May 1997
SEX DISCRIMINATION IN MEXICAN MAQUILADORAS
In export processing zones, or maquiladoras, along the Mexico-U.S. border, major U.S. companies including Zenith, Johnson Controls and Carlisle Plastics, are forcing women workers to undergo pregnancy testing as a condition of employment. Potential female employees are compelled to take urine tests and answer invasive questions on applications and interviews about their pregnancy status, sexual activity, use of birth control, and menstrual cycles. Those who are pregnant are not hired. Those who become pregnant once they have been hired are sometimes forced to resign, or are subjected to abusive and discriminatory treatment.
This discrimination violates Mexican law. It is also illegal in the United States, and it violates international human rights norms.
Company officials at Zenith, Johnson Controls and Carlisle Plastics are aware of this practice, but have yet to put a stop to it.
Two major corporations, General Motors and ITT, have agreed to stop pregnancy discrimination. However, these agreements are meaningless unless they are accompanied by concrete, detailed, and transparent plans for implementation and monitoring.
Despite the illegality and prevalence of this abuse, the Mexican government has failed to investigate, remedy, or denounce this form of sex discrimination. The U.S. government has also completely ignored the discriminatory practices of U.S.-owned multinational companies operating in Mexico.
Write, phone or fax General Motors and ITT and urge them to establish effective and transparent monitoring mechanisms to ensure that policy changes aimed at stopping these illegal practices are meaningful. Urge them to provide written materials and training in Spanish to explain non-discriminatory policies to plant management, medical staff, and maquiladora workers.
Write, phone or fax Zenith, Johnson Controls and Carlisle Plastics. Demand that they respect the human and labor rights of women workers by taking immediate steps to stop pregnancy discrimination. Tell these companies that Mexican women deserve the same equal treatment as their counterparts in the U.S., and remind them that they would never defend this kind of discrimination against women workers in the U.S.
Write the Mexican Ministry of Labor. Tell the Ministry of Labor to issue an official public statement denouncing sex discrimination in the maquiladoras and to investigate vigorously all allegations of sex-based discriminatory employment practices and punish those responsible.
Press the U.S. government to speak out about abuses against women by U.S. companies abroad. Urge the Secretary of State to raise the issue with the Mexican government in appropriate bilateral meetings, and to instruct the U.S. Embassy in Mexico to investigate and condemn this form of discrimination. Urge the U.S. Department of Labor to use its leadership position to press U.S. corporations to adopt and practice fair labor standards, including prohibitions against all forms of sex discrimination in each of their worldwide operations.
Distribute this action alert. Generate support for women in the maquiladora industry who suffer from pregnancy-based sex discrimination. Please get the word out.
Please send copies of your letters to Human Rights Watch at the address listed below. We will forward copies to workers' and women's organizations at the Mexico-U.S. border
For more information or to obtain copies of the Human Rights Watch report, "No Guarantees: Sex Discrimination in Mexico's Maquiladora Sector," which documents illegal sex discrimination against women in the maquiladoras, contact
LaShawn R. Jefferson,
Human Rights Watch Women's
Rights Project,
1522 K Street,
NW Ste. #910,
Washington, DC 20005
Phone: (202) 371-6592
Fax: (202) 371-0124
Email:
jefferl@hrw.org.
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