Posted on 04/13/2005 12:58:00 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
MEXICO CITY (AP) - More than a dozen legal Mexican and Central American migrant workers recruited by U.S. companies filed a complaint Wednesday alleging they were abused and denied rights guaranteed by the North American Free Trade Agreement.
The complaint, filed with the Mexican government under the companion labor agreement to NAFTA, maintains that 16 migrant non-farm workers from Mexico, Guatemala and Panama suffered labor abuses in the United States but had no way to file a complaint or to access U.S. courts.
Lodged with the help of eight American and Mexican labor and migrant organizations, the complaint calls on the Mexican government to ask the United States to better enforce its own labor laws.
Backers of the petition say labor enforcement issues for legal migrants are taking on increasing importance now that President Bush is proposing a temporary-worker program for Mexican migrants.
"It doesn't help the laborers to have a guest-worker program, to have a visa, if in reality - as we are seeing with this testimony - labor laws are not respected," Karina Arias, a representative of the Mexico City-based migrant support group Sin Fronteras, told a news conference.
One of the Mexican migrants, Manuel Camero, said he spent $2,000 on transportation, overcrowded housing and protective equipment for a job with an Idaho reforestation company, then never received a paycheck.
The company even tried to charge workers for their Social Security cards, claims Camero. He said he fled the job with other workers after they were threatened by the business owner.
"I don't have any need for vengeance," the 60-year-old father of four said. "But I think that across the United States, which is a country of laws - where the law means something - these types of abuses are occurring with people who go there needing work to make money for their families."
The migrants filing the complaint lacked the money to hire their own legal counsel. And they were not entitled to be represented by public legal aid offices in the United States because they are not farm workers, said D. Michael Dale, an attorney with the Northwest Workers' Justice Project in Portland, Ore., one of the groups helping the migrants.
Legal Services Corp. - the private, nonprofit corporation established by Congress to ensure legal assistance to poor Americans - provides aid to migrant farm workers but not most aliens who hold nonagricultural jobs, corporation spokesman Eric Kleiman said.
"We are struggling to provide the basic services for men and women and children in this country," Kleiman said. "Our mandate is clear. Our resources are limited. We do the very best we can."
While NAFTA's side labor agreement, the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation, doesn't require any particular labor protections for migrant workers, "what it does say is that whatever laws you have, whatever rights you do recognize under your own law, that you enforce them," Dale said.
"Remedies are supposed to be fair, transparent and reasonably inexpensive," he said. "Congress has seen fit to provide that for U.S. workers. It should do the same for these workers."
Under the labor cooperation agreement signed by the United States, Mexico and Canada, alleged violations are presented to the member country in question, which then decides whether to take up the complaint.
In this case, workers hope the Mexican government will hold hearings to investigate the reports of abuse and eventually ask the United States to improve enforcement of labor law, while allowing legal aid providers to extend representation to more migrants.
Mexican migrant Manuel Camero, right, talks during an interview, as Michael Dale, an attorney with the Northwest Workers' Justice Project in Portland, Oregon, listens, Tuesday, April 12, 2005, in Mexico City. More than a dozen legal Mexican and Central American migrant workers recruited by U.S. companies filed a complaint Wednesday alleging they were abused and denied legal services guaranteed by the North American Free Trade Agreement.
While I certainly believe these legal migrants should be offered recourse to address their petition, please remind me, exactly what are Mexico's labor laws again? and should we enforce ours comparatively to theirs?
The sooner NAFTA is GONE, the better for the USA. Don't vote for any candidate that SUPPORTS FREE TRADE AGREEMENTS!!!!
Northwest Workers' Justice Project .. quite the assortment of leftists on the board.
http://www.nwjp.org/advisory.html
If these workers are or were legal they deserve the same treatment as any other American worker. I don't think whining to Vincente Arafat will do much good. They should bring their concerns to American courts where they're more likely to get a fair shake.
I thought SS was for US citizens. Was he trying to get a card illegally? Just curious.
Except the law that forbids illegals flooding our country.
A few years ago a hispanic co worker explained that one of the reason he was against illegals was his fear that American hispanics would begin to be treated as illegals.
No, you get an SS number on an H1B or an L1.
Thanks for the info!
He wouldn't get a SS card from his employer if he applied to the government LIKE HE'S SUPPOSED TO in the first place.
I smell a scam.
I did to except it could be an error in the story. It sounds like he was trying to get around the legal aspect of applying himself.
Oh, I dont' know.
How many criminals would you like to work next to in the factories and chain stores.
You would think that it would be an easy solution, but it would be much more complicated to do that.
How about hiring americans, say like, school kids looking to work their way through school, instead.
I don't buy the line of 'they do they jobs that americans won't).
They do the jobs that americans refuse to take 'less than minimun wage' for.
"It sounds like he was trying to get around the legal aspect of applying himself."
Then someone is selling him a bill of goods, because he has the right and responsibility to apply for a SS card.
Like I said. Sounds like a scam to me.
RIGHT ON!
Most of the jobs these immigrants are coming for a agricultural. Not mall jobs or interaction with the public sector. I grew up in California and these people are coming to work in produce at below minimum wages. I am talking about using low threat criminals for these crews. I think it could work. We use the criminals all the time to do janitorial, maintenance, landscaping etc. for government entities, the general public just isn't aware of it.
I have a real problem with Mexican courts having any "jurisdiction" against US based companies/businesses - particularly regarding employment "rights".
If someone comes here to work and doesn't like the work - go home. I'm sick of adjusting OUR country for them.
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