[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 139 (Thursday, September 29, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: September 29, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                                 NAFTA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. ROEMER). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of February 11, 1994, and June 10, 1994, the gentlewoman from 
Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) is recognized for 30 minutes as the designee of the 
majority leader.
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, this evening I would like to place in the 
Record information that is not available in the nation of Mexico, or at 
least not able to be placed in the press, and the purpose of my special 
order this evening concerns the North American Free Trade Agreement 
[NAFTA] and, as we promised, we would provide information to the 
American people as we saw this trade agreement implemented.
  We have heard about the so-called benefits of NAFTA, and there has 
been quite a campaign in this country since its passage last year and 
implementation starting January of this year to try to convince us that 
it was all good for us. Well, nobody seems to be talking about the 
millions of people, ordinary Americans, and Mexican workers and 
farmers, who have seen none of the benefits of NAFTA, and tonight I 
would like to speak on behalf of them and give a human face to this 
trade agreement.
  The real side of the NAFTA story needs to be told. Let us call it the 
big picture. In fact, since NAFTA's passage America's historic trade 
advantage with Mexico has declined by one-third already this year. That 
is compared to past years when we had a much greater surplus. At the 
same time investment flows have been leaving our country and going to 
Mexico at a much faster pace. That means investment that could have 
occurred in this country but in fact has been moving south. Foreign 
investment has expanded in Mexico by over one-third, with over 60 
percent of that new investment coming from our country even though here 
in our Nation we have one of the worst savings and investment rates in 
the world. The number of factories which have already left the United 
States this year for Mexico and the number of United States workers 
left in their wake is a untold story.
  According to the Department of Labor and the NAFTA trade adjustment 
assistance program, already our country has lost over 224 more 
factories to Mexico. That is one factory a day since NAFTA's passage 
and over 8,000 more of our citizens are out of work because of NAFTA. 
And in fact, if you look at what has been happening with all of this 
investment in Mexico and the expansion of plants down there, what has 
been happening is the continued development of an export platform, 
goods being manufactured there and then shipped back into our country. 
And some people would tell us that all this would be good because in 
fact the Mexican people would earn more money and they would be able to 
buy the goods that they are making, except what do the numbers tell us 
for this year? The numbers tell us that the productivity of the Mexican 
worker has been going up at skyrocketing rates, increasing by 64 
percent just this year. And their wages? Well, their wages have been 
cut by another third. In terms of real buying power today they have 
less than they did a decade and a half ago.
  The environmental mess at our borders grows every day, and the 
problems associated with even greater numbers of Mexican citizens 
apprehended at our border, due to trade policies that ignore people, 
only increase. From October of last year to June of this year more than 
730,000 Mexican citizens were apprehended by our United States Border 
Patrol attempting to gain entry into our country, more than ever 
before. The political instability, largely caused by poverty in Mexico, 
and the lack of buying power looms a serious challenge for long-term 
stability on this continent.

  NAFTA truly has been a bad deal for ordinary Mexicans. Just ask them. 
Poverty has grown for 40 million Mexicans over this last year, 
especially those being thrown off their land, while the 24 most wealthy 
Mexican individuals, billionaires, saw their wealth increase by over 
100 percent. On the other hand, the 24 most impoverished municipalities 
in Mexico have on average an illiteracy rate of over 67 percent, with 
more people, the poor from the countryside, being divested of their 
farm production, moving into these swollen population centers that are 
just teeming with people in dire poverty. Eighty-seven percent of these 
people lack sewers and drainage systems. Eighty-seven percent have no 
electricity. Eighty-four percent have no running water. Ninety-five 
percent have dirt floors in their homes. If you have ever traveled 
there, you know that. Ninety-one percent earn little more than the 
minimum salary of about a dollar an hour.
  The big picture can be numbing, and a human face needs constantly to 
be placed on these trade numbers, and tonight I want to talk about that 
more personal side, a story about the labor abuses in Mexico and of 
bureaucratic ineptitude right here in Washington, in our Nation's 
Capital. I am speaking of the historic first case of labor abuse under 
the NAFTA accord brought forward to the National Administrative Office 
known as NAO, administered by our U.S. Department of Labor and how that 
office has mishandled those cases because the law and the treaty is so 
poorly drafted.

                              {time}  2030

  It is my belief that the cases of Honeywell and General Electric, 
which I will document tonight, are representative of what has always 
been wrong with NAFTA and trade agreements like it, which do not 
balance corporate profits with decent treatment of people.
  Within weeks of hosting a tour of United Electrical Workers 
electrical workers from Pennsylvania and Ohio, 11 workers from General 
Electric's Compania Armadora plant in Juarez, Mexico, were fired for 
trying to organize a free trade union. That is one not controlled by 
the government of Mexico, on December 2, 1993.
  After protests from union locals in the United Electrical Workers and 
from citizens in Mexico, General Electric claimed to have afforded 
reinstatement to 6 of the 11 workers who were fired. It was later 
determined that General Electric never even contacted the 6 workers to 
offer them reinstatement.
  This evening I would like to provide to the Record a photo entitled 
``General Electric's Mexican Labor Relations Strategy: You're fired.'' 
This was in the United Electrical Workers newsletter. A subhead read 
``6 of the 11 General Electric employees in the General Electric plant 
in Juarez have been fired for trying to organize a union at the 
plant.''
  And what is interesting, some of these individals we have talked to, 
and I am providing their names for the Record tonight. This is a story 
that did not make it on the front pages of our paper, but this is a 
very historic story, because these are people of true courage.
  General Electric, a corporation incorporated in this Nation, with 
stockholders around this country, has blocked independent trade union 
organizing activities at this company, Compania Armadora, by 
restricking workers' access to organizer and union literature. More 
seriously, General Electric recently terminated or pressured into 
voluntary resignation over 100 workers, including a young woman who 
came to the United States to learn how to organize a workers' union in 
that plant.
  This is widely perceived as an effort by General Electric to rid 
itself of senior workers in that country of Mexico who speak up for 
better wages, for more purchasing power, to get something for the 
work that they put in, or who complain about shop conditions, and union 
activists.

