Maquiladora Health & Safety Newsletter Vol.6 No.1

Customtrim/Autotrim workers build campaign to demand action by US Dept. of Labor

Alcoa workers win battle for member-controlled union – the war continues

China: March evaluation visits to three giant footwear plants

A glimpse of the future – factory life in the "new" China

Indonesia: Follow-up training held in February

Seminar held in Jakarta on local and international OSH resources

Nicaragua: New OSH project seeking volunteers

Global anti-sweatshop activists organize

Materials and resources for worker trainings and other OSH resources

Major reports on Mexico and global sweatshops

Networking Notes

The "Maquiladora Health & Safety Support Network" is a volunteer network of 400 occupational health and safety professionals who have placed their names on a resource list to provide information, technical assistance and on-site instruction regarding workplace hazards in the 3,000 "maquiladora" (foreign-owned assembly) plants along the U.S.-Mexico border. Network members, including industrial hygienists, toxicologists, epidemiologists, occupational physicians and nurses, and health educators among others, are donating their time and expertise to create safer and healthier working conditions for the one million maquiladora workers employed by primarily U.S.-owned transnational corporations along Mexico's northern border from Matamoros to Tijuana. The Support Network is not designed to generate, nor is it intended to create, business opportunities for private consultants or other for-profit enterprises. On the contrary, Network participants will be donating their time and knowledge pro bono to border area workers and professional associations.

The Maquiladora Health & Safety Support Network was launched in October 1993 at the annual meeting of the American Public Health Association (APHA). It includes occupational health specialists from Canada, Mexico and the United States who are active in the APHA, American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA), American Conference of Government Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH), American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE), National Safety Council (NSC) and the 25 local grassroots Committees for Occupational Safety and Health (COSH) groups in the U.S. and Canada. The Support Network is continuously seeking more health and safety professionals and activists to join the network, as well as looking for more border community organizations who can make use of the information and technical assistance offered. Please join us!

LETTER FROM THE COORDINATOR - Garrett Brown

Mexico has been back in the spotlight recently with the United Nations conference on global poverty held in Monterrey. And what that spotlight has revealed is the failure of NAFTA to live up to its promises, the impact of the U.S. economic slowdown on Mexico, and the threat that the Mexican economy, including its most dynamic sector – the maquiladoras – may never recover because of the emergence of China as the premier low-cost export platform for the entire world.

After eight years of NAFTA, it is clear that the promises of a broad-based economic development with steadily rising incomes, the creation of "stabilizing middle class," significant additional resources for social development and environmental protection have not, and will not, be met.

In fact, just the opposite has occurred:

Since NAFTA took effect in January 1994, both the relative and absolute numbers of people living in poverty in Mexico have increased substantially – now more than 50% of Mexico’s 100 million people are officially classified as "living in poverty" while 18 million Mexicans live in "extreme poverty" (less than $1 a day).

• Mexican wages have lost more than 40% of their purchasing power in the last decade, with a loss of 10% in just the last year, according to the Center for Multidisciplinary Analysis of the Economic Faculty of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). The current minimum wage (which varies depending on geographic location and industrial sector) is 42.15 Mexican pesos, or about $4.25 a day.

• Julio Boltvinik at the prestigious Colegio de Mexico has calculated the number of minimum wages needed to cover basic necessities in Mexico. Workers’ wages are often paid as multiples of the minimum wage. While in 1970 it took 2.31 minimum wages to purchase the basic shopping basket of essential items, in 1980 it took 1.82, in 1990, 3.97, in 2000, 6.71, and in 2001, 6.94. That is, a worker would have to earn almost seven times the basic minimum wage to provide for basic necessities. In Mexico today, 4.5 million Mexicans (10% of the economically active population or PEA) earn less then one minimum wage, and 5.5 million (12.4% of the PEA) earn just one minimum wage, while 29.6 percent earn between one and two times the minimum wage. The Workers University of Mexico (UOI) believes that it would take 3.7 times the minimum wage to support a family. Most maquiladora workers earn between one and two minimum wages, with maquiladora wages being below the average manufacturing wage for Mexico as a whole.

• The maquiladoras, which reached a peak of about 3,200 plants and 1.3 million workers, are almost completely isolated from the rest of the Mexican economy and have not led to the expansion of Mexican industry or development of its internal markets.

• The uncontrolled, unplanned explosion of urban areas on the border has lead to an ecological catastrophe for the fragile desert environments. Most Mexican cities on the border have completely inadequate (or non-existent) waste water treatment facilities, inadequate potable water supplies, growing illegal toxic waste dumps, and huge shantytowns of tin or cardboard housing without paved streets, electricity or water. Local educational and health care facilities have been completely swamped. As maquilas have made only a "voluntary contribution" to local governments – what little taxes actually paid by the Fortune 500 companies operating on the border go directly to Mexico City and are not shared – there are no resources available to deal with these basic municipal needs.

• The disintegration of Mexican society has also accelerated as people leave rural farming areas, now cutoff from any government supports, to live in poor and dangerous neighborhoods near the maquilas on the border. The dangers of living in the maquila zones, and the lack of any governmental support or protection, is epitomized for many by the ongoing wave of kidnappings, rape, torture and murder of more than 250 young women in Ciudad Juarez, many of them workers in the maquiladoras, since NAFTA came into effect.

As Joseph Kahn of the New York Times wrote in a March 21st article entitled "Losing Faith: Globalization Proves Disappointing," "Globalization, or the fast-paced growth of trade and cross-border investment, has done far less to raise the incomes of the world’s poorest people than leaders had hoped…The vast majority of people living in Africa, Latin America, Central Asia and the Middle East are not better off today than they were in 1989, when the fall of the Berlin Wall allowed capitalism to spread worldwide at a rapid rate."

This bleak panorama has been made worse in recent months by the downturn in the U.S. economy which has had a direct impact on the maquila export platforms on the border. More than 200,000 maquila workers have been laid since the peak in early 2001, and the number of plants is contracting on the U.S. border.

Many in Mexico are fearful that this downturn on the border may be permanent as Mexico, and other Latin American countries, are now competing with wages of 20-25 cents an hour in China. Thompson and Philips, two major electronics multinationals with 20-year histories on the US-Mexico border, recently announced they were permanently closing plants with 15,000 workers to move "to other parts of the world." An executive if SCI Systems, which has 10,000 workers in plants in Guadalajara, told "Business Week" magazine: "I’m an absolute believer in this country (Mexico), but anything that is really price-sensitive is considering moving lock, stock and barrel to Asia."

William Greider, in an article in the December 31, 2001, issue of "The Nation" pointed out: "The corporate types, as they withdraw from outposts from Juarez or Monterrey, are no longer claiming miracles for Mexico. Instead, they voice the usual complaints made about struggling poor countries: inadequate education, terrible infrastructure, lousy public services, too much red tape. That’s true, of course, but it sounds like a nasty afterthought. The marriage Mexico’s leaders made with US multinationals more or less guaranteed these outcomes, since NAFTA’s narrow terms compelled the government to keep taxes down, cut public spending, suppress wages and do nothing to disturb the profitability of the new factories. That deal appears to be ending for Mexico. The companies are making a new one with China."

