Electronics, multinationals and labour rights in Mexico

This is Cereal’s second report on working conditions in the Mexican electronics industry. Being the second report means that its nature has changed slightly. Now, in addition to describing the current
situation of workers’ rights in this sector, there is a comparison to last year’s situation. Also, this report has been drafted within the context of a dialogue between Cereal and the companies, which have pledged to resolve those problems previously raised by Cereal.
Therefore, this report also assesses the companies’ attempts to improve working conditions in their factories. The outcome of these attempts, as shown in this report, is far from satisfactory. In addition, this report also emerges at a time when Mexican electronics workers are making their first efforts to organise themselves, which is an important development both for Cereal, who should start giving way to the workers, and for the companies, who must learn to negotiate with them. In this year of research (June 2006 – July 2007) Cereal met with almost 2,000 workers; 237 cases were chosen to be documented and 74 of those were selected for publication. These are the cases described in this report. All cases were forwarded to the companies for consideration and most companies gave a reply in writing. Those replies followed the description of each case. Cereal also met on multiple occasions with representatives from the companies to discuss each situation directly. The outcome of all this coming and going is a piece of research that includes the perspectives of the different parties involved. However, Cereal has not played the role of impartial mediator in this dialogue. Cereal has acted firmly
believing that the abuses are serious and that workers’ grievances need to be eard. That is why Cereal has made workers’ voices the heart of this report.
Hopefully, they will also be the main beneficiaries; since in addition to being a report, this document is also an educational resource which will be circulated amongst workers, who will almost certainly see their own situation being portrayed in their colleagues’ stories and will learn from their experiences. Cereal would also like to thank the companies for their replies.