Unions in Mexico and throughout Latin America are speaking out against anti-union violence in the wake of threats made against two women leading efforts to win a historic union election. Voting began yesterday and continues today at a pickup truck plant in Silao, Mexico. Over 6,000 workers have the chance to elect an independent union and enjoy real collective bargaining for the first time ever. Labor leaders and activists from Mexico, Brazil, the United States and Canada demonstrated outside the plant in support of the democratic union. Other unions in the region sent solidarity messages and letters to the Mexican government denouncing the threats.
In August, workers at the Silao plant voted to throw out the contract held by the Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM) for the last 25 years. The National Independent Union for Workers in the Auto Industry (SINTTIA), supported by the Solidarity Center, emerged from a popular movement urging workers to reject the CTM contract. In a three-year struggle, SINTTIA built a sizable following, leading efforts to throw out the sham contract and increasing its chances of winning today’s election.
However, independent labor activists face threats of violence. Just before voting began, three individuals threatened SINTTIA leader María Alejandra Morales Reynoso and her family with harm if she showed up to vote.
“They just came by my house, two men and a woman, telling me to send a statement saying neither I nor any other worker should show up tomorrow, or if not there will be problems,” said Morales Reynoso.
Later, Claudia Juárez López, SINTTIA secretary, and her family received threats through Facebook and WhatsApp.
Argentina’s Women’s Council of Union Power issued a statement calling on the Mexican government to take measures to protect the safety of union activists and their families; conduct a “comprehensive, exhaustive and impartial investigation” into the threats and identify those responsible; and take steps to ensure the integrity of the election and prevent harassment, threats and intimidation of union workers voting in the election.
In Honduras, the Network Against Anti-Union Violence sent a letter to the Mexico Consulate in San Pedro Sula, requesting that the government guarantee the integrity of the election and the lives and safety of labor activists.
The Network of Labor Rights Defenders of Guatemala issued a statement that read in part, “We call on Mexican authorities to guarantee a favorable environment for workers to freely express their choice of union representative without fear.”
#SomosSINTTIA | All our solidarity with the @SINTTIA (Mexico) and the companions Alejandra and Claudia, leading women who together with their families have been death threats in the framework of a process for the choice of representation.
The Nicaragua Domestic Workers Federation posted a statement in support labor activists, saying, “We position ourselves against all kinds of violence suffered by the members of the Union, we request that the will of the workers of the plant be respected.”
Brazil’s Central Única Dos Trabalhadores (CUT) issued a statement demanding protective measures from the government, stating, “an independent union that obtains its power from workers is necessary to build a future for their families and all Mexican workers.”
Clément Voule, UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of association and peaceful assembly, tweeted in response to reports of threats against union activists in Mexico.
1/2 #Mexico I received disturbing reports of death threats against ind. trade union leaders, both women, and their families in connection to an imminent vote at the GM assembly plant in #Silao following 3 yrs of struggle for an independent union & collective bargaining agreement.
— UN Special Rapporteur Freedom of Association (@cvoule) February 1, 2022
2/2 #Mexico An election for union representation cannot be carried out in the context of threats and intimidation. I call on the Mexican authorities to ensure an environment conducive for the 6,000 workers to freely express their choice of union rep without fear. @STPS_mx
— UN Special Rapporteur Freedom of Association (@cvoule) February 1, 2022
This is the first high-stakes union election brought about after Mexican workers rejected a sham contract. A 2019 Mexican labor law reform required by a trade deal with Canada and the United States aims to challenge the power of labor organizations that have long signed deals without workers’ knowledge or consent. The reform requires contract “legitimation” votes to occur before May 2023, creating an opening for representative unions.
For decades, Mexican workers have had little to no say in which unions represented them. “Protection unions” have drawn their power from alliances with politicians and employers, whom they placated by keeping wages low, while collecting dues and accumulating wealth and power. The CTM formed part of Mexico’s ruling party. Its leaders signed contracts with companies before plants were even opened, and kept workers in the dark about the union and its negotiations.
Mexican auto workers earn a fraction of what their American, Argentine, Brazilian or Canadian counterparts make. They earn much less than the few Mexican autoworkers who are members of independent unions. Low wages spurred an exodus of investment, auto plants and jobs from other countries in the Americas to Mexico. A victory for SINTTIA could mark the beginning of a fundamental shift, keeping wages from bottoming out for workers in many countries in the region.
