Challenging the Chip: Labor Rights and Environmental Justice in the Global Electronics Industry

13. Community-Based Organizing for Labor Rights, Health, and the Environment: Television Manufacturing on the Mexico-U.S. Border

CONNIE GARCÍA AND AMELIA SIMPSON 13 Community-Based Organizing for Labor Rights, Health, and the Environment Television Manufacturing on the Mexico-U.S. Border DURING THE 1990S, Tijuana, Mexico, became the “TV Capital of the World.” More televisions were produced in this bustling town on the Mexico-U.S. border than in any other city in the world. TV plants were a key component in the electronics maquiladora (assembly) sector on the Mexican sideoftheborder.Yetbytheendofthedecade,thatthrivingTVmanufacturing industry began leaving Mexico for lower wage countries, including Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, and especially China. China offered investors tax breaks, low energy costs, and other incentives—their labor force was earning wages one third or less of what workers earn in Tijuana. This chapter details the environmental and health consequences of both the boom and the decline of border electronics manufacturing in Mexico and considers the efforts of local citizens to fight back and regain greater power over their lives and communities. THE FREE TRADE AGREEMENT Starting in the 1960s, Mexico and the United States established free-trade arrangements that encouraged companies to send materials to Mexico for workers to assemble and return to the United States for sales. Reduced tariffs, lower wages in Mexico, and fewer environmental regulations gave companies an advantage, allowing them to produce goods more cheaply. Finalized in 1994, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) expanded free trade between the two countries and established new rights for corporations. Easy access to the huge U.S. consumer market contributed to the phenomenal growth of the TV maquiladora industry at the border. Of more than 500 maquiladoras in Tijuana, the largest are the Japanese-owned Sanyo, Sony, and Panasonic plants; and the Korean-owned Samsung factories.1 Adding the Japanese JVC and Hitachi facilities, more than 20,000 workers were employed in TV manufacturing in Tijuana in 2001 (Guı́a de la Industria Maquiladora 2001; see Photo 13.1). More than 11 million sets were assembled there in 2003 (Nudelstejer 2000).2 Laborers come from all over Mexico to assemble TVs in Tijuana. NAFTA triggered the largest migration within the nation since the 1960s (Kraul 1996). Typical jobs are soldering, inserting screws, connecting wires, testing, inspecting , painting, and packaging. Other workers are employed at plants like Xpectra, a plastic injection molding facility in Tijuana with 1,000 employees Community-Based Organizing 151 PHOTO 13.1. Maquiladora consumer electronics factory in Tijuana, Maxico, just across the border from San Diego, California. Courtesy of Amelia Simpson, Environmental Health Coalition. that supplies the Sony, Panasonic, Sanyo, Samsung, and Hitachi factories (Goldsberry 2002).3 Across the border in San Diego, the TV industry maintains warehouses, and high-tech manufacturing, research and development facilities, sales, distribution, and administrative offices. NAFTA was hailed as the first trade agreement to link trade issues and the environment. U.S. Trade Representative Carla Hills declared in 1991: “We think the North American Free Trade Agreement that liberalizes trade will create wealth and enable [Mexico and the United States] to more adequately address the environmental problems that currently exist at the border” (Eckhouse 1991). NAFTA’s Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) touted enhanced levels of protection, particularly for the border region, and improved public participation (see Table 13.1).4 An Inadequate Agreement But by NAFTA’s 10-year anniversary, a different picture had emerged. Mexico ’saverageamountsofsoilerosion,solid-wastegeneration,andairpollution increased 63 percent since 1988 (Brown 2002). Air pollution alone grew by 97 percent between 1985 and 1999, whereas government spending on the environment fell 45 percent (Wise 2003, 5). Authorities admit that unaccounted for are many millions of tons of dangerous industrial waste (Turati 1999). The government estimates that environmental degradation since NAFTA has cost Mexico $36 billion annually (Wise 2003, 2). The Environmental Health Coalition (EHC) and the Colectivo established the failure of the CEC to 152 CONNIE GARCı́A AND AMELIA SIMPSON TABLE 13.1. NAFTA Countries Toxic Release Tracking Systems Mexico United States Canada Registro de Toxics Release National Pollutant Emisiones y Inventory Release Inventory Transferencia de (TRI) (NPRI) Contaminantes (RETC) 104 substances18 667 chemicals (three of which are not currently reportable). 245 substances Since 1993 Since 1987 Since 1997 Initially voluntary, but mandatory since December of 2001 Mandatory Mandatory Source: NACEC (2002, Annex 1). protect the environment through their work on the landmark case of Metales y Derivados.5 Mexico’s toxic pollutants registry, the “Registro de Emisiones y Transferencia de Contaminantes...