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Factory workers halt their work to protest against the lack of safety measures against COVID-19, outside a company in Ciudad Juárez on April 20, 2020. Labor activists believe that the working conditions are contributing to a rising mortality rate among factory workers in Mexico.
lessPhoto: Herika Martinez /AFP Via Getty ImagesFactory workers halt their work to protest against the lack of safety measures against COVID-19, outside a company in Ciudad Juárez on April 20, 2020. Labor activists believe that the working conditions are
... more
Factory workers halt their work to protest against the lack of safety measures against COVID-19, outside a company in Ciudad Juárez on April 20, 2020. Labor activists believe that the working conditions are contributing to a rising mortality rate among factory workers in Mexico.
lessFactory workers halt their work to protest against the lack of safety measures against COVID-19, outside a company in Ciudad Juárez on April 20, 2020. Labor activists believe that the working conditions are
... moreAfter eight years on assembly lines in Ciudad Juárez, Luz says the worst part of her job today isn’t the tedium and low pay. It’s working nearly shoulder-to-shoulder with fellow employees.
She says close friends and neighbors have caught the coronavirus in Juárez, a dense city of 1.5 million people across the Rio Grande from El Paso with hundreds of factories that assemble and manufacture goods for foreign customers.
“They cannot separate the people, so what they did was to put in plastic separations,” said Luz, who asked to be identified by her first name only. “I try to take precautions, but I can’t be 100 percent sure.”
Luz earns about $230 a month for full-time work — not enough to take leave, even if it were offered — and worries about bringing the virus home to her 67-year-old mother. Because the design of the factory line itself has not changed, social distancing remains impossible, she said.
Her employer, a communications network infrastructure manufacturer, halted operations for only a week in late March, saying it was an essential industry and eligible for an exemption from the requirement to close during the first weeks of the pandemic.
When it reopened, employees say it did take some health safety measures. It sanitized its workplace. It provided hand sanitizer at work stations and in bathrooms and installed plastic barriers between workstations.
The measures don’t satisfy the requirements by the federal government or the employees, who have complained they still feel insecure about their ability to keep the necessary distance to prevent contagion.
Labor activists believe the working conditions are contributing to a rising mortality rate among factory workers in Mexico. The secretary of health in the state of Chihuahua, home of Ciudad Juárez, has reported 25 deaths among maquiladora workers there since Mexico reopened factories on June 1.
Workers across Mexico are complaining about unsafe conditions, according to Mexico City-based Solidarity Network of Workers at Risk, a workers rights group.
Factory workers hold a protest in April over the lack of safety measures against COVID-19 outside a maquiladora in Ciudad Juárez. The United States-Mexico-Canada agreement, or USMCA, includes labor protections for Mexican workers that are some of the strongest to date in any trade deal. But Mexican labor activists say they are hearing reports that some factories are not following the health sanitary rules during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“In Mexico, the government does not traditionally play the role of sanctioning companies, but rather views itself as a company resource to help them reach their desired goals,” said Carlos Calvillo Reynoso, a researcher at the organization.
About 3,000 maquiladoras in Mexico employ more than 1.1 million Mexicans, according to CrossBorderFreight Mexico, a global logistics firm. The maquilas are built in special tariff-free zones along the border and are designed to assemble or manufacture products for export, mostly to the U.S.
Like many countries, Mexico instructed most of its businesses, including maquilas, to close in late March, allowing only “essential” industries to operate in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The virus has hit Mexico hard, with roughly 560,000 confirmed cases and 60,000 deaths as of Aug. 24. Mexico’s Health Ministry has said the real number could be as much as eight times higher.
In an effort to balance health concerns and a precarious economic situation, Mexico gradually permitted businesses to open in June, but only on a staggered basis, for those who follow strict health protocols and are in states not as hard hit by the virus.
These requirements include a work environment where employees would be at least 1.5 meters (about 5 feet) apart, stipulating that any “relocation of the required furniture should be carried out in advance of the restart of work,” according to the Labor Ministry.
Areas are to be protected by physical barriers, with personal protection equipment offered. Bathrooms should all be supplied with sufficient water, soap and disposable paper towels.