Afro-Brazilian union leader and city councilman Alexsandro Faria was murdered on October 13, 2021. Known as Sandro do Sindicato–or Sandro from the Union–Faria was on his way to a worker assembly when he was shot dead while driving a van in Duque de Caxias, the section of Rio de Janeiro where he lived.
Faria was the third city councilor in Duque to be killed this year. In 2018, Marielle Franco, a progressive Afro-Brazilian and lesbian city councilor representing one of Rio’s poorest districts, was assassinated, leading to global denunciations.
Faria’s union issued the following statement concerning his murder:
SITICOMMM (Union of Workers in Civil Construction, Industrial Assembly, Furniture, Marble and Granite and Wicker), repudiates the cowardly murder of fellow union leader and city councilor Alexsandro Silva Faria, Sandro do Sindicato.
All SITICOMMM leaders are in solidarity with his family and friends and deeply regret the loss of their loved one.
We emphasize the daily struggle of our comrade Sandro in defense of workers, especially in our city of Duque de Caxias, while he was acting as Union Director.
We also highlight his brief role as elected councilor with the support of 3,247 voters. In a short time in office, he was already bringing changes to the entire city, especially to the Pilar neighborhood.
Comrade Sandro is the third city councilor murdered this year in our municipality. These and other crimes need to be elucidated by the police, as they are a serious attack on the rule of law and democracy. These barbaric crimes cannot go unpunished!
Black, humble, who fought tirelessly for the workers, Sandro do Sindicato.
We want an answer! #SandroVive #SandroVive #SandroVive
“This is a huge loss,” says Solidarity Center Brazil Country Program Director Gonzalo Martinez de Vedia. “Sandro was a worker who moved up to lead a union, an Afro-Brazilian whose connections to the grassroots brought him to public office. That his career ended this way and that he is the third not to finish his term in that same position due to murder sends a troubling message to others aspiring to that path who come from similar backgrounds.”
The union is following the investigation into Faria’s murder closely. The International Trade Union Confederation ranks Brazil among the 10 worst countries in the world for worker rights, noting two murders of union leaders in 2020 as one of the drivers of this ranking.
Faria was buried at the Nossa Senhora do Pilar Cemetery, in Duque de Caxias, Thursday, October 14, 2021.
Millions of street vendors worldwide lost their livelihoods nearly overnight during the pandemic, unable to sell in open markets during lockdowns or unwilling to risk their health to do so.
Maria do Carmo, founder of United Camelôs Movement street vendor association in Sao Paulo, spoke at the Essential Worker Summit.
But street vendors in Brazil, through the National Union of Street Vendors Workers (UNICAB), achieved basic emergency income to ensure they could survive. UNICAB went on to collect sufficient signatures from members of the Brazil National Congress to create a Parliamentary Front to defend informal traders’ rights, marking the first time they will be represented at the national level.
“We had many successes this year during the pandemic,” says Maria do Carmo, a street vendor and leader of the United Camelôs Movement (MUCA) in Rio de Janeiro. MUCA, organized by do Carmo in 2003, has further built its collective strength by joining UNICAB, a countrywide association formed in 2014.
Do Carmo says she is most proud of MUCA’s victory in convincing city officials to not charge customary fees during the pandemic because vendors sold so little. “We did it with a lot of protest—going to the town hall and participating in public debate.
“A good success is a collective one.”
Building Success Through Collective Action
Marli Almeida is among many street vendors in Brazil seeking basic rights on the job. Credit: UNICAB
In September, informal economy workers joined in a first-of-its-kind worldwide gathering to outline a vision for a just economic recovery that ensures protections for workers and advances worker rights. Over three days, the Essential For Recovery summit brought together well-known actors, global union leaders and policymakers who talked with street vendors, domestic workers, farm workers and others who shared their experiences and demanded a response that urgently and effectively protects the most marginalized.
Many Essential For Recovery participants pointed to workers joining together in unions and associations as one of the most effective means for achieving rights. In Rio, do Carmo and other street vendors further showed the power of collective action during the pandemic when they successfully lobbied the municipal government to stop police from confiscating vendors’ merchandise as means of harassment.
“After MUCA joined UNICAB, we saw we had more presence, we are more respected in the state [of Rio] because of strength of UNICAB,” she says. Through the organization, street vendors connect with each other across the country, learn about available resources and join together to advocate for their rights at the local and national levels. (Check out UNICAB’s podcast with street vendors, in Portuguese).
