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FROM EXPLOITING MEXICAN WORKERS TO THE DETRIMENT OF U.S. WORKERS
JOIN TRW WORKERS AND ALLIES MOBILIZATION & ACTIONS
ON SEPTEMBER 16 ERNESTO LIZCANO, a TRW worker from a maquiladora in Reynosa (across the border from McAllen, Texas) will attempt to meet with TRW leaders at
TRW headquarters in Livonia, Michigan. The Coalition for Justice in the
Maquiladoras is coordinating a day of action and phone-in to support
TRW workers.
***
Let’s add a brick to the road toward international solidarity.
When
illegal working conditions are permitted in U.S.-owned factories in
Mexico, it gives companies leverage to withdraw benefits and lower
salaries of workers in the United States. Since labor laws are not
effectively enforced in Mexico, we are stepping in to demand
justice.
***
When: September 16th·National Call-In at 10 am (EST)
How: Protest in front of TRW headquarters, or anywhere in your community in support of TRW workers’ demands
Where: TRW headquarters, 12025 Tech Center Drive, Livonia, Michigan 48150
CALL AND WRITE: TRW
Executives on September 16th at 10:00 a.m.
and throughout
the day supporting workers’ demands:
- John C. Plant, President and Chief Executive Officer TRW Automotive Phone: 734.855.2600. Email: John.plant@trw.com
- Neil Marchuk Exec. VP for Human Resources, Phone: 734.855.3871 (office) 734.748.0676 (cell) 734.855.2473 (fax) Email: Neil.Marchuk@trw.com
- John Wilkerson, Senior Communication Manager Phone: 734 855 3864. Email: John.Wilkerson@trw.com
Call
and write to President Barack Obama 202-456-111, 202-456-1414, Fax 202
456-2461 condemning NAFTA’s failure and demanding Labor and Human
Rights and Environmental Protection, Fair Trade, Food Sovereignty and
Environmental Justice (sample letter below)
***
Call and Email Information
• TRW refuses to recognize and negotiate with the TRW Worker’s Coalition,
insisting that the workers are adequately represented by an
“official” union, which is in fact corrupt and has failed to stand up
for the workers' rights.
• TRW has closed a plant and is relocating the workers to a former warehouse far from where they live.
• For workers who make less in a week than most U.S. workers make in a day, the added cost of transportation is a major burden.
The company will provide transportation for only three months.
• Many of the workers have reason to believe they have been blacklisted and will be unable to find employment in other maquiladoras. This is a typical practice. Full details at http://coalitionforjustice.net
William Jungles, CJM Board Member- Latin American Solidarity Committee of the Western New York Peace Center, Buffalo, NY
***
Background:
TRW is denying workers their legal rights. According to the Workers’
Coalition lawyer, TRW is arguing that due to the economic crisis, TRW
does not have money to pay the severance payments that TRW owes the
workers and TRW is insisting that the workers be relocated from the
plant in TRW Del Norte Industrial Park to a plant on the other side of
the city, Reynosa Industrial Park. The company’s request is not
in good faith because in the Reynosa Industrial Park plant workers are
making lower salaries than in the TRW Del Norte Industrial Park; the
collective bargaining there is different from what they have; there is
not sufficient space in the Reynosa Industrial Park factory for the
relocated workers; and there is not adequate transportation.
TRW
is engaging in extortion, blackmail, and is undermining the legal
process. The TRW Human Resources representative is talking to friends
of the workers who have a legal complaint against TRW, and doing so
outside the formal legal process. She is asking what the needs
are of workers in the Workers’ Coalition and then using this
information to persuade them to abandon the legal case. She is offering
Workers’ Coalition members money and telling them that if they accept
this deal they will not be blacklisted because TRW will provide them
with a letter of recommendation, and they will be called back to work
when TRW regularizes their production.
SAMPLE LETTER TO PRESIDENT OBAMA
Barack Obama
President of the USA
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
info@messages.whitehouse.gov
Dear Mr. President,
The NAFTA trade agreement has failed to meet the expectations of
economic growth and development. Instead, NAFTA has increased
unemployment, economic instability and insecurity, poverty and
environmental injustice in the three countries of North America.
Multinational corporations such as TRW, which is a US corporation based
in Livonia, Michigan, have profited from exploiting cheap labor, thanks
to free trade agreements. After many years of phenomenal profits,
corporations are now laying off workers. In the case of TRW in Mexico,
they are laying off workers without the severance payments that the
workers are owed by law.
Trade agreements are about much more than trade. Trade agreements must
have mechanisms to address and resolve the social consequences they
create.
We believe that, despite the economic crisis, now is the right time to
renegotiate NAFTA and address immigration reforms.
The evidence of NAFTA's failure is everywhere - people are suffering
the real consequences of unregulated and irresponsible free trade
policies.
We call on you to investigate and regulate multinational corporations
such as TRW, which is violating workers' rights and operating with
impunity in Mexico.
We also urge you to uphold your commitment to address immigration
reform and renegotiate the NAFTA trade agreement immediately.
Respectfully,
[Your Signature]
Support TRW workers’ struggle on September 16th at 10:00 a.m.
Demand justice from TRW headquarters and President Obama
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