The National Advisory Board for Maquiladora Industries has said its members are meeting these standards, said Blanca Tabares, the president of the Piedras Negras chapter, who responded in writing to complaints by local maquiladora workers of noncompliance.
“The actions that all the companies are taking as controls to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 are in the administration areas, in engineering, on the production floor and between our personnel,” Tabares said.
But workers say these rules are not being followed.
Workers in full protection gear against the spread of the new coronavirus bury a coffin in an area of the San Rafael municipal cemetery that has been set apart for COVID-19 cases in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. Labor activists believe that the working conditions are contributing to a rising mortality rate among factory workers in Mexico.
The Solidarity Network has received complaints from workers about noncompliant conditions in 75 workplaces, many of them with names familiar in the U.S. An IBM plant in Mexico City, for example, has received complaints from workers that it does not provide antibacterial gel, does not disinfect commonly used equipment between uses and does not provide sufficient ventilation in enclosed work spaces.
Marisol, a worker at a factory in Piedras Negras in the state of Coahuila, said she has observed many of the same infractions at her plant.
“Where you enter, you can wash your hands at the entrance, but there is no sanitizer and employees are not keeping their distance from each other,” said Marisol, who asked to be identified only by her first name. “They are frequently gathered together, and no one is forced to keep their masks on.”
The violations of the health safety rules are coming even as companies are officially reporting to the government that they are taking all the needed steps and should be allowed to stay open.
“Many companies say publicly that they are taking all the required health measures to be able to open, but once you get inside the plants, it simply is not true,” said Julia Quinones, a researcher with the Border Committee of Women Workers, noting that companies have focused on superficial measures, such as disinfectant doormats and measuring temperatures at the entrance. “The entrance is window dressing.”
Family members mourn as workers wearing protection gear against the spread of the coronavirus bury their loved one in an area of the cemetery set apart for COVID-19 cases, in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico.
Conditions in some plants include crowded cafeterias with short lunch hours that require employees to share a small space, Quinones said. Some bathrooms have one or no soap dispensers, requiring employees to gather, and the plants operate under long hours with poor protective equipment.
At Marisol’s plant, the work schedules have been staggered to reduce the number of employees on-site at any one time, and some modifications have been made in the entrance and exits to prevent crowding.
Yet the main production floor remains largely the same.
“In the work area, there is 1 meter of distance in some areas and in others areas, no,” Marisol said. “The only thing they did to separate the people is to put plastic inserts 1½ meters apart. But the workers still have contact with each other.”
Inspections are taking place, said Kim Nolan, a labor economist and professor at the Mexico City-based Center for Economic Investigation, albeit at a painfully slow pace due to a lack of resources in an extraordinary situation.
A variety of maquiladoras are shown on the outskirts of Tijuana, Mexico. The Solidarity Network is collecting anonymous complaints from workers about health concerns and forwarding them to companies involved. So far, it has sent 59 reports so far to international companies. Mexican inspectors have begun investigations on 18 of them as a result.
“It is difficult to do inspections — the Labor Ministry is completely overwhelmed by COVID and with complaints of companies that are not following the rules,” Nolan said, noting that a reported 4 million complaints have been lodged on the government website. Some accuse companies of staying open in violation of the initial closure rules and conducting mass firings, which were also prohibited.
At the communications network equipment plant where Luz works, some employees were sufficiently concerned about the work situation to organize a two-day strike, and the company responded first by negotiating a 1,200 peso (about $50) bonus in exchange for returning to work. About three weeks later, they fired all the workers who had participated in the strike, without offering any explanation, Luz said.
“Workers at the plant felt insecure about the health measures that the company was taking — they felt that they were completely insufficient,” Luz said. “They wanted the plant to be closed, just as the government had mandated.”
“What we are seeing is that these workers, having no say in their workplace, are going through these other channels like us to report the health violations so that we can make them public,” Calvillo Reynoso said.
For others, the option to pursue complaints on their own is not feasible, Quinones said, noting that “the workers don’t have computers or even power in their houses to do so.”
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As the coronvirus spreads in Mexico, factory workers worry about their exposure - mySA
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