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RR RUEHCD RUEHGA RUEHGD RUEHHA RUEHHM RUEHHO RUEHJO RUEHMC RUEHNG
RUEHNL RUEHPOD RUEHQU RUEHRD RUEHRS RUEHTM RUEHVC
DE RUEHME #5979/01 3341742
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 301742Z NOV 07
FM AMEMBASSY MEXICO
TO RUEHRL/AMEMBASSY BERLIN 0405
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO 0477
RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 9719
RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHDC
INFO RUCNCAN/ALL CANADIAN POSTS COLLECTIVE
RUEHXC/ALL US CONSULATES IN MEXICO COLLECTIVE
RUEHXI/LABOR COLLECTIVE
RHMFIUU/CDR USSOUTHCOM MIAMI FL
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHDC
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 MEXICO 005979 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR DRL/AWH AND ILCSR, WHA/MEX, USDOL FOR ILAB 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ELAB ECON EIND EINV PINR MX
SUBJECT: AUTO PARTS SUPPLIER AND SUB-CONTRACTOR ACCUSED OF 
ABUSING WORKER RIGHTS 
 
¶1.  SUMMARY: Johnson Controls Inc., a US based auto parts 
supplier and One-Digit, its Mexican based sub-contractor have 
been accused of a series of ongoing labor rights abuses.  The 
Johnson Controls and the One-Digit plants where the abuses 
are said to be occurring are located in the central Mexican 
state of Puebla.  The two companies are major parts suppliers 
for the Mexican operations of such international automobile 
companies as Volkswagen, Ford, Chrysler, General Motors and 
Nissan.  Some of the abuses the two companies are accused of 
include forced overtime, sexual harassment, inappropriate 
camera monitors (in restrooms and locker rooms), dismissals 
for union organizing activities, denied profit sharing 
benefits and threats against family members of fired workers 
still employed by the companies.  On paper, a union 
affiliated with Mexico,s fourth largest labor federation 
represents the workers at the two companies.  In practice the 
union appears to be in collusion with the companies to deny 
workers their labor rights and has arranged to have employees 
fired simply for asking to see a copy of their collective 
bargaining agreement.  On November 15, Mission Mexico,s 
Labor Counselor and visiting DRL Policy Advisor for 
International Labor and Corporate Social Responsibility 
accompanied a representative of the AFL-CIO,s Mexico City 
office to Puebla to meet with some of the current and 
recently fired workers from the two companies.  The stories 
told by these current and former workers appear to be both 
genuine and credible.  END SUMMARY 
 
 
THREE TO ONE AGAINST THE WORKERS 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶1.  Johnson Controls Inc. (JCI) is, among other things, an 
auto parts supplier with international operations but whose 
headquarters is in Wisconsin.  One-Digit is a Mexican based 
company that provides human resources (read outsourcing) 
services to a wide range of manufacturing companies.  These 
two companies have a collaborative operation in the central 
Mexican state of Puebla.  The two companies main, but not 
their only, customer is the Volkswagen de Mexico plant in 
Puebla but their operations in that state also produce goods 
for Ford, Chrysler, General Motors and Nissan. 
 
¶2.  According to numerous press reports the two companies are 
the perpetrators of a growing number of labor rights abuses. 
The consequences of these alleged abuses appear to have come 
to a head in May of 2007 when their then collective 
bargaining contract expired and the workers began to look 
forward to the upcoming contract negotiations as an 
opportunity to address some of their grievances.  On paper 
the workers at JCI and One-Digit are formally represented by 
a union known as the &National Union of General Industrial 
Workers8 which is affiliated with the a national labor 
federation called the CROM (Regional Confederation of Mexican 
Workers).  The CROM is perhaps Mexico,s fourth largest labor 
federation and the workers looked to their union and its 
affiliated federation to represent their interests.  It was 
not until a month later the workers learned that their union 
&representatives8 had renegotiated and signed a new 
collective bargaining contract without their knowledge and 
with no consultation whatsoever.  In effect the two companies 
and the &union8 had apparently gotten together on their own 
and decided what was best for the workers. 
 
 
A TALE OF WORKER RIGHTS ABUSES 
------------------------------ 
 
¶3.  The workers at JCI (and One-Digit) were shocked to learn 
that a new collective bargaining contract had been signed in 
their name and that they had been given no opportunity 
address a number of long standing grievances.  These 
grievances reportedly started as far back 2001 which, 
according to the workers, was the last time that JCI fully 
complied with their understanding of the terms profit-sharing 
agreement in their collective bargaining agreement.  The 
workers indicate that they can only presume that that the 
company complied with a profit sharing agreement because they 
have never been allowed to actually see the agreement nor any 
 
MEXICO 00005979  002 OF 003 
 
 
other part of the collective bargaining contracts that their 
CROM affiliated union has negotiated and signed on their 
behalf. 
 
¶4.  Since 2001 the workers indicate that they have been 
subjected to a growing number of labor rights abuses.   These 
abuse include such things as forced overtime, sexual 
harassment of female employees by their male supervisors, 
being pressured into signing documents agreeing to 
inappropriate camera monitors (in restroom and locker rooms), 
dismissals for union organizing activities (simply asking to 
see the collective bargaining contract has become grounds for 
dismissal) and threats against family members of fired 
workers still employed by the companies.  Moreover, fired 
employees have been denied payment of the full severance pay 
benefits they are entitled to under Mexican Federal Labor 
Law. 
 
