We are in El Paso, Texas, a few meters from Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua. We may be divided by a river but we have a very deep relationship. Our [labor] movement is, actually, on both sides of the river. --Carlos Marentes, Border Agricultural Network, El Paso, Texas Chihuahua sells itself as a “Paradise without unions”! To speak of work… in the free trade zone between the Mexico and the United States . . . is to speak of a war zone. Workers and social activists alike are in the middle of two fires . . . both the United States [and Mexico] work continuously to keep Mexican labor in a constant state of precarity which in these times is unsustainable. --Susana Prieto Terrazas, Labor Attorney, Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua Agricultural work in the [El Paso] region has become the perfect environment for contagion [COVID19] and for the loss of life of our compañeros [and compañeras], who have children and families who depend on them. They are transported in dilapidated vans with other workers and with no consideration for safety standards, distancing or any safety protection. . .They are terrified to go to the fields, but as heads of households and as single mothers, they have no choice.
transnational and indeed global economy rests, in large part, on the shoulders of migrant and immigrant laborers from the interior of Mexico, Central America and beyond. Yet, labor on both sides of the border remains a devalued and highly exploited commodity. We were appalled to learn that, despite decades of struggle by organized labor and some gains, conditions for working-class blue collar and migrant farmworkers remain deplorable. This was true for both the factories in Ciudad Juárez that sustain the auto, electronic, textile, and pharmaceutical industries, or in the fields of the El Paso Lower Valley and southern New Mexico that produce 2/3 of the U.S. chile agribusiness. The outbreak of COVID19 has only heightened the precarious and unsustainable conditions under which these workers, simultaneously valued and debased as “Essential Workers,” labor. They have been forced to continue working in close proximity on the assembly line in the maquiladoras. They are crammed into vans on the way to the fields from recruitment centers in El Paso. In many cases, they lack needed protections and sanitary conditions, not to mention access to federal programs designed to alleviate the crisis.
--Rosemary Rojas, Border Agricultural Workers Project, El Paso, Texas
Introduction:
T
he cities of El Paso, Texas and Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua sit at the midpoint of the U.S.Mexico border, and across from each other along the Rio Grande/Rio Bravo River. In truth this is a tristate region: the state of New Mexico straddles the state borders of both south west Texas and north west Chihuahua. The area’s perceived geographical marginalization belies the centrality of the region to the manufacturing and agricultural sectors for the U.S. and the Mexican economies. Not surprisingly, the dynamism and enormous profitability of this
44
The Border Agricultural Workers Project Center in El Paso, TX. (Photo: The Border Agricultural Workers Project )
Workers in this border zone are all effectively mistreated by the overlapping interests of elite and privileged actors in United States and Mexico. This situation extends to those living and working in Mexico, or the in U.S. It affects citizens, documented and undocumented immigrants, and those displaced from ancestral lands, fleeing from violence, or seeking better future for their children. On both sides of the border, workers toil in service to a voracious capitalism