  As detailed in an article by David Brauer in the Twin Cities Reader, 
the Honeywell case is similar to that of General Electric and thousands 
of other United States and Mexican workers. In the past decade, 
membership in the local union representing the Twin Cities Honeywell 
assembly workers has dropped by more than 3,000 workers. Approximately 
6,000 nonunion workers have replaced them, putting together what that 
company makes, air filters, thermostats, and air conditioner switches 
at so-called maquiladora plants near the Mexican-American border.
  A woman named Ofelia Medrano was one of the Mexican workers for 
Honeywell until last November 25th, Thanksgiving day in our country, 
when Honeywell fired her and 22 other employees at its Chihuahua plant 
just 8 days after NAFTA passed Congress. Ofelia Medrano was fired 
because she tried to organize an independent union, a rare thing in 
Mexico, where most unions are controlled by that Government and where 
people fear speaking out for their own rights and their own dignity as 
workers.
  The Honeywell and General Electric cases are important, because they 
are the first to be filed with the National Administrative Office, the 
office set up under the NAFTA side agreements here in our country to 
monitor labor abuses in Mexico, which are overwhelming.
  Given the importance of these two cases, one would assume that our 
Government would have paid special attention to their handling. 
Instead, our Government has treated the cases with a patent disregard 
for the principles and the people involved.
  I know that my colleagues have much to say on the subject of how our 
Department of Labor and NAO specifically handled the Honeywell and 
General Electric cases. But let me just state a few of the criticisms.
  The actual companies were not required to appear at the hearing. Even 
after a promise was given for permitting media coverage during the 
hearing, this was disallowed at the last minute. This is happening in 
our country.
  There was no simultaneous translation available, thus cutting the 
time for people who had traveled so very far from Mexico to properly 
state their case. They were limited to a very short period of time.
  Although the date for the hearing was finally changed due to pressure 
from this Congress, the hearing was initially scheduled for the week 
leading up to the Mexican presidential election, which would have 
precluded the attendance of any Mexican representatives who were busy 
trying to participate in elections in their own country.
  The hearing was held here in Washington, making it extremely 
difficult for Mexican workers who earn $1 an hour to attend, a very 
long way away from where the problem occurred.
  Finally, our Government refused to commit adequate funds for a proper 
hearing to be held. Of course, even if abuses were documented during 
the hearing, the NAFTA agreement is such a toothless tiger, it has no 
enforcement. So all that can happen under the agreement is these 
people, who take their own futures in their hands, come here to our 
country in hopes that someone here will listen to their story.
  These are just come of the criticisms of the manner in which his 
particular first hearing was handled, and, by extension, our 
administration so poorly handled these first hearings, there is no 
doubt in my mind that they gave hope to those who wish to perpetrate 
more labor abuses in Mexico.

  The administration talked a great deal about protecting the rights of 
Mexican workers and American workers during the NAFTA debate, but their 
actions betray their true sentiments since NAFTA.
  The supporters of NAFTA sold the trade agreement as one which will 
benefit ordinary Americans and Mexicans. But when questioned about 
tying American high-wage, high-skilled jobs to the lower wages and 
standards prevalent in Mexico, the answer was given that Mexican wages 
were sure to increase, and eventually match those of the United 
Electrical Workers States because of productivity gains. The question 
remains, however, how can Mexican wages ever be expected to increase, 
when Mexican workers are powerless to collectively bargain, to 
organize, or even to peacefully demonstrate to improve their working 
conditions and express their grievances? How can wages really go up in 
Mexico, unless our Government is able to be a force for a better way of 
life in that country as well as our own?
  Equally disturbing is how U.S. workers are asked to sit idly by as 
their jobs continue to be shipped further south. If this administration 
is truly concerned about the plight of our workers and Mexico's 
workers, it can begin at least by giving those who have suffered the 
worst abuses under NAFTA a fair and a very thorough hearing.
  For purposes of the record, I would like to read the names of those 
Mexican workers fired by General Electric for trying to organize a 
union at the General Electric Compania Armadora plant in Ciudad Juarez, 
Mexico.
  From left to right, those who were fired, and these are true leaders 
of ordinary people fighting for their own rights, are Fernando Castro 
Hernandez, who came to testify at the hearings in Washington and was 
given so little time; Jorge Cobarrubias; Roberto Valerio; Gerardo 
Baltazar Olaya; Manuel Gomez; and Apolonio Talamantes, who is kneeling.
  In their own country, they are given no opportunity to be known. I 
hope as the American people listen tonight, I hope you will know them, 
and I hope your hearts will be with them, and I hope in the future our 
Government is able to stand up for decent working conditions and fair 
treatment of people, regardless of which side of the border they live 
on.

                          ____________________