Workers Win Independent Union Victory in Tijuana Maquiladora Luxshare

In early March, 2400 workers at the Chinese owned Luxshare plant in Tijuana’s maquiladora factory district won the first independent union there since 1998.  Mexico’s maquiladoras have long been dominated by fake company unions, products of contracts signed without the knowledge of the workers, in order to pre-empt actual independent unions. They joined the National Independent Union of Women and Men Workers Auto Workers (SINTTIA), an independent union that scored its first victory in 2022 at the GM factory in Silao.

Luxshare workers organized with the help of Casa Obrera, a network of worker-organizing centers in 5 main industrial cities in Mexico.  Here Avery Wear (AW), labor unionist and transnational labor solidarity organizer, interviews Tijuana Casa Obrera co-founder Jaime Cota (JC).

AW: The last independent union in Tijuana's maquiladoras was in 1998. What is the maquiladora industry, and why is it so difficult to unionize?

JC: The maquiladora industry is a production method where the most important thing is the commodity, the product of labor. The workers occupy the last place in importance for companies in this method of work, where they are subjected to inhumane working conditions; it is a modernized form of slavery.

The maquiladora industry is the main one that uses this method, but it is so lucrative for employers that it is now applied to almost all jobs (telephone, fast-food restaurants, universities, etc.), with long workdays of 10 or 12 hours, subsistence wages, despotic treatment from supervisors and managers, job instability, among other things.

The aforementioned, coupled with employer repression through police intervention, layoffs, and even murder; the existence of union mafias that impose protective employment contracts on employers to prevent and hinder worker organization; the lack of industrial union tradition in the area; and the lack of recognition of our rights—these are some of the factors that have hindered unionization.

AW: Luxshare workers obtained union recognition in their election this month. What factors drove the workers to organize?

JC: What the workers of Luxshare Precision México, formerly known as Bose Corporation, achieved was the representation of SINTTIA for the negotiation of a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). To do so, they had to collect nearly 700 signatures from active workers.

They now have six months, starting March 5th, to submit a CBA proposal to the company to negotiate with it and thus define the working conditions that will govern the company for two years.

The movement began due to the concern caused by the announcement of the sale of the company, as the information provided by Bose was contradictory, causing uncertainty among the workers. This was accompanied by workplace harassment. Then came the layoffs. These were the factors that led to the organization.

AW: What is Casa Obrera, and what role did you play in organizing the campaign at Luxshare?

JC: Casa Obrera is a space for organizing and training about our labor rights. We provide advice so workers can better organize themselves. Last May, our colleague Adriana, a Bose worker, sought us out to help her understand what was happening at her factory. By August, around 30 workers were already meeting at Casa Obrera. By mid-September, they began collecting signatures to obtain SINTTIA representation.

Our work consisted first of providing advice on what to do, then connecting them with SINTTIA through the Center for Labor Research and Trade Union Advice (CILAS). Then, we supported them in collecting signatures and organizing the paperwork. But the work of convincing the majority of the workers, and therefore the vast majority of the signature collection, was done by the workers themselves.

And they did this in an environment of misinformation from the company, workplace harassment, and layoffs.

AW: After your election victory, what are the next challenges facing Luxshare workers?

JC: There are currently several processes running in parallel.

One is union membership, to try to gather as much strength as possible so that, at the time of negotiation, we can achieve a CBA that is most beneficial to the workforce.

Two, survey all workers about their needs and demands, and then build the CBA based on them. If this is achieved, accompanied by a successful contract negotiation, we will have enough strength to approve the CBA when it comes to legitimizing the CBA.

Three, an accelerated union training process: understanding their labor rights, how a union works, its bylaws, what the CBA is, and how to conduct negotiations with the company. It's not easy.

AW: Before Luxshare, Casa Obrera was campaigning with the families of Servando Cano Salazar, a missing worker from the Prime Wheel maquila, and Eduardo Ortiz, a worker killed at the same factory. What is the status of Servando and Eduardo's cases?

JC: Regarding Eduardo Ruiz's case, we were unable to contact the family, so our involvement remained at the level of filing a complaint. Regarding Servando, we are continuing to file a complaint and support the family. From a legal perspective, the case is on hold, as the prosecutor's office is doing nothing to resolve it, which makes them complicit in the crime of Servando's disappearance.

The labor authorities are slightly worse. Accidents continue to occur at Prime Wheel. At the end of February, there was a fire inside the company, and the Ministry of Labor is acting as if nothing had happened. It hasn't even submitted the report on Prime Wheel, which it promised to submit back in November.

The company has still not been named as responsible for Servando's disappearance, when, due to security protocol, it should have been. However, they’re not investigating what happened to Servando because if they had followed the protocols to find the person responsible for his disappearance, the only thing they would find would be a mirror with the company's image. Because any act of violence suffered by an employee at the hands of a company representative is the company's fault.

On the other hand, Servando's family has stopped going out to publicize the incident, as Servando's wife Wendy is due to give birth soon, so the family has focused on caring for the pregnancy.

Given this situation, we are planning how we will continue this campaign.

This month marks seven months since Servando's disappearance.

AW: How do you see the possibilities for unionizing and/or organizing a collective struggle for the working class in Tijuana and/or in Mexico today, after the victories of the SINTTIA union in Silao and Tijuana?

There is a surge in the union struggle, not only in Mexico but internationally. Fortunately, thanks to the work done by the Luxsher workers, this surge has had an impact in Tijuana. We are going to work at Casa Obrera so that this important achievement doesn't remain an isolated flame. We are going to try to spread the fire throughout the city's industrial parks.

Our enemy is capitalism and patriarchy; the foremen are secondary.

AW: How can we move in the direction of a binational labor movement?

It's something we'll discover through our daily work, and we'll achieve it if there's mutual respect for our work methods, rhythms, and ways of doing things. To do that, we have to get to know each other and listen to each other. And to get to know each other, we have to work together.

Avery Wear is a socialist union activist in San Diego, California.