERS really want to do is remove ANY obstacle limiting the ability of their Corporation to increase PROFITS for the owners by any means possible.

The FREE TRADERS are always quick to brand someone a "PROTECTIONIST" if they dare to question the sacred IDOL of Free Trade. Some things are WORTH protecting. PROTECTIONISM is NOT necessarily a bad thing especially when protecting one's family, protecting the ability to earn a decent living for LARGE segments of a nations Workers, protecting the Environment, protecting the cultural assets of a civilization, or protecting a nations natural resources from predatory Corporations!!!

In those respects, I AM A PROUD PROTECTIONIST, and it is time to debunk the myths, broken promises, and outright LIES being marketed by the "FREE TRADE for EVERYONE" salesmen!

[GreenPartyVoter]

32. You said it!

[kittenpants]

19. kicked & nominated

[TWiley]

20. Next they threaten the Honduran workers ....... we can hire 3 children

for the cost of one of you.

Doesn't anyone think that this behavior on the part of US corps could have anything to do with terrorism in the world?

[Lydia Leftcoast]

21. Or Haitians

Or Sudanese refugees

Or maybe we can find a place that allows outright slavery.

The multinational corporations are actually preventing a rise in living standards by luring people from the farms with promises of jobs and then abandoning them when they become "too expensive," i.e. approach wage levels that would improve their way of life.

I'd love all "free" trade advocates to read Confessions of an Economic Hitman. I'm about half way through it, and just in the parts I've read, I've learned that the whole international system of "foreign aid" and "multinational investment" is even worse than I thought it was, and I thought it was pretty bad before.

[Tommymac]

24. Not just farm workers...

They lured tens of thousands of workers here in the US out of other fields in the 90's to become hi tech specialists - and are now abandoning them in favor of outsourcing to cheaper labor markets.

The tactic is used in all areas and all coutries - greed knows no boundries.

[TWiley]

25. I genuinely believe that corporate "morality" is the root cause

of terrorism. They enslave, poison, pollute, cripple, maim, and kill without repercussion.

If they behaved that way on US soil, then we would likely be designing "terrorist" attacks.

[bvar22]

26. Corporations have NO SOUL, nor should they!

Corporations are wonderful tools to pool productive resources and efficiently transport goods to market. Genuine competition will produce higher quality goods at lower prices for the consumer. Genuine competition will ensure that profits are kept at a reasonable level. The problem is that the people who OWN Corporations HATE genuine competition.

There are some MAJOR problems inherent in this system. Corporation are Paper Creations that exist solely to make money for their investors (period). Corporations HATE competition, and will seize ANY advantage to eliminate the competition and corner a market. Unless restrained, the last Corporation standing wins it ALL. Since Corporations are Paper Creations, they have NO SOUL. In pursuit of profit, a Corporation will even seize a town’s water supply as the default collateral on a usurious IMF loan, and then SELL DRINKING WATER at gouging monopoly prices to thirsty 3rd World people who formerly drank for free. That’s not right.

For healthy Corporations to exist within our communities, they NEED regulation and public accountability. Since corporations are paper creations that have no soul, they must be forced to do certain things.

*Corporations must be forced to be environmentally responsible.

*Corporations must be forced to pay fair, living wages.

*Corporations must be forced to provide Health and Retirement benefits to their workers and the families of their workers.

*Corporations must be forced to allow LABOR collectives.

*Corporations must be forced to provide a Safe and Healthy Working Environment.

*Corporations must be forced to pay fair compensation to those it harms.

*Corporations must be forced to observe fair hiring and labor practices.

*Corporations (especially those that use the natural resources of a nation) must be forced to dedicate a percentage of their profits to Humanitarian and Community benefits (Healthcare, Education, and infrastructure).

*Corporations must be forced to observe FAIR TRADE and PRICING practices.


The reason that Corporations must be forced to do the above things is that NO Corporation will do them on their own. And that is OK and as it should be AS LONG AS there is an effective regulating agency that ensures FAIR competition and a LEVEL playing field. Without that regulation, it is a race to the bottom. The most cold-blooded sociopath WINS. "FREE TRADE" as it is currently being marketed by the CORPORATE OWNERS is a slickly marketed SCAM to AVOID ALL REGULATION and OVERSIGHT. There is plenty of evidence available about the effects of unrestrained Corporatism:

*US History 1870-1929 (Some regulation was applied by T Roosevelt in the early 1900s)

*The deregulated Savings and Loan Market of the 1980’s

*The deregulated Energy Market in the Western US in 2001

*The Mexican NAFTA disaster
http://www.aflcio.org/issuespolitics/globaleconomy/ns04192001.cfm

http://www.democraticunderground.com/articles/05/04/28_cafta.html

http://bernie.house.gov/documents/opeds/20040127181128.asp

http://www.heureka.clara.net/gaia/nafta.htm

[Tommymac]

28. Wow. Excellent post.

Thanks! I am archiving it to my pc for my future reference. You are da bomb!!!!


:applause: :woohoo: :patriot: :yourock:

[TWiley]

29. FANTASTIC ! Absolutely ! Great post.

If this was a thread all by itself, I would nominate it for the greatest page. You are soooooooooooo right on.

Why not consider posting this as it's own thread? I feel it is something that must be discussed.

The republi-craps want to legislate the "morality" of the worker while reducing regulation on business. I feel that the time for the discussion of "corporate morality" to begin.

We should be legislating the morality of those hoods. They should not be legislating our morality for us.

[dcfirefighter]

27. I'm a free trade advocate

Though I suppose most other free-trade advocates wouldn't call me that. While it might be a FTA, it's not really free. When those folks don't have any alternative, there isn't a labor market, and it's not free trade.

Communities in the US fight each other to sweeten the deal to get a factory to locate at their home town. Protectionist trade measures aren't helping the hondurans, or the mexicans or the haitans. This should be fairly easy to see.

The more difficult realization is that protecting one industry in the US hurts every other industry in the US, and everyone who is not an owner of that industry.

That being said, the companies listed are despicable, and should be boycotted. Hell, Alcoa laid off my dad.

[Blue_Tires]

31. ttt n/t

[Toots]

33. Don't know anything about Law in Mexico but here Green Cards are a must

Those people might need government authorization in Mexico as well. Mexicans may not be aware either.