What this means for our Network, and occupational health and safety professionals everywhere, is a continuing commitment to the workers in Mexico’s maquiladoras, to workers in the "free trade" or "export processing" zones around the world, and to supporting workers in China and Asia who will soon be producing the lion’s share of the world’s consumer goods. As globalization kicks into over-drive with the integration of China, we will have to work that much harder to counteract the "downward pressure" from China on occupational safety and health (as well as wages and hours) that will be felt not only in developed countries like the U.S., but also in developing countries like Mexico and Central America.

CUSTOMTRIM/AUTOTRIM WORKERS BUILD CAMPAIGN TO DEMAND ACTION BY US DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

Supporters of the workers at Breed Technologies’ Mexican auto parts plants – Autotrim in Matamoros and Customtrim/Breed Mexicana in Valle Hermoso – are ratcheting up a campaign demanding that the U.S. Labor Department move their workplace health and safety complaint under the NAFTA to the next level of review within the "labor side agreement" complaint resolution process.

On December 12, 2001, the workers and their supporters sent a five-page letter to U.S. Labor Secretary Elaine Chao requesting that she establish an "Evaluation Committee of Experts" (ECE) to determine why the Mexican government has persistently failed to implement its existing health and safety regulations in the two US-owned plants which have produced widespread injuries and illnesses from toxic chemical exposures and uncontrolled ergonomic hazards. The workers originally filed their complaint under NAFTA in June 2000, and their charges of non-enforcement by the Mexican government were confirmed by the U.S. Labor Department itself in an April 2001 report.

On February 4, 2002, Thomas Moorhead, Deputy Under Secretary for International Affairs, responded with a two-paragraph letter denying the request for the convocation of an ECE.

"As you are aware, the U.S. National Administrative Office (NAO) issued a report on this submission in April 2001. Secretary Chao accepted the findings of the report and requested ministerial consultation shortly thereafter, to which Mexican Labor Secretary Carlos Abascal agreed in July 2001. Secretary Chao has directed me to undertake this effort on her behalf and consultations with officials in the Mexican Labor Department currently are underway. In addition, consultations have been ongoing at the NAO-level in an attempt to resolve this matter. We are hopeful that ministerial consultations will prove fruitful and lead to mutually beneficial results for all of those involved in the submission; therefore, a request for an ECE would not be appropriate at this time. I will ask the NAO to keep you informed as the consultations progress," Moorhead wrote.

On March 20, 2002, the workers responded via a letter to Chao from lead attorney Monica Schurtman, Marta Ojeda, Executive Director of the Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras (CJM), Garrett Brown, Coordinator of our Network, and Linda Delp of the UCLA Labor Occupational Safety and Health Program (LOSH).

In the first week of April, UCLA’s Linda Delp will be travelling to Washington, DC, to discuss the case with Congressional leaders in the Senate Labor Committee, which is slated to hold a hearing with Labor Secretary Chao later this spring. Delp will also attempt to meet with Chao personally to again request that an ECE be established for the three unresolved health and safety complaints under NAFTA – the Customtrim/Autotrim case, the Han Young and ITAPSA cases which date back to 1998. Delp will also present the cases to activist organizations and the media in the Washington.

The March 20th letter to Chao reads in part: "We were surprised to learn from you that ministerial consultations with Mexican officials are currently underway on the Autotrim/Customtrim case, given that we, the submitters of that petition, had not even been notified that an agreement to proceed with ministerial consultations had been reached. We would appreciate a clarification from your office as to whether any meetings-other than those leading to the agreement to consult-have been held.

"If ministerial consultations have actually begun, we are concerned that the Department failed to notify the submitters that the process had commenced, and to update us on its progress. The Department’s failure to communicate this information to the submitters would be contrary to the NAALC’s commitment to openness and transparency in the administration of labor law. Such a failure would be particularly troubling in light of the fact that the submitters, at the request of the U.S. NAO, filed detailed recommendations for action on the Autotrim/Customtrim case on May 21 and July 6, 2001. In connection with those recommendations, we asked to be kept apprised of the status of ministerial consultations, and pressed for inclusion of the submitters in the consultations. If no ministerial action beyond an agreement to consult have occurred, we would like to know when substantive consultations will begin, and again ask that the Department include the submitters in the process and keep us apprised of any developments.

"The Department’s failure to communicate to the submitters the status of consultations is particularly disheartening to the workers and former workers who participated in the NAO process. After all, they are the ones who forged ahead despite the considerable time involved and their fear of retaliation, and who remain directly affected by the persistent failure of the Mexican government to enforce occupational health and safety laws…

"While we understand that significant improvements in the enforcement of workplace health and safety laws may take time, the submitters outlined for the NAO in letters dated May 21 and July 6, 2001 as well as in testimony at the public hearing on the submission on December 12, 2000, a number of ameliorative measures that could and should be undertaken immediately. Among others, such measures included: fair and transparent re-evaluations of worker compensation claims according to procedures already mandated by Mexican law; and fair and transparent re-inspection and monitoring of conditions at Autotrim and Customtrim/Breed Mexicana according to standards prescribed by Mexican law and as recommended made by the NAO and NIOSH. Yet neither these steps nor any others have been implemented to help advance worker health and safety. As far as the petitioners in the Autotrim and Customtrim case are concerned, consultations have not been effective. Workers have seen no amelioration whatsoever of the conditions they described in the hearing on December 12, 2000…

"As we explained in our December 12th letter, we believe that an ECE should be established not just because of the lack of action on the Autotrim/Customtrim case, but also because ministerial consultations have failed to resolve health and safety matters raised by the Han Young and ITAPSA submissions. In those cases, the parties completed ministerial consultations, and entered into a ministerial agreement on May 18, 2000 - almost two years ago. Even the limited measures prescribed by the agreement have not been implemented, despite the 15-month deadline for completion, which expired in August 2001. The Autotrim/Customtrim, Han Young, and ITAPSA cases demonstrate the inability to resolve through ministerial consultations a pattern of practice by the Mexican government of failing to enforce occupational health and safety laws," the March 20th letter pointed out.

Workers at the two Mexican auto parts maquilas operated by Breed Technologies Inc. of Florida have been working since April 1997 to improve unsafe working conditions in the plants in Matamoros and Valle Hermoso. The workers submitted two detailed complaints in 1998 and 1999 to the Mexican workplace safety agency, STPS, but no action was taken to correct the widespread ergonomic hazards and solvent exposures which had produced numerous injuries and illnesses in the plants.

In June 2000, the workers submitted an extensive complaint under the NAALC process, the first submission devoted entirely to health and safety issues. The U.S. NAO accepted the submission in September 2000 and a public hearing was held in San Antonio, TX, in December 2000. In January 2001 occupational health experts from the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) conducted one-day inspections of the two plants.

In March and April 2001, NIOSH and the U.S. NAO office issued reports confirming the charges made by the workers, and the U.S. NAO called for "ministerial consultations" between the labor secretaries of Mexico and the U.S. to address the "persistent failure" to enforce Mexican regulations and correct unsafe working conditions in the plants. The workers and other submitters sent the U.S. NAO letters in May and July 2001 providing detailed recommendations to both the U.S. and Mexican NAO offices.

To date, as far is publicly known, no Ministerial Consultations have been scheduled, no action has been taken by the U.S. or Mexican NAO offices to address the complaint, and no action has been taken by the Mexican STPS, Ministry of Health or Social Security Institute to correct the identified hazards and compensate worker injuries at the two Breed Technology plants.

The Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras has issued a two-page fact sheet on the case, which is available, along with the texts of the submission, report, and letters, at the Network’s website: www.igc.org/mhssn. The "BNA Daily Labor Report" and "Inside OSHA" publications have also covered the exchange of letters.

ALCOA WORKERS WIN BATTLE FOR MEMBER-CONTROLLED UNION – THE WAR CONTINUES

On March 4th, workers at an Alcoa plant in Piedras Negras voted 892 to 592 to reaffirm their February 22nd vote electing a slate on independent candidates to lead the plant’s existing union. The democratic take-over of the union currently affiliated with the "official" CTM union federation is a historic victory for maquila workers all along the US-Mexico border. The newly elected five-member executive committee has begun working out of the plant’s union office, exercising its rights to represent members and negotiate with Alcoa.

Legally, the new union committee is still affiliated with the CTM, which has been an employer-friendly union dominated by the ruling political party. Union members in the plant are now evaluating different legal options available to them, with the ultimate goal of withdrawing from the CTM. The newly elected union slate was supported by the Comite Fronterizo de Obreras (CFO), a community-based organization of maquiladora workers and their families in six border cities.

The current stage of the development of a member-controlled union at Alcoa was explained by CFO coordinator Julia Quinonez: "It is important to understand that the rank and file can only develop an independent union through a careful process. We can’t skip over any of the steps along the way. It was not easy for the workers to get to where they are today – and even now their victory is not 100% guaranteed, because the CTM still has its allies."

"Forming a free-standing independent union, or affiliating with one that already exists, is something that cannot happen overnight. We cannot rush the process or pressure the rank and file, because democracy is something that we must live in practice. The workers are the ones who must decide what type of union affiliation is best for them. Currently the union committee is looking into the different options, weighing the pro’s and con’s, so that they can talk through the issue with the rank and file. Even the committee cannot make a decision of this magnitude without calling a general assembly," Quinonez said.

The March 4th election lasted 15 hours as each production line in turn cast their written ballots in a secret vote. In virtually all union elections in Mexico workers must state their vote verbally, out loud, in front of a table where company officials are sitting with representatives of the local government and the official union.

Although the voting procedure at Alcoa marked an advance for workers’ rights, it was preceded by the "standard practices" seen in other union elections. Shortly before the voting began, Paulino Navarro, head of Alcoa’s operations in Piedras Negras, instructed his line managers to tell the workers to vote for the CTM and against the independent unionists, or else the company would close the plant, according to CFO. Over March 2nd and 3rd, the CTM union reportedly distributed 20,000 leaflets in Piedras Negras blaming CFO and Quinonez for other plant closures in the city, and claiming that Alcoa "will leave Piedras Negras" unless the workers vote for the CTM slate.

On the date of the previous vote, February 22nd, two workers supporting the independent union were beaten outside the plant. On February 25th, CTM "enforcers" were allowed into the plant to beat up another member of the insurgent union slate. At the adjacent Alcoa plant (Plant #1), a union supporter was beaten and then held captive for three hours until he was forced to sign "voluntary resignation" papers.

Alcoa is the world’s largest produce of aluminum, with 129,000 employees in 38 countries and its headquarters in Pittsburgh. The Alcoa Fujikura Ltd. (AFL) division designs and manufactures electrical distribution systems for motor vehicles, including Ford, Volkswagen and Subaru. AFL’s maquila operations in Piedras Negras and nearby Ciudad Acuna employ more than 14,000 production workers. Alcoa’s Piedras Negras Plant #2, employs about 2,000 workers, 1,500 of whom voted in the March 4th balloting.

While the Alcoa workers carried the day in a ground-breaking victory in Piedras Negras, it is just the battle, and not the war, that has been won. For more information and how to support the Alcoa workers and CFO, contact Ricardo Hernandez of the American friends Service Committee in Philadelphia at rhernand@afsc.org

CHINA: MARCH EVALUATION VISITS TO THREE GIANT FOOTWEAR PLANTS

Plant-wide health and safety committees involving production workers as full, active committee members have been established and are beginning to function in three large sports shoe factories in the Pearl River Delta of southern China. These developments were evaluated in visits to each of the three facilities March 12th to 14th by members of the project Coordinating Committee which organized the health and safety training in Dongguan City last August to prepare committee members for their roles on site.

The evaluation team consisted of Professor Dara O’Rourke of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Network Coordinator Garrett Brown, local project coordinator Juliana So of the Chinese Working Women Network, and staff members of three of the four Hong Kong-based non-governmental organizations who participated in the August training in China. The plants involved are the Kong Tai Shoe plant in Longgan, the Pegasus plant in Panyu, and the Yue Yuen II plant in Dongguan City, which produce shoes for Reebok, Nike and adidas, respectively. The plants are all operated by Taiwanese companies.

The evaluation team spent a day at each facility, met with the plants’ newly formed or expanded health and safety committees, inspected parts of the facilities where the committees had been active, and met in small groups with committee members to identify the successes and challenges facing each of the committees. The nascent committees consist of 30 members at the 5,000-worker Kong Tai factory, 60 members at the 11,000-worker Pegasus plant, and 100 members at the 30,000-worker Yue Yuen II facility.

The biggest success of the committees, perhaps, is the fact they have been established at all, and are beginning to carry out key functions of providing training, identifying and correcting hazards with the direct involvement of production-line workers from various departments in the three facilities. This is believed to be the first time in recent Chinese history that factory health and safety committees involving workers as active members have been established.

Each of the plant committees, to different degrees in each facility, have begun regularized functioning involving periodic inspections of the facilities, correction of identified hazards, investigation of accidents, injuries and reported illnesses, and additional training of committee members and the general workforce.

The challenges reported by committee members at each plant included resistance of some first-line supervisors and department heads to the committees’ work, old equipment in some departments that is difficult to make safe and costly to replace, conflicts between the time needed to complete their committee tasks and their responsibilities on the production line, and the need for more training of committee members, especially in the areas of effective communication and technical aspects of workplace safety.

All three committees were enthusiastic about their initial work and hopeful about expanding their reach and impact on the plant floor. Each committee expressed a strong interest in meeting with the committees from the two other plants to exchange experiences and to obtain further training. The Hong Kong-based NGOs have also expressed an interest in continuing their interaction with these three plants, and involvement with the issue of workplace health and safety in China generally.

A meeting of the three plant committees in the summer of 2002 was approved in principle by the full project Coordinating Committee which met on March 15th at the Yue Yuen II facility. A tentative agenda for a two-day meeting, one for additional training of committee members by local experts in China and Hong Kong, and a second day for sharing experiences, difficulties and successes between the three committees, will be further developed by a planning committee to be established this spring.

The Coordinating Committee meeting also approved the outlines and key content of the project’s final consensus report which will formally end this project when it is issued in May. Once the final report has been released, the confidentiality agreement which has governed all participants will be lifted, and additional comments or perspectives may be forthcoming from individual participants.

Another important aspect of the Coordinating Committee’s discussions was consideration of how to apply the activities and lessons of this project at these three plants to the other 100,000 factories in the Pearl River Delta, let alone the tens of thousands of facilities throughout China and Asia. Recognizing that "even the longest journey starts with a single step," Coordinating Committee participants were hopeful that the proposed exchanges and ongoing activities of the health and safety committees in these three plants will provide a positive example for other facilities, industries and managements in China.

