Fw: Victory for Union Democracy at Alcoa Aluminum in Mexico

["Nello Margiotta" <animarg at tin.it>]

-----Forwarded Message-----
Released Tuesday, March 5, 02, 11:00 a.m. CST By an overwhelming majority,
workers at Alcoa Plant #2 in Piedras Negras have reaffirmed their support
for
the democratic union committee they had previously elected on Feb. 22. The
vote of 892 to 592 (with 26 ballots annulled) showed the determination of
workers at the plant to stand up to a powerful campaign of negative
propaganda and intimidation by Alcoa management and the CTM union
confederation.

In a tense 15-hour journey of line-by-line voting by secret ballot, the
workers were able to maintain their unity, reaffirming their Feb. 22 vote,
where the same committee had been elected at a plantwide general assembly
meeting, unseating the local's previous CTM-affiliated leadership. The
lopsided result refutes Alcoa’s claim that only a few “troublemakers” had
been "infiltrated" by the CFO.

Headlines in today's edition of the main newspaper in Piedras Negras read, “
Julia Quiñonez’s candidate wins union election.” The voting was complete by
midnight and the results were legally validated by the president of the
labor
conciliation board in Piedras Negras, as well as by the CTM’s Leocadio
Hernández, the two candidates, and two witnesses. The Mexican Labor
Department
’s director for the state of Coahuila (where Piedras Negras is located)
served as an observer during the entire process.

Yesterday, after being contacted by institutional shareholders who advocate
for the workers, an Alcoa U.S. executive responded via fax that the company
“
does not take a position in elections [for] union representation.” However,
shortly before the voting began, Paulino Navarro, head of Alcoa’s operation
in Piedras Negras, instructed his line managers to tell the workers to vote
for the CTM slate in the election, or else the company will move elsewhere.

The workers also faced violence. Outside the Feb. 22 meeting, two CFO women
work­ers, Amparo Reyes and Margarita Ramírez, were beaten on the orders

of Leocadio Hernández, head of the CTM in Pied­ras Negras. The following
Monday, Feb. 25, company officials let several of Leocadio’s goons into the
plant, where they beat up one of the members of the new committee, causing a
head in­jury.

At the adjacent Alcoa plant (Subaru), a worker named Romeo was also beaten
and then held captive by management for three hours until he was forced to
sign “voluntary” resignation papers. Also on Monday, Alcoa fired six workers
without cause at Plant #1, including Amparo, at the request of the CTM,
using
the “exclusion clause,” which permits the union to ask the company to fire
certain workers. The Mexican Supreme Court recently declared the exclusion
clause to be illegal.

Over the weekend, the CTM reportedly distributed 20,000 leaflets blaming CFO
coordinator Julia Quiñonez for the closing of other maquiladoras in the
city,
and urging workers to “vote for de los Reyes, otherwise the company will
leave.”

Alcoa Plants #1 and #2 in Piedras Negras each employ approximately 2,000
workers. The union local at Plant #1 is still affiliated with the CTM. The
new union committee in Plant #2 is fighting for its right to choose its own
union affiliation.

Alcoa and the CTM have been dragging their feet in an attempt to avoid
recognizing the new union committee. The backing they have received from
local labor authorities had left the new committee with no choice but to
agree to a repeat election. After yesterday’s victory, the Alcoa workers and
the CFO will continue making efforts to ensure that the management and the
CTM will respect the new union committee.

The Comité Fronterizo de Obreras (CFO) works to promote union democracy and
workers' rights, currently in six cities along the Mexico-U.S. border. With
the support of the CFO, thousands of rank-and-file maquiladora workers have
won substantial wage hikes, improvements in working conditions, positions in
union’s executive committees, severance payments that comply with Mexican
law, and restoration of benefits illegally withdrawn by maquiladora firms.
The CFO’s office is located in the border town of Piedras Negras in the
Mexican state of Coahuila.

 Alcoa, Inc., is the world’s largest producer of aluminum. Headquartered in
New York City and Pittsburgh, Alcoa employs 142,000 people in 37 countries.
Mexico’s former president, Ernesto Zedillo, was recently appointed to Alcoa’
s Board of Directors. Paul O’Neill, Alcoa’s CEO from 1987 until 2000, left
the company to become secretary of the treasury in the Bush Administration.
Alcoa Fujikura Ltd. (AFL) division designs, engineers, and manufactures
electrical distribution systems for motor vehicles. In Mexico, AFL
manufactures wire harnesses for Ford, Volkswagen, Subaru, Harley-Davidson,
and other firms. Its maquiladora operations in Piedras Negras and Ciudad
Acuña employ more than 14,000 production workers.