Nafta, Levi's And Mexico's Labor Laws

CAN MEXICANS raise their standards of living, buying more U.S. products and finding reasons to stay in Mexico? That's a key issue in the NAFTA debate. The following case shows how Mexican workers seeking justice won in court but may have lost their livelihood. -----------------------------

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico - Mexican labor has beaten the pants off a U.S. corporate giant - 17,325 pairs of jeans, to be exact.

Here at the Maquilas Internacionales clothing factory just over the border from El Paso, Texas, workers have put Mexican labor law to the test. And, to the dismay of jeans manufacturer Levi Strauss, they have found that the law can be devastatingly effective in protecting workers' rights.

They now own their own garment factory, with property and hundreds of sewing machines worth an estimated $700,000.

The saga of employees at Maquilas Internacionales runs counter to many characterizations about Mexican labor practices that have surfaced in Washington during the debate over the North American Free Trade Agreement, which faces a do-or-die vote in the U.S. House of Representatives tomorrow.

Though their experience is far from the norm, Maquilas employees say they are proof that Mexican law can be used against abuses by foreign employers, if only more workers knew how to take advantage of it. But they are also proof that foreign buyers would rather not deal with workers like them.

OWNER `PACKED UP AND LEFT'

Maquilas Internacionales employees had worked under direct supervision of Levi Strauss sewing together Britannia-label jeans. The finished jeans were then exported to the United States under the same tariff-free terms the Mexican government applies to all of the 2,100 foreign-owned assembly factories along the border, commonly known as maquiladoras.

Last March 5, a Friday, factory owner Donald Heath made what employees later described as an unusual request for them to work overtime to complete an order of 17,000 pairs of jeans.

Maria Leon, a 12-year Maquilas employee who earned 82 cents per hour, said she and the other 250 employees acceded, confident of an overtime bonus.

The following Monday, however, employees arrived to find the merchandise, management personnel and expensive machines gone. "This company had been here 20 years, and overnight they just packed up and left," Leon said. "We never got paid for our work."

The incident provided exactly what NAFTA opponents sought to support their argument that an expansion of trade with Mexico would lead to more such cases of exploitation of low-paid Mexican workers.

But in fact, the opposite happened. The workers hired a lawyer and went to a special labor court. What neither Heath, who fled Mexico fearing arrest, nor Levi Strauss expected was that the labor tribunal would impound all of the jeans and machinery Heath had removed.

Before trucks carrying the jeans and machinery were able to clear border customs, Mexican police seized them and brought them back to the factory.

Levi's spokesman Dave Samson said attorneys then tried to buy back the jeans at $4 per pair, in part to help the employees recover their losses but also to prevent the jeans from being sold "outside the legitimate channels of distribution."

The employees instead sold them for $7 a pair to an independent buyer in Mexico City.

NO FOREIGNERS WILLING TO BUY

Employees at Maquilas say their battle is far from finished. The plant has been idle since March, and a 24-hour guard stands watch in case Levi's or Heath should attempt another equipment removal.

"Some of us want to reopen the plant and get back to work," said Sara Roldan. "Others say we should sell all the machines and liquidate. We need the money." Most employees already are working elsewhere, she added.

Under maquiladora rules, the plant is allowed to accept contracts only from foreign companies, but no contractors appear willing to commission work with the employees.

"After we did this, do you think anyone is going give us business?" asked Roldan. "I don't think so."

Levi's adopted a groundbreaking, worldwide code of conduct after reports three years ago that a contractor on the Pacific island of Saipan was producing Levi's garments using slave labor from China.

Acknowledging the Saipan case, Samson said Levi Strauss has since pledged to make sure all Levi's contractors "provide working conditions that are safe, clean, healthy, and that workers are well-paid and have full freedom of association and rights to organize."

Miguel Bess-Oberto, the Maquilas employees' attorney, said the workers tried to unionize twice over the past four years, but that pro-union employees were fired.