borderlines UPDATER 15 April 1998
UFW Hopes to Help Migrant Workers
on Their Home Turf
Editor: George Kourous
Assistant Editor/Reporter: Tina Faulkner
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CONTENTS:
1. UFW Seeking to Strengthen Cross-border Ties
2. Union Hopes to Help Migrant Workers on Their Own Turf
3. Contacts for Further Information
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UFW SEEKING TO STRENGTHEN CROSS-BORDER TIES
by Tina Faulkner
The dynamics of migrant labor in the state of California pose both unique problems and opportunities for union organizers. Out of the estimated 700,000 laborers who perform farm work at some point during the year in the state, recent surveys estimate that about 90% are foreign born, and that the majority of these workers are from Mexico and Central America. The United Farm Workers (UFW) has sought to address the needs of these migratory workers in various ways over the years. Their successes and failures are instructive for activists interested in building connections across the border.
The struggle to provide services across the border began in the late 70s, when the UFW established a few small offices in cities like Tijuana and Mexicali. These offices were established to work out arrangements with Mexican health care providers to accept the UFW health care plan for workers under UFW contract, UFW associate members and their dependents. These efforts, however, met with little success, and the offices closed down within a few years.
Despite limited success along the border, the UFW stepped up its efforts. Cesar Chávez and other UFW officials initiated negotiations with government authorities in Mexico to secure health benefits for UFW members there. Although these negotiations took almost 20 years, in 1990 an agreement was signed by UFW and Mexican government officials that provides Mexican nationals who are UFW members with access to benefits of the Mexican social security system while in the U.S. "It's sort of a way the UFW formally recognized the enormous importance of Mexican nationals in terms of potential membership for the UFW," said Don Villarejo, executive director of the California Institute of Rural Studies in Davis.
More recently, the UFW has expanded its focus to include other types of protections. While in California, for example, migrant farmworkers are eligible to present cases of job discrimination and other abuses to the state Agricultural Labor Relations Board. However when farmworkers return to Mexico for the winter months, many miss the processing of their claims, and their cases go unresolved. Furthermore, the UFW has become aware that many workers feel more comfortable discussing unionization and attempts to organize while away from their employers. A UFW presence in Mexico would offer a unique opportunity in this regard.
"Because there are a lot of ongoing legal cases that the UFW has on behalf of groups like strawberry workers, whether they are wage an hour complaints or violations of state labor law, it delays obtaining justice for workers when there not there," said Marc Grossman, spokesperson for the UFW. "[M]any workers feel more comfortable discussing unionization and their right to organize when they are not in the field, where they are subjected to intense harassment and intimidation by growers."
UNION HOPES TO HELP MIGRANTS ON THEIR OWN TURF
Organizing South of the Border Would Benefit Workers in U.S. Fields
To address these problems, the UFW wants to establish better communication with migrant workers in Mexico, and have considered again opening an office there, this time in the interior state of Michoacán. Discussion on the proposed office began last March when UFW Secretary-Treasurer Dolores Huerta met with Michoacán Governor Victor Manuel Tinoco Rubí. Many of California's farmworkers come from Michoacán, so it would be an ideal location for the UFW to provide services.
"It seems to me very positive in these times to think of this possibility, because this union works with Mexican workers anyway," said Berta Lujan with the Mexican Frente Auténtico de Trabajo (FAT). "And the fundamental proposal is to establish the office in the region from which the workers come. Since these workers work in the U.S. for a time as well as in Mexico, I think it will create a partnership in supporting their rights while in both countries."
Growers and other union opponents in the U.S. have criticized the UFW's efforts, claiming they are an attempt to garner more members by making it possible for groups such as California's 20,000 unrepresented strawberry workers to join the union while in Mexico. Membership in the UFW has fallen from an estimated high of 80 to 120,000 members in the 1960s to less than 30,000. In recent years, however, membership has begun to increase.
The dominant unions in Mexico, tied for over 50 years to the Party of the Institutionalized Revolution (PRI), Mexico's ruling party, are also opposed to the proposal. "The official unions are opposed, they are saying that international solidarity is a problem because it means loss of national sovereignty," said Lujan. "I think that there is little chance they will work together."
If granted permission to do so by the Mexican government, the UFW will be the first U.S. labor union to establish an office in Mexico, and the lack of precedent has led to a lengthy decision making process. Mexican government officials are currently meeting to decide when and if the UFW may proceed with the proposal, but there is no timeline set for when it could be approved.
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· Marc Grossman, UFW
(916) 441-0766
http://www.ufw.org
· Berta Lujan, FAT
(525) 556-9375
fat@laneta.apc.org
· Don Villarejo California Institute for Rural Studies
(530) 756-6555
http://www.cirsinc.org