Street Vendors Part of Growing Informal Economy
Edivaldo, a member of the Sintraci Informal traders trade union of Recife Pernambuco, protests violence against street vendors. Credit: UNICAB
Street vendors are part of the global economy’s vast and growing informal workforce—61 percent of all workers are in the informal economy, where they rarely have paid sick leave, safe jobs or access to affordable health care. Street violence—especially from police and other local officials—is the biggest problem they face in Brazil and worldwide, says Maira Villas-Bôas Vannuchi, organizer of StreetNet International for the Americas. Street vendors, the majority of whom are women in many countries, are especially vulnerable, exposed to extreme heat or cold, often with no access to toilets or clean water.
“Many women, single mothers, had to go work in the streets because that was the option they had,” says do Carmo.
Two weeks after giving birth, Maria do Carmo returned to the streets of downtown Rio, where she sells women’s clothes. The police, who street vendors there say regularly abuse them verbally and physically, assaulted do Carmo.
“They beat me up pretty hard,” she says. “I was injured and had to take leave from work.”
It took do Carmo a month before she was healed sufficiently to return to her job, but when she did, she was determined to fight for the rights of street vendors to make a living. Do Carmo went on to organize street vendors across the city in MUCA.
“Street vendors are workers without rights,” says Vannuchi. “They work every day, they contribute to the economy of the country, but they are not recognized as workers.”
Respect, Recognition
Connecting with and organizing street vendors who work on different days and at varied hours spread across cities and along roads was challenging—and involved many arrests as local officials sought to disrupt their efforts to gain political and social rights, with police targeting leaders like do Carmo. MUCA and UNICAB are now part of StreetNet International, a global alliance of street vendors launched in South Africa in 2002.
Do Carmo ran for office in Rio and although she did not win the election, she says the visibility of her campaign and the efforts of other vendors to win office brings their issues to the attention of the public and lawmakers. “Today we have respect from City Hall,” she says.
A single mother, do Carmo has supported four children with her work and plans to remain a street vendor, despite her organizational involvement and efforts to seek elective office. She emphasizes that street vending is a job many want and need to do—but in decent conditions and with respect.
“A good future will be a future when street vendors—all of them—have confidence in the value of their work, when society considers what we do is work and when our work is appreciated by society, and we are not marginalized as we are now.”
Democracy is under siege around the world with the subversion of democratic processes and outright coups—and attacks worker rights are a big part of authoritarian efforts to cut off civil liberties.
On this week’s Solidarity Center Podcast, two worker advocates from countries where democracy is under threat—Belarus and Brazil—discuss how workers are pushing back against repression and are building a better future for their countries, one that recognizes worker rights are a foundation of true democracy.
Maximilano Garcez, president of the Brazilian Association of Union Lawyers, represented families of the 272 people who died in a preventable mining disaster in 2019. The Brumadinho mining waste dam, held by walls of sand, collapsed during rainy season cutting a path of destruction from the mine and for miles into the surrounding community. It is among nearly 100 mining dams in the country built the same way.
The mining disaster was “industrial homicide”—the result of corporations “incentivized to greed” in a system where “killing people has been worthwhile,” says Garcez.
Workers Rise Up in Belarus Against Repressive Regime
Also on the show, Sergey Antusevich, vice president of the Belarusian Congress of Democratic Trade Unions, describes the recent uprising against the country’s repressive regime in which workers, led in many cases by women, have taken a key role.
“Many factories began to express a position actively, protest against violence and fraud, and started for the first time in Belarus history to set up strike committees” despite a strike ban, he says.
“At the same time, the protesters made demands: resignation of Lukashenko and his clique and an end to violence and repression and holding fair elections. At the same time, workers and employers began to quit the state trade unions and tried to create independent trade unions.”
The Solidarity Center Podcast, “Billions of Us, One Just Future,” highlights conversations with workers (and other smart people) worldwide shaping the workplace for the better.
Join us for a new episode each Wednesday at iTunes, Spotify,Amazon, Stitcher or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
Solidarity Center Podcast Schedule
March 24: Preeda, a migrant worker rights activist in Thailand working with unions to help migrant workers meet the challenges of COVID-19.
April 7: Francia Blanco, a domestic worker and trans rights activist reaching marginalized workers through her all-trans domestic workers union.
April 14: Adriana Paz, an advocate with the International Domestic Workers Federation who understands firsthand the power of unions in ensuring domestic workers have safe, decent jobs.
April 21: International Trade Union Confederation President Ayuba Wabba, who explores the Nigerian labor movement’s response to the COVID crisis on workers and discusses the global labor movement’s plans to build back better for workers around the world.
