While in Chiapas, Global Workers needed to locate 8 migrants who had sued their employer to recover unpaid minimum wages for their labor picking tomatoes. Although the workers had won the law suit, they had lost contact with their lawyers and were at risk of never recovering their stolen wages. After calling numbers that no longer worked and having notices returned by the post office, the non-profit was on the verge of giving up when it called Global Workers. As Global Workers was meeting with the various human rights groups it was also enlisting their help to locate the workers. Many of the workers will likely still be in the United States. The process to win the trust of the family members so they inform their loved ones to contact the Florida non-profit about the lawsuit, is often a protracted process. Enlisting local, trusted organizations to support the process is key. For the three workers in the San Cristóbal area, the different parishes pledged to reach out to the families. Hopefully, Global Workers will have good news to report in a few months.
Global Worker had an interesting meeting with the local office of the National Commission of Human Rights, a federal entity that investigates abuses by federal officials. In Chiapas they receive complaints from migrants in transit who have been victims of federal police abuse. Unfortunately, this is an all too common phenomena. Migrants going north are systematically exploited by corrupt police officials. Not surprisingly, the National Commission’s cases suffer from the same portable justice issues that plague all advocates representing transnational clients. Although they do their best to get home country information from the migrants who for the most part are deported or continue their journey north, 50% of the cases are dropped because they can not locate the victim at a later date. Without the evidence, the National Commission can not press its case against the abusive police officers. As a result the abuse continues unchecked. Clearly, civil rights cases would also benefit from the Global Workers’ network.
Global Workers approach in identifying potential partners is to make contact with organizations that have legal departments and outreach capacity. A legal department is necessary because the advocates will be assisting in labor cases originating in the USA, identifying new cases, providing direct legal services for issues that arise locally related to the migration, and to continually identify bigger picture legal and legislative challenges to portable justice that must be addressed. Outreach capability is equally important. Much of the legal support work consists of interacting with the workers who may be spread out over a large region. One needs staff willing and able to do this. Teaming up with an organization that already has grass roots human rights education programs is of a particular benefit. They can use the already established infrastructure to educate migrants about labor rights—both pre and post departure. This is key to reduce exploitation. Global Workers can train one organization on labor rights and then hundreds, if not thousands of workers will benefit. The multiplying effect of working through capable local organizations is astonishing.
Now finding the organizations with that capacity is the challenge.
Many human rights organization exist in the San Cristóbal region. But there seems to be a separation between human rights organizations, many of whom have legal departments or cooperating attorneys, and ones that work specifically with migrants, which are more social services oriented. The disconnect can in part be credited to the advocates’ sense of inability to address issues that physically occur somewhere else. The results of the first outreach effort to this region was positive. But follow-up visits are needed to discern which organizations will be the most natural fit.
Global Workers came to Mexico for over two weeks to launch the programs in Southern Mexico. The first few days were spent in Mexico City strengthening relationships with human rights organizations. For the next two weeks, Global Workers focused on the southernmost state of Chiapas. Using San Cristóbal as a base for the northern region of the state, Global Workers made an effort to meet with as many groups as possible working in Human Rights.
International migration is a relatively new phenomenon for people from Chiapas (Chiapanecos). Traditionally, they have migrated to various parts of Mexico. In the past five years a major domestic migratory stream began to develop from “los altos” of Chiapas (the mountainous region of San Cristóbal) to the “Mayan Riveria,” that is the beach resorts near Cancun. There is a high labor demand due to reconstruction after devastating hurricanes and new construction due to the steady increase of tourism. Guatemalans are also migrating to the beach resorts to work. Unfortunately, there are no organizations there to help the migrant workers suffering from pervasive exploitation. One church organization in Chiapas is taking steps to open an office in Playa del Carmen (south of Cancún) to address the needs of these workers. As always with migrants, it is a challenge for advocates to keep up with the shifting migrant streams and constant needs of the world’s most exploited workers. As an alternative to the Yucatan migration from the Los Altos region, many Chiapanecos, most of who are indigenous, are moving to the USA to search for work.