Also at the Coordinating Committee meeting, all participants received a CD-ROM version of the Chinese-language binder used in the August 2001 training, which can be used by the participating organizations throughout China. Both the Chinese-language and the English-language version of the training binder are available from the LOHP at UC Berkeley.

A GLIMPSE OF THE FUTURE – FACTORY LIFE IN THE "NEW CHINA"

In the 20 years between the 1981 reforms which broke up the agricultural communes and the 2001 entry of the People’s Republic of China into the World Trade Organization, what once was "Communist China" has become a "capitalist paradise" of low wages, long hours, no member-controlled unions, no environmental or occupational health regulations, and no problem that cannot be solved with the discreet use of influence peddling and/or bribery.

With wages at 20-25 cents per hour, a huge, defenseless labor pool, and trade barriers falling around the world, the factories of China are sure to be booming for years to come – "stealing jobs" not only from the United States and Europe, but also from insufficiently-low "low wage countries" such as Mexico.

What this transition means for the millions of young women entering the foreign-operated factories (10-14 hours a day, 6-7 days a week) and for the millions of retirees and laid off workers in the declining state sector (evaporated pensions and medical benefits) has been increasingly covered by the mass media in the U.S. A sampling of articles, available at the websites of the publications, include:

• "Workers’ Rights Suffering as China Goes Capitalist," by Erik Eckholm, New York Times, August 22, 2001;

• "Sleepless in Shenzhen: For young Chinese migrant workers, talk show is an irresistible way to share dreams and despair," By Shai Oster, San Francisco Chronicle, September 11, 2001;

• "Workers pay dearly producing goods ‘Made in China,’" by Elaine Kurtenbach, Associated Press, December 25, 2001;

• "Chinese Workers Hold U.S. Importer, Demand for payment reflects labor unrest," by Philip P. Pan, Washington Post, December 29, 2001;

• "Eager workforce, lower costs shift tech help overseas," by Kristi Heim, San Jose Mercury News, January 6, 2002;

• "Striking Workers Risk Arrest to Protest Pay Cuts, Corruption," by Philip P. Pan, Washington Post, January 21, 2002;

• "Letter from China: workers’ paradise has become a workers’ hell," by Jiang Xueqin, The Nation, March 4, 2002;

• "Column One – China’s Trump Card: Smart, Cheap Labor for Tech Production," by Peter Wonacott, Asia Wall Street Journal, March 15, 2002;

• "China: More pain than profit seen in China privatizations," by Nick Edwards, Reuters, March 17, 2002;

• "In China, the rich seek to become the ‘Big Rich,’" by John Pomfret, Washington Post, March 17, 2002;

• "Leaner Factories, Fewer Workers Bring More Labor Unrest to China," by Erik Eckholm, New York Times, March 19, 2002;

• "Thousands of Workers Protest in Chinese City," by John Pomfret, Washington Post, March 20, 2002;

• "China Cracks Down on Worker Protests, leaders detained as 2 cities face continued unrest," by John Pomfret, March 21, 2002;

• "With Carrots and Sticks, China Quiets Protesters," by John Pomfret, March 22, 2002;

• "Sink or Swim," by Philip P. Pan, Washington Post. March 24, 2002

For one comprehensive analysis of the news behind the headlines, see Hong Kong researcher Tim Pringle’s "Industrial Unrest in China – A Labour Movement in the Making?" at the website of the China Labour Bulletin: www.china-labour.org.hk

INDONESIA: FOLLOW-UP TRAINING HELD IN FEBRUARY

Braving the worst flooding in more than a decade, two dozen union and non-government organization (NGO) staff members attended a health and safety training in Jakarta, Indonesia, February 4th through 7th. This training was a follow-up to the four-day training in June 2000 involving many of the same unions and NGOs, and was designed to build the capacity of the participating organizations to conduct their own health and safety trainings with workers and community residents throughout Indonesia.

The February training consisted on two days of sessions on effective training techniques, a third day in which participants conducted trainings of their own with members of their organizations who came to the training center for the morning, and a fourth day of evaluation and action planning. The event was coordinated locally by the LIPS organization, as was the case in 2000, and the trainers included lead trainer Diane Bush and Betty Szudy of the Labor Occupational Health Program (LOHP) at UC Berkeley, and Network Coordinator Garrett Brown.

Among the union and NGO participants were (in the usual Indonesian alphabet-soup) SBSI, SPSI-Reformasi, ABGTeks, GSBI, PBI, IPJ, LEC, Bupera and PKU. The Jakarta office of the American Center for International Labor Solidarity (ACILS) sent staff member Willy Leba, and two staffers from the Hong Kong Asia Monitor Resource Center (AMRC), Sanjiv Pandita and Stephen Frost, also participated. Indonesian participants came from the cities of Bandung, Bogor, Serang and Tangerang as well as Jakarta.

During the first two days, participants from SBSI, IPJ and SPSI-Reformasi prepared two-hour trainings to be presented to members of their organizations who were to come on the third day for a morning session. Because of the widespread flooding in Jakarta, only a handful of outside participants were able to make it to the PKBI family planning education center where the training was held. Nonetheless, two-hour sessions were conducted on reproductive health by the IPJ participants, on chemical hazards by the SPSI-Reformasi participants, and general health and safety concepts by the SBSI participants.

The fourth day was devoted to evaluation and action planning for activities to follow up the 2000 and 2002 trainings. One proposal emerging from the discussion was to form an ongoing "forum" on occupational safety and health which would periodically bring together the participants of the two trainings, and other interested organizations, to exchange experiences, materials and resources, and to explore the possibilities of joint trainings and other activities. Also suggested was the creation of an electronic list serve of participants and others to share experiences and suggestions on occupational safety and health activities in Indonesia.

LOHP trainers Bush and Szudy reported that their organization has many lesson plans and teaching materials on key health and safety topics that they can make available to Jakarta participants for use in Indonesia. Based on a similar interest from China project participants, LOHP will be publishing in the near future a booklet of lesson plans and other materials in English, which can be translated and adapted by health and safety trainers in Indonesia, China and elsewhere.

SEMINAR HELD IN JAKARTA ON LOCAL AND INTERNATIONAL OSH RESOURCES

On February 6th, a seminar on occupational safety and health resources in Indonesia and internationally was held at the PKBI center in Jakarta as part of the follow-up training. The goal of the seminar was to help training participants make contacts with local and regional organizations who can provide human and technical resources for occupational safety and health activities by unions and community-based organizations throughout Indonesia.

Speakers at the seminar included Fauzi Abdullah of LIPS, Verdi Yusuf and Indah Susanti of the Jakarta office of the International Labor Organization (ILO), Willy Leba of the American Center for International Labor Solidarity (ACILS), Dr. F. Handoyo of the Indonesian Association of Occupational Health and Safety, Sanjiv Pandita of the Asia Monitor Resource Center (AMRC), Betty Szudy of the Labor Occupational Health Program (LOHP) at UC Berkeley, who presented slides of the August 2001 training in China, and Agatha Schmaedick of the Workers Rights Consortium (WRC), an organization in the U.S. which was conducting an investigation of a factory in the Jakarta area which produces clothing for U.S. universities.

