Zoila Cáceres, a resident of the Batahola Norte neighborhood (Managua), began working in 2010 in a free zone company and continued to do so for twelve years, until the large amount of lint from the fabric that accumulated in her lungs it sickened her to such a degree that she had to seek medical attention to try to regain her health.
A week after a doctor approved her second allowance, she was fired from the factory where she had worked for the past three years. “This is what happens in these free zones: as long as you don’t fail for a day, you are a good worker, but if you are absent due to illness, you are no longer useful for them,” she reflects.
Among the workers of companies attached to the free zone regime there is a collection of stories that have as a common denominator: an employer attitude of “complain where you want”, and “you already knew what you expected when you started working in a company of free zone”, which is explained by the absence of independent unions, or a Ministry of Labor (Mitrab) that serve as a counterweight.
“The unions authorized by Mitrab, affiliated with the government, are not responding to the demands of the workers,” says human rights defender Carlos Guadamuz, a member of the Nicaragua Nunca Más Collective, who has collaborated in the preparation of various reports on labor rights. and social security in Nicaragua.
A former union adviser adds: “What is involved is the corruption of some union leaders, who bend to the search for money and perks at the expense of the workers, whom they betray.” The specialist, who spoke with CONFIDENTIAL On condition of anonymity, he maintains that trade unionism in Nicaragua “lacks political and ideological independence.”
“Expensable” people: “We are replaced, relieved or fired”
The companies that operate in the free zone regime constitute one of the largest sources of employment in the country, and are the source of multiple complaints by workers, who denounce the violation of their labor rights, and the situation of practically defenseless in They operate because neither their unions – where they exist – have the capacity to confront employers, nor does Mitrab show interest in supporting them.
The entry into force of the Free Trade Agreement between Central America, the United States and the Dominican Republic (DR-Cafta, for its acronym in English), represented a notable boost to Nicaraguan exports of products made in companies that operate under the free zone regime, which required the hiring of a lot of labor.
The fact that demand is greater than supply represents a great advantage for employers, who can, without much difficulty, get rid of any employee they consider annoying, sick, or insufficiently productive, with the incentive that it is proven that neither the Mitrab, nor the unions, represent a reason to worry.
Ana Gómez, former promoter of the illegal Movement of Working and Unemployed Women “María Elena Cuadra”, assures that the regime chose to side with the businessmen and protect the textile industry and franchises to the detriment of the workers, ignoring labor rights, without no matter that this implies breaching labor legislation.
She knows it because she lived it, like Zoila Cáceres, or many other women and men who work in those companies. In her case, she recounts: “I came out with a cervical hernia, from working there day and night” and she was fired from her when her employers considered that she was no longer useful to them.
“When we no longer serve, we are replaced, relieved or dismissed permanently,” he revealed.
Dictatorship above, dictatorship below: “Work as long as they want”
Guadamuz considers that the passing of the years has not served to improve the situation from the perspective of the workers, but that “rather it has worsened”, in reference to compliance with labor rights, working hours, overtime pay , or maternity leave (they had many reports of dismissal of pregnant women), despite the protection given to them by law, which at the time was understood as part of the “marriage” of the Ortega government with private companies.
break that relationshipthe persistence of this regime of lack of protection for workers is explained because “in Nicaragua, all the resources of the State, be it for issues of security, labor, health, etc., are oriented to keep Ortega in power”, so that “the suppression of other rights, including the right to elect and be electedcan be the subject of negotiation”, when the time comes.
This has generated a situation in which employers feel completely free to dismiss someone without consequences, while workers react with an attitude of resignation, conditioned by the fact that they already know that it is not worth claiming for dismissal, nor Look for Mitrab to file a complaint.
Jemima Ticay, an operator fired from the company where she worked, recounts: “I was fired unjustifiably, because some people didn’t like me. I know this because it wasn’t the Human Resources people who fired me, but the order came from one of the offices. They only told me: “Sign. Sign, and there we will call you for the liquidation”.
Although she is convinced that she has been the victim of an injustice, she refrained from seeking union or legal advice, because “those cases occur in the free trade zone and obviously, one cannot go to complain because they tell you ‘you already know what abides when it enters a free zone’. Sign, and you can work there, as long as they want”.
