NAFTA FROM BELOW: Maquiladora Workers Speak Out on the Impact of Free Trade in Mexico
Join MonkeyWrench Books and the Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras at A Presentation in Solidarity with the Key Safety Systems’ Workers struggle.
Key Safety Systems is a leading global producer of airbags and other auto safety systems, which has sent its production to maquiladoras such as Valle Hermoso, Mexico, just south of Brownsville, Texas, in search of cheap workers. Two workers organizing at KSS’s Valle Hermoso plant, Perla Cruz and Israel Monroy, will speak on the human costs of NAFTA-style free trade. CJM coordinator Martha Ojeda, a former maquila worker and veteran organizer, will also be present.
Cruz and Monroy will speak of the low wages, environmental pollution, discrimination and labor and human rights abuses that now characterize Mexico’s northern border. Perla was fired Feb. 14 as part of KSS’s efforts to crush workers’ efforts to build an independent union to redress these conditions.
Our lives are literally in the hands of the workers of Key Safety Systems; We can repay them by supporting their struggle for their own safety in the workplace. Let’s help each other and work together to build the real meaning of solidarity!
Wednesday, March 26th
7:30 pm
MonkeyWrench Books
110 E. North Loop
for more info or directions call: 512-407-6925
About the speakers:
Martha Ojeda is the Executive Director of the CJM, based in San Antonio, Texas. She is the primary liaison between the core grassroots committees of workers and community activists living in the communities surrounding the maquiladoras (production for export factories), and the broader network of Mexican, Canadian and US unions and NGOs that support the work of these groups. Martha was originally a production worker at a Sony Electronics plant, she was fired after helping initiate a strike for higher wages and improved working conditions. Facing threats to her life, she fled to the United States, where she was instrumental in forming the CJM in the late nineties.
Israel Monroy works at the Key Safety Systems auto parts plant in Valle Hermoso, a small town dominated by maquiladoras on the northern border of Mexico. He is a key activist and leader in the CJM's campaign to improve working conditions in this factory, as well as other local maquiladoras.
Perla Cruz was recently fired by Key Safety Systems in Valle Hermoso for being an outspoken activist on health and safety concerns and women's rights within the plant. This speaking tour is being organized specifically to build support for the CJM's campaign at KSS.