The Jakarta ILO office already has ongoing workplace health and safety projects in Indonesia, including trainings with employers and workers, as well as a library of printed materials in several languages. AMRC also has conducted trainings in Asia, including Cambodia, Korea and Thailand, and has health and safety-related printed materials. ACILS has not yet addressed workplace health and safety issues in its extensive array of activities in Indonesia, but there is an interest to integrate health and safety into its ongoing programs. Dr. Handoyo presented his organization’s activities and offered their professional assistance to the grassroots organizations at the training.

The two-hour seminar, reportedly the first of its kind in Indonesia, laid the basis to build relations and links between the Indonesian and regional groups to share resources, experiences and possible joint activities in the field of occupational safety and health.

NICARAGUA: NEW OSH PROJECT SEEKING VOLUNTEERS

The newly-formed Global Health through Educational Training (GHET) organization is in the beginning phases of a training program on occupational and environmental health in Nicaragua and is seeking professional volunteers in those fields.

In May 2002, GHET will be conducting a needs assessment with the faculty of medicine of the Autonomous University of Nicaragua (UNAN) in the city of Leon and a local union to develop a five year plan for the project. The project’s goal is to generate "technicos," or grassroots trainers, knowledgeable in occupational and environmental health to work with worker and community-based organizations in the "Free Trade Zones" and adjacent communities in Nicaragua.

GHET is looking for interested professionals from North America to work on this "train the trainer" program as instructors, curriculum developers, and/or technical advisors.

For a project description and more information, please contact Executive Director Jessica Greenberg at 508-226-5091, extension 13, or at jessicafreya@yahoo.com

GLOBAL ANTI-SWEATSHOP ACTIVISTS ORGANIZE

Despite premature obituaries, the world-wide "anti-globalization" movement, perhaps better understood as the "anti-corporate globalization" or "alternative globalization" movement, continues to grow and develop an increasingly sophisticated and detailed critique and alternatives.

More than 50,000 people attended the "World Social Forum" in Porto Alegre, Brazil, held at the same time in February as the elite "World Economic Forum" held in New York City (instead of its usual locale in Davos, Switzerland). Although the Brazil meeting was given almost no media coverage in the U.S., the networks of activists in the developed and developing worlds proposing alternatives to "free market fundamentalism" of the neo-liberal orthodoxy of the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and World Trade Organization, continue to spread and have become legitimate voices regularly reported by the mass media outside the U.S.

Among the new projects of this world-wide movement effecting all three countries of North America are:

• The "Labor and Global Change Network," based at the University of Michigan, has launched a "labor and global change search engine" at its website: www.ilir.umich.edu/lagn/defaultnetwork.htm. The bibliographic database is searchable by keyword and by category. Among the categories are: regulatory innovations, economic dynamics, social programs/social wage, worker migration, and workers rights/labor standards.

• The Campaign for Labor Rights in the US has just launched an initiative to build a national network of activists who are working in their own communities to pass anti-sweatshop or "clean clothes" initiatives. Local and state groups in Minnesota, Maine, New York, Ohio and Washington state are the driving force behind the initiative, which is inspired by the pan-Europe "Clean Clothes Campaign" including 275 organizations in 11 countries. More information is available from CLR at their website: www.summersault.com/~agj/clr/

• The second annual corporate campaigners conference has been set for April 13-15, 2002, in New York City. A wide range of speakers will appear, including actor Martin Sheen, journalists Bill Moyers, Michael Moore and Naomi Klein. There will be skills training workshops and "action planning on how to run and win corporate campaigns." More information is available at: www.empoweringdemocracy.org

• A new brand of "ethically-produced" T-shirts was launched on March 8th by a group of British trade unions and their supporters in the rock-and-roll music world. The first batch of "Ethical Threads" shirts, produced by a women’s cooperative in Nicaragua, are being used on the Billy Bragg tour of the UK this month. The women in the Nicaraguan cooperative earn four times the salary of their counterparts working in the garment factories in Nicaragua’s free trade zone. The Ethical Clothing Company, which owns the Ethical Threads brand, was set up by the Battersea and Wandsworth branches of the British Trade Union Congress. More information is available at: www.labourstart.org.

MATERIALS AND RESOURCES FOR WORKER TRAININGS AND OTHER OSH RESOURCES

With the advent of electronic list-serves as well as journals and books, there is almost too much occupational safety and health resources careening around the global. Here are some recently appearing items, but it is not an exhaustive list of available resources, by any means.

Safety and health training issues:

• "Participatory/Problem-Based Methods and Techniques for Training in Health and Safety," by Ellen Rosskam, New Solutions, A Journal of Environmental and Occupational Health Policy, Vol. 11. No. 3, 2001, pages 215-228.

• "Development by Training: International Training Programs for Occupational Health and Safety Professionals," by Kaj Elgstrand, International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health, Vol. 7, 2001, pages 136-143.

Spanish-language materials and resources:

• "OSHA en Espanol," Federal OSHA webpage in Spanish, accessible at: www.osha.gov/as/opa/spanish/index.html

• State of Washington WISHA (state OSHA program) webpage in Spanish: accessible at: www.Lni.wa.gov/WISHA/SPANISH

• "Electronic Library of Construction Occupational Safety and Health (ELCOSH), accessible at: www.ELCOSH.org

• Spanish-language translation of 450 New Jersey Department of Health "Hazardous Substance Fact Sheets," accessible at: www.state.nj.us/health/eoh/rtkweb/rtkhsfs.htm

• "Riesgos laborales en la maquiladora; La experiencia tamaulipeca," by Cirila Qunitero Ramirez and Maria de Loudres Romo Aguilar, Frontera Norte, Vol. 13, No. Especial #2, 2001.

• "Resultados del Tratado de Libre Comercio de America del Norte en Mexico: Lecciones para la negociacion del Acuerdo de Libre Comercio de las Americas," Alberto Arroyo Picard, editor, RMALC, available at: rmalc@laneta.apc.org

Checklists and Guidelines:

• "Job Hazard Assessment Requirements in Mexican Health and Safety Standards," MexRegs newsletter, February 27, 2002, available at: www.mexregs.com

• The British Health and Safety Executive (HSE) published in February a "risk filter" and full risk assessment for repetitive sprain or ergonomic injuries in the workplace. These checklists are available at www.hsebooks.co.uk

• The British "Hazards" magazine has posted guidelines for performing "body mapping" for hazardous exposures in the workplace (chemical, ergonomic, noise, etc.) on its website. Details are available at: www.hazards.org/diyresearch/index.htm

• The International Labor Organization (ILO) in Cambodia has developed a 156-question checklist for factory inspectors to use during audits of garment factories in Cambodia as part of the labor standard enforcement provisions of a bilateral trade agreement between Cambodia and the U.S. The checklist is described in the November 2001 "First Synthesis Report on the Working Conditions Situation in Cambodia’s Garment Sector." The report and referral to get a copy of the checklist are available at: www.ilo.org

• British development organization "ActionAid" has developed a questionnaire on factory health and safety that thy used in pilot survey of a footwear factory in Vietnam. ActionAid issued a "Methodology Report" on the pilot in March 2001, including a copy of the survey instrument and a section entitled "Lessons Learnt." More information is available from the London headquarters at: mail@actionaid.org.uk

• The ILO’s Programme on Socio-Economic Security has just published a new manual entitled "Barefoot Research: A Workers’ Manual for Organizing on Work Security." The three-chapter manual is available at the ILO’s website at: www.ilo.org/ses (go to Publications, then on-line Publications, then Barefoot Research Manual).