This podcast was made possible by the generous support of the American people through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) under Cooperative Agreement No.AID-OAA-L-16-00001 and the opinions expressed herein are those of the participant(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID/USG.
The vast majority of women in Brazil’s textile and shoe factories who took part in a recent study say they have experienced some form of violence at work, often gender-based violence and harassment—to the extent that “for many women, work is synonymous with suffering,” according to a new report, “Promoting Human Rights and Strengthening Trade Union Action and Equality in the Brazilian Clothing Sector.”
CNTRV President Francisca Trajano says the extent of violence against women in garment factories is shocking, Credit: CUT
“The most revealing thing this study uncovered is the extent of violence in the workplace,” says National Confederation of Apparel Workers (CNTRV) President Francisca Trajano, speaking through a translator. “I am especially surprised by the extent of sexual harassment by supervisors.”
Some 246 women workers took part in either regional workshops or guided discussions between March and June as part of an Instituto Observatorio Social study of textile and shoe workers in six cities: Colatina, Fortaleza, Ipirá, Pouso Alegre, Sapiranga, Sorocaba, and Sao Paulo. (The report is available in Portuguese.)
The study found the most frequent form of violence is bullying, with supervisors screaming and cursing at workers, threatening them if they do not produce at the required pace and harassing them for using the bathroom.
Bullying often is directed toward union leaders, the report finds, with female union leaders closely watched by supervisors, who also harass and even fire workers who talk with them.
Collective Agreements Improve Working Conditions
Instituto Observatorio Social researcher Mariana Castro presents the study’s findings at a meeting of garment worker union leaders. Credit: CUT
Sexual harassment, which is a form of gender-based violence, is widespread and sometimes subtle, according to the report. “But regardless of the form, sexual harassment is a constant situation,” say the report’s authors. Women often fear reporting sexual harassment or assault, and with good reason: “In some cases when they bring the complaint to superiors, women are ridiculed. In other cases they have no one to whom to bring the complaint because the supervisor is also a stalker,” the report states.
The study also looked at the intersections of gender violence and harassment against LGBTQI+ workers and workers of color. “When admitted, black women are usually assigned to the worst services, such as working with shoe glue or working in noisy and uncomfortable machines,” according to the report.
In general, the report finds that clothing companies are organized from a rigid social and sexual division of labor, in which women generally occupy the least qualified and worst paid positions.
The women workers who took part in the study stressed the importance of collective agreements to improve working conditions, and the report recommends unions negotiate clauses to combat bullying and sexual harassment in the workplace. The study also recommends unions hold workshops and discussion sessions to make workers aware of their right to a violence-free workplace. Many women interviewed were unaware of the laws and other options to combat violence at work.
Report Raises Union Leaders’ Awareness of GBVH at Work
One key goal of the report, funded by the Brazilian branch of the C&A Foundation, is to start a dialogue with employers to seek remedies for gender-based violence at work, says Jana Silverman, Solidarity Center Brazil country director. Further, the study, which solely examines union workplaces, should “raise awareness about the prevalence of gender-based violence in the workplace, raise awareness among union leadership, especially male leadership, about how prevalent this is in their rank-and-file membership,” she says.
In fact, says Trajano, union leaders at the local and national levels who were not directly involved in the project have shown keen interest in its findings. “They are reflecting on how to think through how unions can be a place where women who are victims of the violence can turn to to get help,” she says.
The report already has created concrete change. Union members at garment factories in Pouso Alegre negotiated a contract clause in which employers committed to hold biannual trainings for managers to combat gender-based violence in the workplace.
Unions evaluated the study’s findings last week and plan to take the report to their executive committees and create the conditions to prevent and end GBVH through collective bargaining or social dialogue with employers. Trajano says CNTRV, which represents 69 unions and three state regional federations, is pressing unions to negotiate contract language protecting against gender-based violence and harassment. Many of the union contracts come up for negotiation in January.
CNTRV is well-placed to lead the campaign addressing gender-based violence at work. In April, delegates to CNTRV’s 11th Congress voted for gender parity in leadership and adopted a pro-women’s rights agenda. In partnership with the Solidarity Center, CNTRV in recent years ran a nationwide women’s leadership project, preparing women workers to assume leadership positions.
“Obviously it was very shocking to us when we received the results of the report to understand the extent of violence at the workplace,” says Trajano, who also is an executive committee member of the Central Union of Workers in Brazil (CUT). “At the same time it’s a wake up call to do something about it.”
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