Workers to Unite Across Borders Against NAFTA and “Free Trade”

On Monday October 5 at the US-Canada International Ambassador Bridge and at the US-Mexico Hidalgo-McAllen-Reynoss International Bridge, workers from the Mexico, the United States, and Canada will come together to protest NAFTA and “free trade.”

Ernesto Lizcano, a TRW worker, traveled to Livonia, Michigan to meet with company executives at TRW headquarters, but they refused to meet with him. Since then, Ernesto has been traveling throughout the US looking for support to make TRW accountable to the workers in Reynosa, Mexico.   His trip and campaign has been project of the Coalition for Jus5tice in the Maquiladoras.  (Background on the TRW workers can be found at the Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladroa website.)

Members of UAW workers Local 174 from Romulus, Michigan are traveling to the US-Mexican border on October 5 to demonstrate against free trade at the international bridge in Hidalgo/McAllen, TX. The TRW workers will be demonstrating on the Mexican side in an expression of solidarity, and to show that workers are united across borders. Members of Local 174 and others have donated thousands of dollars to fund the UAW member trip as they and their families are the victims of these devastating trade policies.

George Hardy, First Vice-president of the UAW Local 174, stated, “We want jobs. We need to feed our families, but NAFTA wiped away all our jobs in Michigan and in America. We are demonstrating with TRW workers because NAFTA pit workers against one another, but now we want to tell all corporations that workers are united.”

Martha Ojeda, executive director of the CJM, explained, “Trade is not just among governments and corporations. President Obama should see the social impact of free trade and listen to the people who believed his promises for change. He said to the people, ‘YES WE CAN!’ but instead of change for workers and families, government is bailing out multinational corporations that closed plants and gave massive layoffs.”

Ernesto Lizcano said, “The multinational corporations make billionaire profits with our labor force, but NAFTA gave power to these corporations to exploit workers and to violate human and labor rights and to pollute our environment with impunity. They can’t close plants and run away with government bailouts on their hands and leave workers on the street. The corporations should be accountable to workers wherever they go and if they aren’t, we should take the industrial plants into our own hands.”

Join the demonstrations against NAFTA free trade from Canada to Mexico (see list of cities and dates below) and tell the NAFTA signers that WE WANT JOBS – ECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE – NO MORE NAFTA FREE TRADE. Support TRW workers in demanding that TRW in Reynosa negotiate with the Workers Coalition the terms of their relocation, salaries, and labor conditions. Call upon TRW to respect human and labor rights and the constitutionally guaranteed right to a job – SAY NO to the blacklist. If workers’ conditions for relocation are not met, according to Mexican law, they should get their severance payments, including back pay.

Demonstrations are at the international Ambassador Bridge in Detroit, and at the International Bridge in Hidalgo/Mc Allen, TX and in Reynosa, MX October 5^th at noon.

For more information call (619) 952- 5568, (210) 240- 1084, (210) 732- 8957, (734)-664-9504 or email cjm_martha@igc.org, cjm_alonzo@igc.org, cjm_cynthia@igc.org, joecar11@yahoo.com, Whateverittakeslive.com, UAWLOCAL174.com

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