• "Indicators of Sustainable Production: A new tool for promoting business sustainability," by Vesela Veleva and Michael Ellenbecker, New Solutions, A Journal of Environmental and Occupational Health Policy, Vol. 11. No. 1, 2001, pages 41-62.

• "Adapting to change in work and society: a new community strategy on health and safety at work, 2002-2006," a report issued in November 2001 by the Commission of the European Communities. The report is available at: http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/en/com/pdf/2002/com2002_0118en01.pdf

• "International Code of Conduct (Ethics) for Occupational Health and Safety Professionals," International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health, Vol. 7, No. 3, July-September 2001, pages 230-232.

Newsletters and websites:

• The Asian Workers’ Occupational Health, Safety and Environment Institute in Bangkok, Thailand, has begun publishing an on-line newsletter available at its website: www.ohseinstitute.org

• "Exploring Health, Safety and Environment in Central and Eastern Europe: An Introduction to the European Centre for Occupational Health, Safety and the Environment (ECOHSE), by Matthias Beck, Mark Robson, Andrew Watterson and Charles Woolfson,, article in New Solutions, A Journal of Environmental and Occupational Health Policy, Vol. 11. No. 3, 2001, pages 207-214; and the ECOHSE website is: www.gla.ac.uk/ecohse/

Interesting Case Studies:

• "Solvent exposures at Shoe Factories and Workshops in Hebron City, West Bank," by Khaldouin Nijem, Petter Kristensen, Syvert Thorud, Awni Al-Khatib, Fahed Takrori and Espen Bjertness, International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health, Vol. 7, pages 182-188, 2001.

• Ergonomic changes to workstations reduce workers’ musculoskeletal problems by 40 percent, a joint academic-state study shows, published in the "Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 45th Annual Meeting – 2001," by Alan Hedge, Mary Rudakewych and Lisa Valent-Weitz, information available at http://ergo.human.cornell.edu/

• Joint ergonomics project between the University of California at Berkeley and San Francisco, and the Asian Immigrant Women Advocates (AIWA) to reduce ergonomic injuries to garment workers and to design ergonomically-sound sewing machines in Oakland, CA. Information available from Barbara Burgel at barbara.burgel@nursing.ucsf.edu

• Series of reports and articles on the adverse health effects in the semiconductor industry in the U.S., Scotland and Asia, including the February 2002 report of the Semiconductor Industry Association’s Scientific Advisory Committee. Links to all related articles can be found at the website of the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition: www.svtc.org

MAJOR REPORTS ON MEXICO AND GLOBAL SWEATSHOPS

There continues to be a river of informational and analytical reports on working conditions in the world’s factories released each month. What once was a paucity of "hard information" and a surplus of "anecdotal reports" has become an almost overwhelming torrent of materials. Here is a brief description of some of the latest reports.

• International Confederation of Free Trade Unions issued a "Report for the WTO General Council Review of Trade Policies of Mexico" in March 2002. The report is highly critical of the current state of workers rights, both in law and in practice, in Mexico. The report is available at: www.icftu.org

• The North American Commission on Environmental Cooperation, the environmental oversight commission of the NAFTA’s "environmental side agreement," issued a report in February 2002 confirming serious toxic contamination from an abandoned U.S.-owned lead smelter in Tijuana. The CEC report calls for urgent action to halt adverse health effects to nearby residents from the "Metales y Derivados" plant of the San Diego-based New Frontier Trading Corp. The report was issued in response to a complaint filed by residents and the San Diego Environmental Health Coalition. More information and the report is available at: www.environmentalhealth.org and www.cec.org

• "Public Assessments Regarding the Performance of the Border Environmental Cooperation Commission (BECC) and North American Development Bank (NADB)." A survey conducted in August 2001 by the Border Information & Outreach Service of the Albuquerque, New Mexico Interhemispheric Resource Center. The report is available at: www.americaspolicy.org

• "WRC Assessment of PT Dada Indonesia, Preliminary Findings and Recommendations, March 26, 2002" report of an investigation by the Workers Rights Consortium of an apparel and stuffed-toy factory in Indonesia producing for U.S. universities. The report is available at: www.workersrights.org

• "The Workers’ Story: Labour Rights Violations at Hudson’s Bay Supply Factories in Lesotho," a report issued in March 2002 by Canada’s Ethical Trading Action Group (ETAG). The report is available at: www.maquilasolidarity.org

• "We are not machines: Nike and Adidas workers in Indonesia," a report issued in March 2002 by Oxfam Community Aid Abroad (Australia), Oxfam Canada, the Clean Clothes Campaign (Europe) and Global Exchange (US) on the operations of contract factories in Indonesia producing for Nike and adidas. The report is available at: www.caa.org.au

• "New Era Cap Co. Inc. Response to WRC Report," issued in February 2002 in response to a 2001 report by the Workers Rights Consortium on the upstate New York cap factory. The WRC issued a rebuttal to the company response a week later. Both reports are available at: www.workersrights.org

• "The New Balance Sheet, Corporate Profits and Responsibility in the 21st Century," a report issued in January 2002 by the Canadian Democracy and Corporate Accountability Commission. The report is available at: www.corporate-accountability.ca

• "Calling the Accountants to Account," a report issued in December 2001 by the British "Ethical Consumer" magazine critiques the activities of the "Big Five" international accountancy firms in audits of factories producing for Nike, Wal-Mart and Disney. The report is available in the December 2001 – January 2002 issue of the magazine and by contacting Hannah Berry at: hannah@ethicalconsumer.org

• "Global Governance: International law on human rights and the liability of transnational corporations," a report of the international seminar organized by IRENE, The Netherlands, EAD/Evangelic Academy, Germany on December 3-4, 2001. The report of this seminar and many other documents from previous meetings and studies are available from Peter Pennartz of IRENE at: peterpennartz@irene-network.nl

• "Wearing Thin, The state of pay in the fashion industry, 2000-01," a report issued in November 2001 by the British Labour Behind the Label network in collaboration with the European Clean Clothes Campaign on wages paid by 12 major international garment companies. The report is available at: www.labourbehindthelabel.org

• "The Global Governance of Trade, As if Development Really Mattered," a report issued October 2001 by Dani Rodrik for the Trade and Sustainable Human Development Project of the United National Development Programme. The report is available at: www.undp.org/bdp

• "Trade unions and the global economy: An unfinished story," a report from the International Symposium to Strengthen Workers’ Participation in the United Nations System and Impact on the Bretton Woods Institutions held in Switzerland in September 2001. The report is available from the ACTRAV section of the International Labor Organization at: www.ilo.org

• "Beyond Voluntarism, Human rights and the developing international legal obligations of companies," a 2001 report by the International Council on Human Rights Policy in Switzerland. The report is available at: www.ichrp.org

NETWORKING NOTES

* Network Coordinator Garrett Brown was invited to speak to a February 20th meeting of the Labor Standards Working Group of Business for Social Responsibility in San Francisco. Brown presented the Network’s recent work in China and Indonesia, as well as ongoing activities on the US-Mexico border, in a 30-minute talk entitled "Prerequisites and Components of Effective Worker Education." More than 40 labor practices staff from corporate headquarters from 23 apparel, footwear, toy, and equipment companies were present at the meeting.

