WELCOME TO THE ARCHIVE (1994-2014) OF THE MAQUILA SOLIDARITY NETWORK. For current information on our ongoing work on the living wage, women's labour rights, freedom of association, corporate accountability and Bangladesh fire and safety, please visit our new website, launched in October, 2015: www.maquilasolidarity.org
April 18, 2012
Johnson Controls workers rally, May 2010
From 2007-2011, MSN was been actively involved in an international campaign to push Milwaukee-based auto parts manufacturing company Johnson Controls Inc. (JCI) to respect the rights of workers in their Puebla, Mexico plants.
Johnson Controls had three plants in the state of Puebla, Mexico that produce seats and seat parts, mainly for the Volkswagen assembly plant in Puebla, but also for Chrysler, Ford, Mercedes Benz and Nissan. Two of these plants, JCI FINSA and JCI Interiores, are located in the city of Puebla; the third plant is located in the city of Tlaxcala.
MSN worked closely with US-LEAP, the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center, United Steelworkers (in Canada and the US), the US and Canadian autoworkers unions, and the International Metal Workers' Federation to pressure JCI to respect the right of their Mexican workers to be represented by a union of their free choice.
Johnson Controls Inc. (JCI) has announced plans to close its Interiores factory in Puebla, Mexico, less than one year after signing a collective bargaining agreement with an independent union affiliated with the National Union of Mine and Metalworkers (Los Mineros).
A long and dramatic struggle at the Johnson Controls Interiors (JCI) factory in Puebla, Mexico, has finally resulted in the expulsion of a sham "protection union" and the signing of a real collective bargaining agreement with Mexico's mineworkers' union (SNTMMSSRM or Los Mineros). The new JCI agreement, signed April 8, 2011, includes a 7.5% wage increase and better benefits for the 800 workers at the factory
MSN is pleased to announce that a collective bargaining agreement was signed on April 8, 2011 between factory management and the independent union. MSN would like to thank all of those who supported JCI workers by spreading this flyer.
The struggle at Johnson Controls factories in Puebla, Mexico, is a glaring example of the problems facing independent trade union organizers in Mexico. In preparation for the Global Days of Action for Trade Union Rights in Mexico, MSN has prepared a new printable flyer for use in workshops, teach-ins, or at rallies.
On December 20, 2010, unidentified robbers broke into the offices of the Worker Support Centre (CAT), a labour rights organization that has been supporting organizing efforts at two Johnson Controls, Inc. (JCI) factories in Puebla, Mexico, and ransacked the office, destroying equipment and causing more than 200,000 pesos (US$ 16,500) in damage.
In response to a violent August 16 attack by thugs from a protection union, workers at the Johnson Controls Interiores plant in Puebla, Mexico walked off the job and remained on strike for several days. On August 19, the dispute was resolved when management signed an agreement recognizing the workers' independent union and severing its ties with the Confederación de Organizaciones Sindicales (COS), a company union that was ejected from the factory in May after a previous strike.
MSN is pleased to announce that an agreement was reached on August 19, 2010 between factory management and the independent union. MSN would like to thank those who responded to the action alert.
On August 16, 2010, thugs entered a plant owned by Johnson Controls in Puebla, Mexico, and assaulted them, according to reports, "with sticks and stones, leaving many injured." Two of the members of the Executive Committee of the newly formed union at the plant, Cándido Barreucos and Vigilio Melendez, were beaten in a company office and forced to sign letters of resignation, reportedly at gunpoint. They are currently in a hospital with severe injuries. Our allies the US Labor Education in the Americas Project (USLEAP) have set up automatic email pages you can use to take two actions: contact Johnson Controls and contact the Mexican government.
In 2006, in response to a number of worker rights violations and complaints, including unpaid wages, deteriorating and unsafe working conditions, violations of freedom of association and gender discrimination, a group of workers at JCI FINSA formed an Organizing Coalition and sought support from the Workers Support Center in Puebla (CAT, in its Spanish acronym).
A three-day strike by workers at a Johnson Controls auto parts plant in Puebla, Mexico, backed by an international solidarity campaign, has won the workers the right to be represented by a union of their free choice. The agreement sets an important precedent in Mexico where employers often sign "protection contracts" with corrupt unions without the workers' knowledge and/or consent in order to prevent those workers from organizing or affiliating with a democratic union.
On April 28, 2010, Enrique Morales Montaño and Coral Juarez Melo, of the Centro de Apoyo al Trabajador (CAT) were visiting employees of the multi-national Johnson Controls Inc. (JCI) in the community of Santo Toribio, when Enrique was physically assaulted by the son of Magdaleno Texis, a local leader of the CROM, the illegitimate union at the Johnson Controls Puebla factory. Please help support the CAT by sending a letter to Mexican President Felipe de Jesus Calderon Hinojosa asking him to guarantee the safety of Coral Juarez and Enrique Morales.
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