Carty 2006

“Transnational Labor Mobilizing in Two Mexican Maquiladoras”, Victoria Carty, 215-229.

in Johnston, Hank, and Paul Almeida, eds. 2006. Latin American social movements: globalization, democratization, and transnational networks. Lanham, Md: Rowman & Littlefield.

• The few, small victories that have been won in Mexican maquilas were achieved through grassroots mobilization that was internationalized, and were able to persuade corporate actors to respect workers’ rights (217)
• Mobilization from Above
• Codes of Conduct (217-218) -- exist, but standards are weak
• institutional solutions through trade agreements -- no one has pursued this rigorously (218-219)
• Mobilization from Below
• a decisive factor in each case is whether or not the host government can be forced into taking a proactive role in helping to resolve conflict (219)
• Kukdong
• workers forced to join CROC, also bad conditions (219)
• struck, sent representatives to the North (219-220)
• North and South student, worker, and human rights groups mobilized
• mobilizations were multi-level targeting local, national, and international actors (220)
• independent union replaced CROC (221)
• Kukdong supports idea that corporations can have positive impact on host governments
• BUT corporations only did this after intense PR, international pressure
• Duro Bag
• contested union election
• Hallmark had a code of conduct, so naming and shaming (223)
• mobilization from below worked
• NAFTA side accord procedure didn’t help much (223)
• Discussion:
• the state does not necessarily have to be the target (224), pressure from other sectors can be brought to bear on corporations, which can bring pressure on the government
• NAFTA has strengthened ties across borders because it created common interests among workers: we’re all getting screwed
• globalization doing the same thing
• My take: easy for you to say
• grievances that are ignored by government, managers at the local level can be pushed up to the national and international level (226)
• important to HUMANIZE the conflict...show that no worker actually wins over another in the global system of capital (228)
• Conclusion: grassroots mobilizing was more effective than top-down efforts, but only successful when efforts could get governments involved (229)