Contact person:
Amelia Simpson – (619) 952-5568
Martha Ojeda – (210) 240-1084
UAW – (734) 664-9504

 

CJM PRESS RELEASE - 10-02-2009

WORKERS UNITED ACROSS BORDERS DEMONSTRATE
AGAINST NAFTA AND FREE TRADE
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UAW AND TRW WORKERS UNITED IN ONE VOICE!
WE WANT JOBS- ECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE!!
NO NAFTA FREE TRADE

MONDAY OCTOBER 5TH AT 12:00 P.M. AT THE US-CANADA INTERNATONAL AMBASSADOR BRIDGE, AND AT THE US-MEXICO HIDALGO-MCALLEN- REYNOSA INTERNATIONAL BRIDGE

Ernesto Lizcano, a TRW worker, traveled to Livonia, Michigan to meet with company executives at TRW headquarters, but they refused to meet with him. Since then, Ernesto has been traveling throughout the US looking for support to make TRW accountable to the workers in Reynosa, Mexico. (See background at www//coalitionforjustice.net.)

Members of UAW workers Local 174 from Romulus, Michigan are traveling to the US-Mexican border on October 5th to demonstrate against free trade at the international bridge in Hidalgo/McAllen, TX. The TRW workers will be demonstrating on the Mexican side in an expression of solidarity, and to show that workers are united across borders. Members of Local 174 and others have donated thousands of dollars to fund the UAW member trip as they and their families are the victims of these devastating trade policies.

***

George Hardy, First Vice-president of the UAW Local 174, stated, “We want jobs. We need to feed our families, but NAFTA wiped away all our jobs in Michigan and in America. We are demonstrating with TRW workers because NAFTA pit workers against one another, but now we want to tell all corporations that workers are united.”

***

Martha Ojeda, executive director of the CJM, explained, “Trade is not just among governments and corporations. President Obama should see the social impact of free trade and listen to the people who believed his promises for change. He said to the people, ‘YES WE CAN!’ but instead of change for workers and families, government is bailing out multinational corporations that closed plants and gave massive layoffs.”

***

Ernesto Lizcano said, “The multinational corporations make billionaire profits with our labor force, but NAFTA gave power to these corporations to exploit workers and to violate human and labor rights and to pollute our environment with impunity. They can’t close plants and run away with government bailouts on their hands and leave workers on the street. The corporations should be accountable to workers wherever they go and if they aren’t, we should take the industrial plants into our own hands.”                                                                                                      

***

Join the demonstrations against NAFTA free trade from Canada to Mexico (see list of cities and dates below) and tell the NAFTA signers that WE WANT JOBS – ECONOMIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE -NO MORE NAFTA FREE TRADE. Support TRW workers in demanding that TRW in Reynosa negotiate with the Workers Coalition the terms of their relocation, salaries, and labor conditions. Call upon TRW to respect human and labor rights and the constitutionally guaranteed right to a job – SAY NO to blacklist. If workers’ conditions for relocation are not met, according to  Mexican law, they should get their severance payments, including back pay. 

Demonstrations are at the international Ambassador Bridge in Detroit, and at the International Bridge in Hidalgo/Mc Allen, TX and in Reynosa, MX October 5th   at noon.

For more information call (619) 952- 5568, (210) 240- 1084,   (210) 732- 8957, (734)-664-9504 or email cjm_martha@igc.org, cjm_alonzo@igc.org, cjm_cynthia@igc.org, joecar11@yahoo.com, Whateverittakeslive.com, UAWLOCAL174.com

 

WHATEVER IT TAKES

 Our group (Whatever it Takes) is disputing the Free Trade Agreements that this Country has entered into with 17 Foreign Nations. We are also trying to bring to the public’s attention that there are 5 more agreements awaiting approval in Congress now. We do not understand how we can continue making these agreements while our economy is failing. Our infrastructure is crumbling and services are being canceled all over the US. With a loss of jobs that we have experienced over the past 15 years and the gap between the rich and the poor constantly growing it is evident that the good paying jobs that allow the middle class to exist are leaving.

Think about this fact. We are all witnessing Jobless rates that are higher than they have been since the great depression, Services that help families survive in times of job loss are deteriorating because of the tax base lost because of the jobless rate, not to mention crime on the rise because of the lack of programs and jobs, then the cuts in police and fire. So, we then try to borrow money from China to protect services and jobs from being lost all the while not addressing the core problem of free trade that has allowed those job losses. We have also turned our backs to the fact of a globalized wage control as people are getting more desperate for work and willing to do more for less, setting further gaps between the rich and poor all the while the price of these goods do not change.

We have formed this group out of UAW Local 174 in Detroit Michigan. We have endured a grueling 28 hour journey one way to try to educate all of America to the issues of trade. We do not want you to just take our word for this. The goal is for everyone to be involved and make informed decisions about these issues.

 

READ BACKGROUND

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Alert #

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Call TRW Headquarters on Sept. 16 at 10AM (EST)

End the race to the bottom that exploits
Mexican and U.S. workers!

Stop bargaining away hard fought gains! Continue here...

FROM EXPLOITING MEXICAN WORKERS TO THE DETRIMENT OF U.S. WORKERS

JOIN TRW WORKERS AND ALLIES MOBILIZATION & ACTIONS Continue here...

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