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
The following text is adapted from UE and Mexican FAT federation organize mutual support, written by the United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America.
The Authentic Workers' Front or Frente Auténtico del Trabajo (FAT) is an independent federation of labor unions, worker owned cooperatives, and farmworker and community organizations. A women’s network operates within all of the FAT's sectors and as part of the leadership.
The FAT was founded in 1960 and now represents workers in over half the states of Mexico in manufacturing industries such as textiles and auto-parts. In addition, the FAT recently won the right to represent workers in the transportation industry on a national level and service workers in Mexico City. Although modest in size, the F.A.T. has great influence due to its principled determination to create independent, democratic unions under extremely adverse conditions.
For example, the FAT was a founding member of Mexico's new, independent labor federation, the National Union of Workers or UNT. Benedicto Martínez, one of the FAT’s three national officers, was also elected vice president of the new federation - a recognition of the role the FAT has played in its formation and in defining and developing its program of work and action.
The FAT was also a founder and active participant in RMALC (the Mexican Action Network Against Free Trade), the coalition of more than 100 Mexican organizations which opposed NAFTA, and has in recent years worked to analyze the impact of neo-liberal economic policies and create positive proposals for change.
Dan La Botz – a professor and former union member and activist who has written books on both the Mexican labor movement and Chiapas – has been a volunteer editor since 1996 of an excellent electronic bulletin containing labor and related news from Mexico. It is called Mexican Labor News and Analysis (MLNA) and is posted each month on the UE’s international web page. The Resource Center of the Americas has joined this all-volunteer effort, and manages an extensive e-mail list. You can subscribe for free by e-mailing mlna@americas.org. Also see:
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