¶5.  Employees, salaries are routinely and severely docked 
for any time taken to attend to medical problems even when 
the workers can present documented proof of a visit to a 
physician in Mexico,s national health care system.  In 
addition to medical visit absences being deducted from 
workers, vacation credit, the workers claim that only 
documented absences that incapacitate them for three days or 
more are considered excusable.  In addition, workers claim 
that no consideration is given to pregnant women employed by 
the companies in terms of their daily work assignments and 
that they are often fired when they can no longer work even 
the most demanding schedules.  Once fired these women become 
ineligible for access to the national health care system. 
(Comment: Only currently employed workers, and their 
families, are eligible for access to the national health care 
system.) 
 
 
NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL HELP 
------------------------------- 
 
¶6.  Because of the above-mentioned allegations of labor 
rights abuses the workers at JCI and One-Digit have received 
both national and international assistance in their efforts 
to obtain some form of redress for their grievances.  The 
problems of the workers at JCI and One-Digit were initially 
made public when a Mexican NGO learned of their situation. 
The NGO, the Center for Workers, Support (CAT), an 
organization dedicated to promoting worker rights, learned of 
the conditions under which the employees at the two companies 
in question were working when it undertook a study of the 
auto parts suppliers operating in Puebla.  Once it learned of 
the situation of the JCI and One-Digit workers it contacted 
the Mexico office of the AFL-CIO for assistance and 
international support. 
 
¶7.  Together CAT and the Mexico office of the AFL-CIO have 
been assisting the workers in their efforts to get better 
treatment from the two companies.  The two organizations have 
helped the workers file formal complaints against the 
companies with both the Mexican state and federal labor 
authorities.  They have used their media contacts to draw the 
attention of the general public to the conditions facing the 
workers in the two companies.  They have also reportedly made 
a direct appeal to the international headquarters of 
Volkswagen in Germany (the two companies, main customer) 
asking the company to take steps to enforce the code of 
conduct that the company agreed to in 2002 which it said 
applies to itself and to its suppliers.  In addition to the 
above-mentioned actions taken by the CAT and the AFL-CIO they 
also asked Mission Mexico,s Labor Counselor to meet with 
some of the JCI and One-Digit workers to hear their stories 
first hand. 
 
 
USG OFFICIAL MEET THE WORKERS 
----------------------------- 
 
¶8.  On November 15, post,s Labor Counselor took advantage of 
the visit to Mexico of DRL Policy Advisor for International 
Labor and Corporate Social Responsibility to jointly 
accompany an AFL-CIO representative to Puebla.  Once there, 
the head of the CAT,s Puebla office and several other NGO 
 
MEXICO 00005979  003 OF 003 
 
 
staffers arranged for a meeting with some of the current and 
recently fired workers from the two companies.  The meeting 
took place in the back yard of a JCI employee far from the 
operations of either of the two companies.  During the 
meeting the actual and former employees presented a credible 
picture of the harsh conditions under which they currently 
labor. 
 
¶9.  The worker spoke in passionate detail about how the two 
companies and their CROM affiliated union have repeated 
abused their labor rights in open violation of Mexican law. 
In addition to the previously mentioned abuses the workers 
also told of how JCI systematically lays off employees who 
are then immediately hired by One-Digit to do the exact same 
job and more often than not in the exact same place they had 
been released from.  However, as employees of One-Digit these 
workers are hired under a series of three-month contracts 
that makes them part-time workers who are consequently 
ineligible for standard employee benefits mandated by Mexican 
law.  According to the worker, some One-Digit employees at 
this factory have worked under a series of three-month 
contracts for up to three years.  In addition, the 
three-month contracts keeps the worker in a state of constant 
fear that the will be permanently let go at the end of that 
time if they do not behave.  These part-time employees are 
all required to pay union dues but they are not allowed to 
request any form of union assistance or representation.  The 
USG visitors were shown a September 2007 pay stub of a 
One-Digit worker employed at the JCI factory and saw that 
union dues were indeed being deducted. 
 
¶10.  In addition to the above, the workers also told the USG 
visitors how the companies manipulated their work and 
vacation hours so that they often owed their employers time 
for which they had supposedly already been paid when in fact 
that was not the case.  Furthermore, the two companies make 
it a standard practice to force the workers to take as their 
authorized vacation time any period when Volkswagen, their 
main customer, has workers on strike, or is operating at less 
than full capacity for such things as regular maintenance or 
when production lines are being re-tooled.  Overall, the JCI 
and One-Digit laborers presented a convincing picture showing 
they were employed in a work environment characterized by 
fear, intimidation and systematic violation and/or 
intentional subversion of Mexican Federal Labor Law. 
 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
¶11.  After meeting with the JCI and One-Digit workers there 
seems little doubt that the two companies are engaging in 
regular abuses of their employees labor rights.  This 
situation is made worse by the fact that the union that is 
supposed to represent the workers is, in reality, doing 
nothing of the kind.  With the help of the CAT and the 
AFL-CIO the employees of the two companies appear to be 
organizing themselves for the process of changing their union 
representation available to them under Mexican law.  In the 
meantime, the conditions under which the companies are 
working could improve, in all likelihood, by informing the 
main offices of Johnson Control Inc., Volkswagen, Ford, and 
the other international automotive companies of the action 
being taken by their suppliers in Mexico.  All of these 
companies have codes of conduct that include respect for 
worker rights and there is no reason to assume that they will 
not enforce these codes one they are aware that they are 
being violated. 
 
 
Visit Mexico City's Classified Web Site at 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/wha/mexicocity and the North American 
Partnership Blog at http://www.intelink.gov/communities/state/nap / 
GARZA