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Mexican union lodges NAFTA complaint against U.S.
company:
TELECOM UNION BLASTS SPRINT'S LABOR PRACTICES
MEXICO CITY, February 9 -- In the first formal
complaint by a Mexican union against a U.S.
corporation under the provisions of the North
American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the
Telecommunications Workers of the Republic of
Mexico charged the Sprint Corporation with
violating "basic norms of labor rights" in the
U.S., declaring: "We do not want this to happen
with Sprint in Mexico."
Today's filing by the union's General Secretary
Francisco Hernandez Juarez cited Sprint's mass
firing of 235 Latino telemarketers in San Francisco
on July 14, 1994.
Juarez noted that the shutdown of Sprint/La
Conexion Familiar, a subsidiary that sold long
distance phone service to Spanish-speaking
customers in the U.S., occurred one week before a
vote on representation by the Communications
Workers of America (CWA). Sprint committed "more
than 50 violations of the law" during the workers'
union campaign, as determined by the U.S. National
Labor Relations Board, Juarez stated.
The charges were filed with Mexico's National
Administrative Office (NAO) for the North American
Agreement on Labor Cooperation, the side agreement
to NAFTA dealing with labor policies in Mexico,
Canada and the U.S.
The Mexican union represents employees of
Telefonos de Mexico, the national phone system with
which Sprint is trying to form an alliance to
create a telephone network throughout North
America.
Juarez charged that the slow judicial process
under U.S. law, and the absence of a prompt remedy
to the violation of workers' rights at La Conexion
demonstrates "the ineffectiveness of the U.S. law
to comply with the principles contained in (the
NAFTA labor side agreement) to which the U.S. is
now obligated."
The union leader called on the NAO to "declare
that Sprint will not be allowed to establish itself
in Mexico given its track record of abuses against
workers until the company reinstates the fired U.S.
workers and declares that it will "respect the
rights of workers" and recognize unions in both
countries when a majority of workers in a Sprint
enterprise seek to unionize.
The Mexican union also urged the NAOs of the
three NAFTA countries convene a forum this year
"attended by government, labor and management
representatives from the telecommunications
industry to explore ways to collaborate and discuss
appropriate standards concerning workers' rights
.. good paying jobs, as well as other important
matters."
The NAFTA labor side agreement provides for
consultations among representatives of the U.S.,
Canada and Mexico up to the level of the
secretaries of labor to resolve disputes over the
lack of compliance with labor standards guaranteed
in the agreement.
The Sprint/La Conexion Familiar affair also has
drawn concern from Sprint's prospective German
business partner, Deutsche Telekom AG. The board
of the German phone system, which is negotiating a
10-percent stake in Sprint, valued at $2 billion,
cited Sprint as the inspiration for a new policy
"ensuring that employer-employee relations
customary in Germany are recognized and complied
with" where the company "operates jointly with its
global partners."
Sprint's shutdown of La Conexion Familiar was
the subject of a month-long trial prosecuted by the
NLRB's Region 20 in San Francisco before an
administrative law judge. A ruling is expected
this spring.
-- Communications Workers of America
For further information, contact Jeffery Miller,
CWA Public Affairs Department, 202-434-1163