* Betty Szudy of UC Berkeley’s Labor Occupational Health Program (LOHP), and the lead trainer of the Network’s trainings project in China, spoke for the Network at the invitation of the Intertek Testing Services. Szudy spoke with slides from the Asia trainings in a 45-minute presentation to the annual ITS educational conference in New York City on March 8th. The gathering was attended by 150 corporate-level labor practices staff from a wide variety of US companies with overseas production operations.

* In April, Coordinator Garrett Brown will participate with leaders of the Fair Labor Association, Workers Rights Consortium and Social Accounting International for a one-week "study tour" of European initiatives against global sweatshops. The tour, financed by a grant from the Hewlett Foundation, will travel to Brussels, Belgium, and Amsterdam, Netherlands, to meet with leaders of the 11-European countries Clean Clothes Campaign and the British Ethical Trading Initiative, among others, to learn about the numerous European pilot projects on improving working conditions in Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe and the Americas.

* On February 19th, leaders of women’s organizations, university professors and student, labor activists and religious leaders held a press conference in El Paso, TX, to announce the formation of a bi-national "Coalition on Violence against Women and Families on the Border." The organization is focused on the wave of unsolved murders in Ciudad Juarez which have claimed the lives of more than 270 young women, many of them workers in Juarez maquiladoras, since 1993. The Coalition has raised a series of demands on the U.S. and Mexican governments to mobilize the necessary resources to capture those responsible for the violence and to provide safe conditions for woman maquila workers. The Coalition can be contacted through co-chairs Emma Perez (915-747-7064) and Clemencia Prieto (915-593-1000).

* "Borderlines" newsletter and the Border Information & Outreach Service (BIOS) – both vital resources for understanding the US-Mexico border – transformed themselves on February 1st. The projects of the New Mexican Interhemispheric Resource Center (IRC) have been incorporated into a new, on-line "The Americas Program" available at www.americaspolicy.org. The new site will offer feature articles on the border, analysis and policy briefs, commentary, special reports and publications, including the "Crossborder Updater," and the "Border Information Clearinghouse." Anyone wanting to keep up with what’s happening on the border should bookmark the Americas Program site on their computer’s "favorites" section.

* The International Labor Solidarity Committee of the Vancouver & District Labour Council in Canada launched the first issue of its "Global Solidarity" newsletter in January. The newsletter provides union and globalization-related news and analysis covering not only North America, but throughout the world. To subscribe to the bi-monthly electronic newsletter, contact: saunders@mediaunion.ca.

* Gateway Computers is donating up to 4,500 computers that were used at the recent Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City to non-profit organizations. Donations will begin in April but the registration period is open until early July. More information is available at: www.gateway.com/olympics/donations.shtml

QUOTES OF THE MONTH

"Participants (at the World Economic Forum in New York City) had interesting, interesting debates on whether we should ask business, in the conduct of business, to act ethically, or whether it’s OK for business to be unethical in the conduct of business and then have some spare cash to do good with" – South African Finance Minister Trevor Manuel, quoted by Doug Henwood in the March 2, 2002 issue of "The Nation."

"Our labor relations are going back in time, back to the early days of the industrial revolution in 19th century Europe. Many of the enterprises set up with investment from Asian countries, along with privately-owned Chinese enterprises, have reduced working conditions to a situation comparable to the initial period of capital accumulation that accompanied the appearance of capitalism. Forcing workers to labour long hours for very low wages and even workers signing ‘life and death’ contracts with employers. The problem (in China) is particularly serious in the south-east coastal regions and in Taiwanese and South Korean-owned factories" – citizens’ rights center director Han Zhili, quoted in an official newspaper published by China’s Ministry of Labour and Social Security.

NEW RESOURCES

Mexico-Related Materials

-"Mexico’s Haves and Have-Nots: NAFTA Sharpens the Divide," by Carlos Salas, NACLA Report on the Americas, Vol. XXXV, No. 4, January/February 2002.

- "A New Giant Sucking Sound, China is taking away Mexico’s jobs, as globalization enters a fateful new stage," by William Greider, The Nation, December 31, 2001.

-"Monterrey’s Poor Sinking in Rising Economic Tide," by Tim Weiner, New York Times, March 21, 2002.

-"Death of the Rio Grande; NAFTA growth kills border ecosystem," by Colin Woodward, on-line article at: www.tompaine.com posted on February 22, 2002.

-"Balance Sheet: Tallying Up Fox’s Environmental Record," by Talli Nauman, Americas Program analysis, March 7, 2002, available at: www.americaspolicy.org/briefs/2002/0203foxenv.html

-"What’s Holding Up the Bank?" by Talli Nauman, Americas Program feature, February 1, 2002, available at: www.americaspolicy.org/articles/2002/0202beccnadb.html

-"Waiting on a Plan,?" by Talli Nauman, Americas Program feature, February 8, 2002, available at: www.americaspolicy.org/articles/2002/0202border21.html

-"Mexico to Even Score after U.S. Approval of Tough Trucking Access Law," by Jonathan Treat, Americas Program feature, February 8, 2002, available at: www.americaspolicy.org/articles/2002/0202trucking.html

-"Predicting the Worst for Mexico and Points South in 2002, by John Ross, Americas Program commentary, February 26, 2002, available at: www.americaspolicy.org/commentary/2002/0202predictions.html

-"Killings of women in Ciudad Juarez continue, revealing depth of human rights and justice system problems in Mexico, by Kent Paterson, February 28, 2002, Americas Program investigation, available at: www.americaspolicy.org/articles/2002/0202juarez.html

-"Off the Grid: Mexico’s Free Market Extremism, and Labor’s Challenge to Privatization," by David Bacon, Multinational Monitor, January/February 2002.

-"Update: Plan Puebla-Panama Seeks to Spread NAFTA Ills South," by David McClure, Report on Guatemala, Vol. 22, No.
4, Winter 2001.

-"Free Trade Area of the Americas; NAFTA Marches South," by Claudio Katz, NACLA Report on the Americas, Vol. XXXV, No. 4, January/February 2002.

-"Military Injustice: Mexico’s Failure to Punish Army Abuses," by Human Rights Watch, December 2001, available at: www.hrw.org

-"Fallout of U.S. Recession Drifts South into Mexico," by Ginger Thompson, New York Times, December 26, 2001.

-"U.S. and Mexico: Redefining the Relationship," special issue of the newsletter of the Center for Latin American Studies, Winter 2002, available at: www.clas.berkeley.edu/clas

-"Is the United States a Pollution Haven?" by John Ross, Americas Program Commentary, March 1, 2002, available at: www.americaspolicy.org/commentary/2002/0203pollution.html

-"Dead Tired: Mexican truckers to add to fatigue on U.S. highways," by Judy L. Thomas, The Kansas City Star, December 17, 2001.

U.S.-Related Materials

-"Bill Moyers: Trading Democracy," one-hour documentary by journalist Bill Moyers aired on the Public Broadcasting System on February 8, 2002.