It is a story very similar to that of Mercedes Castrillo, who worked in the packaging and folding area of a Chinese-owned company, located in the Las Mercedes free zone, where they made jean-style jackets.
She remembers that one day “for no reason” she was fired. “They just called me at the office and told me it had been cancelled,” she recalls. Despite being her right, she decided not to seek legal help, after she saw how two of her friends were fired who entered at the same time as her, and although they sought to make her labor rights prevail, none of her received an answer. . So she “didn’t want to look any further; I didn’t want to investigate further, ”she says resignedly.
And my INSS butt?
If getting sick while working for a company in a free zone is a problem, it is even more so when you get sick and go to the hospital that provides services to the rest of the company’s personnel, they do not attend you because they have not been given the INSS butts, nor have they affiliated him with a health service provider institution.
This was what happened to Estela Medina, a resident of the Grenada neighborhood in Managua, who began working in a free zone company on September 1, 2020. On December 18 of that same year, when more than three months had elapsed, and a half, he fell ill with appendicitis, but he did not get medical care from the hospital that provides services to the company, because it had not been affiliated, so he had to go to a public hospital.
When making the consultation, the company told her colleague that she was not entitled to a subsidy because her contract was temporary. “A lawyer told me that I could take the case and sue the company, but we didn’t want to get into that problem, and we left it that way. We knew that what they had done to me was unfair, but here it is not worth fighting for your rights, because one rather loses out, ”she lamented.
Antonio Suárez, also from the capital, confirmed on his own that being a man does not make much difference when working in one of these companies, and that “working in free zones is always very complicated,” denouncing “verbal and psychological abuse.”
She narrates that several times she saw how some co-workers were called to attention for taking more than a minute in the bathroom, “but it was not a polite call for attention, but rather strong, treating people very badly.”
“Amelia”, an operator who works in a company located in the “Las Palmeras” industrial park, in Masatepe, indicates that some supervisors do mistreat them, and even if the owners do not do it directly, many workers complain about this mistreatment before the representatives of the company, but nothing happens.
“What happens is that the workers are told that it is about staying active; If they don’t put pressure on us, we won’t produce, and they even tell us that it’s for our own good, so that we can earn more, but the truth is that there is a payment limit. It is not true that if you break your life working they will pay you more. There is a salary ceiling, ”he explains.
Fired for complaining or giving an opinion
In addition to this limitation, two other women who asked to be identified as “Sofía” and “Ester”, and work in the industrial parks of San Marcos and Masatepe respectively, commented on the annoyance that their colleagues experience when they overexert themselves to work long hours. extra and earn more, with the result that half of what they earn in an eleven-hour night shift remains with the State, as labor income tax (IR).
“There they earn C$2,300 and now that they are removing the IR I get practically C$2,000, including what the INSS takes from us, and there everyone kills themselves working,” said “Sofía”, while “Ester” said that for every night shift they are paid C$700, which is added to the basic of C$1,900, but “sometimes there is disagreement” when they discount the IR payment, because “what they take from IR is half of what is earned in those extra shifts ”.
In contrast, another worker who works in a company based in Niquinohomo, and asked to be called “Flower”, shared that she had heard it said that “Koreans yell at you, mistreat you. They require you to work ”, but after eight months of working there, her experience is rather positive.
“Overall, I felt pretty good the time I worked there. I never received abuse. Yes, you work under pressure, but the same pressure makes you achieve your goal. If you don’t want to work so much, you lose the incentive and only earn the basic one,” she assured, recalling that she received a subsidy that covered 50% of the cost of transportation.
Wilmer Martínez worked for seven years in a free zone company in Managua. All the time as an operator, “because they never gave me the opportunity to improve the position”, so at some point he decided to leave it, until his former supervisor asked him to return to work, because they needed someone with his experience.
On the second day after he returned, they asked him why he had sued the company, which is not true, so he asked them to show him the alleged lawsuit, but they did not, and although they told him to go back to work, on the third day day they canceled it, based on the alleged demand, of which they never showed him papers.
“That day they ran several people. To some, for having an opinion, for complaining about the supervisors, or for not agreeing with the company’s administration,” he says, explaining that he did not go to the union, because “not all companies let you form or belong to unions, and the Mitrab is no longer like before, which supported the people. I have an acquaintance – he asserts – who was told that it would be better for him to take advantage of the settlement they were giving him ”.
