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 Editorials | Environmental | August 2005 
CAFTA Bodes Ill For The Environment
 Talli Nauman - The Herald Mexico
With the recent approval of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), Mexico's neighbors to the south are about to get their own helping of what already has been dished out to the employees of foreign-owned actories operating under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in Mexico: a deepening morass of environmental health problems.
The factories, or maquiladoras, are taking advantage of ariff relief rules the Mexican and Central American governments made years ago. The trade measures provide opportunities to sharpen profit margins for the companies from abroad and their Mexican subsidiaries. Meanwhile the jobs created are at the expense of the environment and the health of the labor force. NAFTA has only made conditions worse. CAFTA will do the same.
Mexican workers have engaged in joint efforts to improve the situation for years. They have even linked with cohorts on the other side of the U.S.-Mexico border in mutual self-help campaigns. But the factory owners and authorities still take little responsibility for the negative impact of the free trade system.
That's why the U.N. International Labor Organization has been promoting adoption of maquiladora conduct codes in Latin America for several years. So far, the ILO has convinced the general council of the International Employers' Organization to urge members to post voluntary goals for improvement.
Maybe someday public pressure will mount sufficiently to achieve verifiable compliance with the codes. Given enough backing, the policies could even become mandatory.
The NAFTA side accord on labor promised protection against illness and accidents on the job, as well as compensation for them. But it has achieved nothing in terms of raising workplace health and safety levels in the 11 years of the agreement's application. CAFTA doesn't even have an equivalent side accord.
In Mexico, a handful of grassroots groups have foundation support to spread the idea of conduct codes among maquiladora workers. In Guatemala, Nicaragua and El Salvador, Central Americans also are advancing ethics and conduct codes for employees' protection.
In its halting way, the clothing industry chamber of Guatemala has pledged, "Environmental conservation is a fundamental element that should be harmonized with the country's economic and social development. The industry will respect the environmental standards and legislation in place in the country."
Groups such as the Toronto-based Maquila Solidarity Network and the San Antonio, Texas-based Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras are taking part in an effort to level the playing field, not only in this hemisphere but increasingly on other continents, as well.
Until community residents and employees do better monitoring and make stiffer demands, however, you can bet that the idea of a clean bill of health on the shop floor of the maquiladora will remain a pipe dream. In Mexico, it's still almost as if the concept of occupational health hadn't been hatched at all.
Two-thirds of maquiladora workers in the country are females between the ages of 15 and 25 with only primary education. Not too long ago, Human Rights Watch, the International Labor Rights Fund and Mexico's National Association of Democratic Lawyers filed a complaint under NAFTA's labor accord, alleging maquiladoras in Mexico illegally discriminate against women. It led to bi-national ministerial consultations but didn't change the dismal statistics of the late 1990s, which have not improved to date: About half of the maquiladoras along the U.S.-Mexico border generate toxic residues, most of which is not tracked. Some 75 percent discharge dangerous substances into drainage systems without monitoring.
Inside the maquiladoras, the most frequently identified health risks are inadequate lighting and ventilation, high noise levels, lack of hygienic conditions and safety measures, prolonged shifts, exposure to toxic materials and inadequate training for handling them.
Daily skin contact with or airborne exposure to chemicals results in nausea, vomiting, headaches, unusual fatigue, depression, forgetfulness, chest pressure, shortness of breath, difficulty in falling asleep, stomach pain, dizziness, numbness and tingling. Workers also complain of ear, eye, nose and throat, gastrointestinal and skin disorders.
Polling has shown that 89.3 percent of U.S. consumers are willing to pay a little more for imports from maquiladoras in order to support labor protection measures abroad. Nonetheless, the comparatively low real wages in the Mexican maquiladoras have been dropping under NAFTA, a signal that the companies are cutting corners rather than contributing to employees' welfare.
With U.S. President George W. Bush's signature Aug. 2, the CAFTA bill that he barely squeezed through Congress will promote degeneration of employment conditions and quality of life in Central America, just as NAFTA has done in Mexico.
Now the need is greater than ever for advocacy groups inside and outside the factories to pull together to protect the environment from wanton corporate interests and officials in collusion with them. Its time they all were held accountable.
Talli Nauman is a founder and co-director of Journalism to Raise Environmental Awareness. She is the Americas Program Associate at the International Relations Center. (talli@direcway.com) |
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