-"The Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in the U.S., Canada and Mexico," by Richard J. Estes and Neil Alan Weiner, University of Pennsylvania School of Social Work, September 18, 2001, available at: www.ssw.upenn.edu/%7Erestes/CSEC.htm

-"Fast Track to Lost Jobs," by Robert E. Scott, Economic Policy Institute briefing paper, October 2001, available at: http://epinet.org

-"Trading Away U.S. Farms," by Robert E. Scott and Adam S. Hersh, Economic Policy Institute briefing paper, October 2001, available at: http://epinet.org

-"Fast Track to Trade Deficits, Mushrooming foreign debt begs for strategic pause before approving new agreements," by Jeff Faux, Economic Policy Institute briefing paper, November 2001, available at: http://epinet.org

-"Trade Union not welcome at PPR USA, A French delegation reports on its visit to a subsidiary in Indianapolis," by Herve Nathan, originally in French in the newspaper Liberation, November 28, 2001, available from Andy Banks at: andy@andybanks.com

-"Time after Time, Mandatory overtime in the U.S. economy," by Lonnie Golden and Helene Jorgensen, Economic Policy Institute briefing paper, January 2002, available at: http://epinet.org

-"Why Not in the U.S.A.? Around the World, Mass Political Strikes Challenge the Effects of Globalization," Kim Moody, Labor Notes, February 2002, available at: www.labornotes.org

-"Gap resist settlement of Saipan sweatshop suit," by Jenny Strasburg, San Francisco Chronicle, March 2, 2002.

-"Toxic Trade? A Canadian chemical firm says California’s pollution controls violate NAFTA rules," by Margaret Roosevelt, Time magazine, March 25, 2002.

Globalization-Related Materials

-"Occupational Health Indicators for South Africa," by David Rees, Danuta Kielkowski and Rosalie Lowe, International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health, Vol. 7, 2001, pages 98-102.

-"Worker Passivity in China – A Maoist Myth," by the China Labour Bulletin, August 17, 2001, available at: www.china-labour.org.hk

-"Confessions of a Sweatshop inspector," by Joshua Samuel Brown, available at: www.monitor.net/monitor/0108a/sweatshopinspect.html

-"The Free Trade Magic Act," Briefing Paper by the Economic Policy Institute, October 2001, available at: http://epinet.org

-"Another world is possible," by Jay Walljasper, Utne Reader, November-December 2001, available at: www.utne.com

-"Lake Victoria: Casualty of Capitalism," by A. Kent MacDougall, Monthly Review magazine, December 2001.

-"The Neoliberal Disorder: The inconsistencies of trade policy," by Arthur MacEwan, NACLA Report on the Americas, Vol. XXXV, No. 3, November/December 2001.

-"Globalization’s Discontents," by Joseph Stiglitz, The American Prospect magazine, January 1-14, 2002.

-"Another World is Possible," special issue of the New Internationalist, No. 324, January/February 2002, available at: www.newint.org

-"A Global Strategy for Labor," a speech by Jeff Faux given in February 2002 at the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil, available at: http://epinet.org

-"From Protest to Politics, A Report from Porto Alegre," by Marc Cooper, The Nation, March 11, 2002.

-"Between the Devil and Deep Blue Sea, Feminist thoughts on globalization," by Nancy Folbre, Dollars and Sense magazine, January/February 2002.

-"The ‘Race to the Bottom’ in Imported Clothes," by Robert S.J. Ross, Dollars and Sense magazine, January/February 2002.
-"Monopoly Capitalism and the New Globalization," by John Bellamy Foster, Monthly Review magazine, January 2002.

-"CLB Analysis of the New Trade Union Law in China," by China Labour Bulletin, February 2002, available at: www.china-labour.org.hk

-"Another World is Possible," by Susan George, The Nation, February 18, 2002.

-"Shall we leave it to the experts?" by Arundhati Roy, The Nation, February 18, 2002.

-"Africa: Living on the Fringe," by Samir Amin, Monthly review magazine, March 2002.

-"The Globalizer Who Came in from the Cold (Joseph Stiglitz)," by Greg Palast, AlterNet on-line magazine, available at: www.alternet.org

-"UN sees crisis in Eastern Europe’s health systems," by Ned Stafford, Reuters, March 12, 2002.

-"Losing Faith: Globalization Proves Disappointing," by Joseph Kahn, New York Times, March 20, 2002.

-"Globalizing Social Justice – The Trade Union Agenda" for the international conference on poverty in Monterrey, Mexico, by the International Confederations of Free Trade Unions, available at: www.icftu.org

-"More Aid, More Need: Pledge still fall short," by Tim Weiner, New York Times, March 24, 2002.

-"FTZs and Women in Nicaragua: Exploitation or Empowerment?" by Rose-Marie Avin, Nicaraguan Developments, Vol. 18, No. 1, Spring 2002.

Books

-"Workers in the Global Economy," first product of a consortium of the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations, the International Labor Rights Fund, the Institute for Policy Studies and the Economic Policy Institute, available at: http://epinet.org

-"Border Games, Policing the U.S.-Mexico Divide," by Peter Andreas, Cornell University Press, 2002, available at: www.cornellpress.cornell.edu.

-"We in the Zone – Women Workers in Asia Export Processing Zones," by the Asia Monitor Resource Center, 2002 reprint and new edition of the 1998 book, available at: www.amrc.org.hk/

-"The Hidden Assembly Line," by Radhika Balakrishnan, Kumarin Press, 2002, available at: www.kpbooks.com

-"Global Uprising, Confronting the Tyrannies of the 21st Century – Stories from a New Generation of Activists," by Neva Welton and Linda Wolf, New Society Publishers, 2002, available at: www.newsociety.com

-"10 Reasons to Abolish the IMF & World Bank," by Kevin Danaher, Seven Stories Press, Open Media Pamphlet Series, 2001, available at: www.sevenstories.com

-"Power Politics," by Arundhati Roy, South End Press, 2002, available at: www.southendpress.org

|-"Stolen Harvest, The hijacking of the Food Supply," by Vandana Shiva, South End Press, 2001, available at: www.southendpress.org

-"A World of Contradictions, Socialist Register 2002, edited by Leo Panitch and Colin Leys, available at: www.monthlyreview.org/socregbks.htm

-"Corporate Irresponsibility: America’s Newest Export," by Lawrence Mitchell, Yale University Press, 2001

-"Perspectives on Corporate Citizenship," edited by Jorg Andriof and Malcolm McIntosh, Greenleaf, UK, 2001.

-"The No-Nonsense Guide to Fair Trade," by David Ransom, New Internationalist Publications, UK, 2001.

Videos

-Canada’s Maquila Solidarity Network website has a listing of a dozen excellent videos on globalization and related themes, available at: www.maquilasolidarity.org

-"Made in Thailand," film by Eve-Laure Moros Ortega and Linzy Emery, 30 minute documentary about women factory workers in Thailand, available from Women Make Movies, 462 Broadway, Fifth floor, New York, NY 10013, 212-295-0606.

-"Uprooted: Refugees of the Global Economy," production of the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, the Interfaith Coalition for Immigrant Rights and Caminate Cultural Work, 28 minute documentary, available at: www.nnirr.org

-"Behind the Label: Garment Workers on U.S. Saipan," by Tia Lessin, 45 minute documentary on sweatshops in the U.S. territory of Saipan, available at: www.witness.org