The labor struggle is against a monster with three heads: Julia Quiñónez

Arturo Cano / VII

Newspaper La Jornada
Monday, August 1, 2022, p. 6

Last Friday, July 29, the Ministry of Economy (SE) reported that Mexico admitted the request for review, presented by the United States within the framework of the trade agreement, for the alleged denial of freedom of association and collective bargaining in the company VU Manufacturing, which makes parts for car seats in Piedras Negras, Coahuila.

The story of the fifth complaint filed via the T-MEC Rapid Response Mechanism had begun a month and a half earlier, when workers at the plant, where there is no union, were called in groups to the dining room.

There they met a dozen delegates from the Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM) who, in short, told them that they had been invited by the company and that they would soon sign the collective bargaining agreement.

With a slide presentation, the cetemistas showed the future benefits: discounts in a party room, pool passes, low-cost glasses and discounts on water service fines (thanks to the efforts of the cetemista councilman). They also made their main offer: we are the only ones who do not collect union dues.

Of course they did not talk about salary increase or the importance of the collective contractsays Julia Quiñónez, leader of the Border Committee of Workers (CFO), a former maquila worker who has been organizing union work on the border for decades.

They thought it was easy, but there were already many workers who were trained and they began to question why the company was getting involved in union matters.

The workers had begun to organize discreetly more than a year earlier, aware of the usual firing tactic of the leaders.

The appearance of the CTM accelerated the process.

150 signatures were collected very quickly (just over 400 work in the plant) and proof of representativeness was requested. Surely the CTM is going to do the same, because they are looking for newcomers, and quality people, those who have more commitment to the company.

For these purposes, the CFO has an alliance with the Liga Sindical Obrera Mexicana, which Quiñónez describes as a new confederationas a principle that no external person comes to do things for the workers.

for being rowdy

After the application was submitted, Quiñónez says, the plant was visited by a group of US officials, led by labor attaché Luis Pablo Solorio. The complaint was supported, but they did about 39 face-to-face and virtual interviews with workers. The complaint proceeded because there was sufficient evidence of the violation of rights.

Previously, the workers and the CFO had documented the retaliation of the CTM and the company. The activist says that a worker was fired for having questioned the cetemistas and that a worker was held for two hours in an office: “They told her ‘it’s okay, if you don’t want the CTM don’t sign, but don’t make a fuss’”.

The CTM federation is led by Tereso Medina, who heads, among others, the defeated union at the General Motors plant in Silao. The local leader is Leocadio Hernández Torres, whose son, of the same name, is a PRI councilor in the Piedras Negras town hall.

Last Friday, July 29, after Mexico’s acceptance of the investigation request, the company received a visit from officials from the federal Ministry of Labor.

Parallel to the conflict, and with the argument of the slowness of the productive chains caused by the pandemic, the company had entered into technical stoppages partial, and most working people were sent home on half wages. This is for being rowdyslipped the managers.

labor peace Coahuilan

Until today, Quiñónez has problems with her Social Security number because she registered with a year older to be able to work in a maquila, when she was fifteen years old.

Her family came from Durango when she was a child. Her parents wanted to cross the border. Fortunately they couldn’t leave and here we stayed. She, her parents and her brothers were all maquila workers.

– What do you remember about that time?

I experienced violence in every way. In a company where I still worked on the application, the date of the last menstruation had to be noted down, and there was a humiliating examination by a male doctor.

When asked about his career, Quiñónez usually says that his fight has been against a three-headed monster: the government itself, which for many years allowed violations of workers’ rights; charro unions and companies.

What has changed with the labor reform?

-There are many challenges. Here in Coahuila the government belongs to the PRI and they continue betting on the labor peace which means nothing more than keeping people down.

The VU Manufacturing case has united the forces of the region against the workers who want an independent union. The activist points out that the local media seek to minimize the conflict and that the municipal presidency supports the CTM. The company boasts that it has the full support of the CTM, the state government and the conciliation board; It’s like uniting all the forces to crush us.

The CFO maintains a fundraising campaign for workers at VU Manufacturing, a company based in Michigan, who have seen their incomes reduced.

A group of workers went to see the municipal president, Norma Treviño (PRI), who promised them pantries. The next day, those who arrived with the provisions were the delegates of the CTM who, naturally, presumed that the cetemista alderman had managed them.

the precious stones

Quiñonez appreciates the break fostered by the new labor legislation, particularly with regard to the participation of women.

The starting point is not simple: Here the compañeras are the ones who are always more active, always organizing, but when it comes to choosing someone for the board of directors, they generally choose the compañeros, because they say that, that they have more time, that they have fewer jobs at home.

To face this reality, the CFO has developed strategies such as the one bearing, by the way, the letters of a precious stone, GEMA (Gender and Empowerment of Women for Action), which proposes that the compañeras are really aware, trained on their rights, so that they are protagonists and not just used to cover quotas.

In these spaces, Quiñónez refers, the workers are asked what their dreams are, what they would like to see change and for all women in Mexico. The answers are usually: My dream is that my children get a career or that my family is well.

Namely, we see that women are always thinking of others, of the family, not of themselves. But we have proven that if a woman is fine, everything around her is fine. The same companies would benefit if they had a certain physical and emotional tranquility.

Faced with the idea that among working people there is a passivity result of long years of corporate control, Quiñónez bets on the little achievements: A woman who won’t let her supervisor yell at her won’t let her husband yell at her either. We are not going to achieve change in an entire union if we don’t start with changes at home..