‘Make America Great Again’ – for U.S. workers

Bill Knight column for 5-13, 14 or 15, 2019

In Mexico, thousands of workers have been striking U.S. companies for months after its new populist president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, increased the minimum wage. Although a big win for regular Mexicans, it triggered a nationwide “20/32” Movement demanding a 20-percent raise and a 32,000-peso annual bonus, which some factory workers won and other unions are continuing to demand in separate work stoppages.

In the United States, President Trump and Congressional Republicans oppose increasing the minimum wage, meaning some municipalities and states, including Illinois, took action, and in Chicago, workers engaged in a largely symbolic 60-minute Unfair Labor Practice protest at Headly Manufacturing and were all discharged when their regular shift was to start.

American employers can’t blame NAFTA or its revision, the proposed USMCA trade deal, for labor unrest – or its relative success south of the border.

The turbulence in Mexico and the United States stems from wages, hours and working conditions, plus the lack of democratically elected trade unions with real power to be a countervailing force against both Big Business and a U.S. government beholden to corporate interests and unwilling to enforce even weak labor law.

Granted, Mexico’s minimum wage remains low (about 60 cents/hour). However, that token improvement is behind some 30,000 workers striking the “Maquiladora” border area, shutting down more than 40 U.S.-owned factories as the disgruntled workers also demanded “20/32” – which many plant managers begrudgingly agreed to this winter.

And strikes spread to other border areas, from Reynosa to Sonora.

Even Mexican locations of Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club were hit, as a union representing 8,000 workers there said they’d strike unless the multi-national retailer met the 20/32 demand. This month, the corporation agreed to a compromise of a 5.5-percent pay increase and a bonus based on productivity, and the union approved the settlement.

Susana Prieto, a labor lawyer spearheading the Mexican campaign for higher wages, told the Financial Times that about 90 companies have boosted 70,000 workers’ pay since January because of strikes.

Still on the picket lines are Mexican workers at dozens of sites, including Arca Continental, one of Coca-Cola’s largest bottling plants, 15 manufacturers have been shut down, and more than 1,000 calls for other job actions were made.

That’s unlike the USA, where even modest local demonstrations are punished as if the entire Transportation sector had been shut down.

On March 22 – a payday – manufacturing workers engaged in an Unfair Labor Practice protest against a planned mass layoff, picketing before dawn outside Headly’s Broadview, Ill., factory, where precision metal stamps are produced.

Then, when the 25 or so Illinois workers put down their signs and tramped to the plant entrance, they were locked out.

Not only were they unable to pick up their paychecks, they were fired on the spot.

The workers aren’t unionized but are supported by Arise Chicago, an independent group of faith leaders and grassroots activists fighting poverty. Arise Chicago reported that Headly worker Genaro Garcia said, “We have families to feed, and if we’re fired, we’ll be short on funds and unable to support our families.

“We are demanding that the company keep us employed or minimally give us more notice in order to be able to look for new jobs,” he continued. “It’s not easy to find work.”

Chris Williams, the co-director of the National Legal Advocacy Network who’s helping the workers, said he filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Region 13 in Chicago because the demonstration was a non-economic strike about discrimination and unfair treatment – supposedly protected under federal law.

It’s a “pretty clear-cut violation” of the National Labor Relations Act’s Sec. 8(a)(1) prohibiting interference with the right to organize, he said, and also of Sec. 8(a)(3), which addresses adverse actions like a lockout.

Williams said he’s optimistic based on existing precedent but pointed out that it can take weeks to get a response from the NLRB.

Meanwhile, locked-out workers and supporters suspect the employer has an ulterior motive, reacting to workers’ grievances about working conditions by exploiting a chance to lock them out – and rehire people without benefits such as insurance and paid-vacation like workers now get.

In fact, Crain’s Chicago Business reported that recent job postings include slightly higher wages but fewer benefits.

What a country.