Report: Interviews with female workers fired by the Swedish multinational company Electrolux in Mexico in April 2020

Interviews with female workers fired from Electrolux in April 2020

Preliminary Report (June 25, 2021)

Edmé Dominguez R. Associate Professor, School of Global Studies, Gothenburg University, Sweden 

Assistant: Catalina Domínguez R. 

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  The Swedish multinational company Electrolux, Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. Photo Tony Karlsson, 13 of April 2021.

In April 2020 more than 100 workers from Electrolux in Ciudad Juarez were fired, they were forced to sign a ‘voluntary resignation’ because they had protested, stopped working to demand measures of protection against the infection of Covid that had already started to spread among the workers and caused at least one mortal victim. Their demands went from the closing of the factories, as several  other maquilas in the city had already done, to the distribution of basic equipment of protection. The representative of the enterprise promised to find a solution and when they came back to work the following week they realized they were being fired. The original protest was quite spontaneous and several of the workers that later were fired had joined in a very informal way, just coming to the place of the meeting, the canteen, to find out what was happening. However, they were also worried about the infection and about the company’s passivity regarding any kind of protection. In this report we present the testimonies of some of these women workers that were fired in April 2020. They were interviewed during late May- beginning of June 2021.  

The reason for choosing only women workers to interview is because of the context, the setting where Electrolux plants operate, Ciudad Juarez and its never-ending spiral of violence affecting women particularly.  

The context: Ciudad Juarez, violence and women workers

Ciudad Juarez is well known, not only in Mexico but even worldwide for the enormous amount  of feminicides that started to be reported in the 1990s (Swanger 2007, Amnesty International 2003). These feminicides refer not only to domestic violence but in a large extent to criminal violence, that is to say women who are abducted, tortured and killed. The numbers are uncertain but several sources point to several hundred women having been killed in Ciudad Juarez since the mid 1980s. Just during the period of 2015 and 2020 we can see an increase, from 43 in 2015 to 205 in 2020 (Ellas tienen nombre). This increase is particularly strong during the beginning of the pandemic in April 2020.

Source: https://www.ellastienennombre.org/2020.html

Ciudad Juarez is an industrial center with 330 maquilas, that means assembling factories owned either by American or European enterprises and they employ about 300,000 thousand people  (Infobae 2020). Most of the employees recruited by these factories come from the Southern states of  Veracruz, Oaxaca, Chiapas, Tabasco, Guerrero where opportunities of employment are  quite low and where criminal violence has increased enormously in the last 2 decades. One of the main reasons of the maquiladoras establishment in Ciudad Juarez (as in the rest of the border) is the low salaries, 181 pesos (9 US doll)   since 2019 and 203  pesos  (10 US doll)  per day since January 2021 (El Financiero, jan 1, 2021). In comparison, we can see that in the Southern part of the US the minimum wage goes from 7.25 US doll in Texas to 13 US doll in California per hour (US department of Labour May 2021). Moreover, another important reason for the location of these enterprises is the closeness to the American market and the lack of import or export tariffs due to the existence of the USMCA, the former NAFTA  trade agreement.

Also an important part of the context is that about half of the employees of these maquiladora factories are women. They were a majority of the workers in the beginning of these industries (1980s) but soon decreased as the male recruitment increased, notably in the 1990s (De la O 2004). According to one of the researchers having studied this theme during several years, women workers in the maquila started as the lowest categories in the production and they continue in these low levels now days. But they are also extremely flexible and adapt to all kinds of tasks and skills as their high turnover in the industry demonstrates (Quintero 2021). Also important to notice is that although women’s participation reached 45% of all women aged  15-60 up to 2019 in Mexico, this changed with the pandemic. According to Mexican official statistics this participation has decreased to 39% during 2020 which means a setback of about 15 years. Of every ten unemployed because of the pandemic 7 are women. Women represent 71% of those who have not recovered an employment. (El Pais, May 2021).

Finally, Electrolux has about 5000 employees in its plants in Ciudad Juarez. The company has its own ‘codes of conduct’ and has also adhered to global guidelines regarding workers rights. 

Electrolux will seek to earn the trust of everyone impacted by our operations, demonstrating our commitment to ethics and human rights through our words and actions. We will always act ethically and respect human rights, as set forth by the International Bill of Human Rights and International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) Core Conventions. We are a signatory of the UN Global Compact, we support the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, and we apply the UN Guiding Principles on Business & Human Rights in our work to identify and remediate any negative impact on people that is a direct or indirect result of our operations.

The interview study

This is the context that frames our interview study. We have interviewed  seven of the women employees fired by Electrolux in April 2020. These were semi-structured interviews carried out through the phone and covering several aspects of their experience in Electrolux before, during the conflict in April 2020 and after their dismissal. The names used in the quotes are fictive as we have promised them anonymity. We are aware that this is not a representative sample but we argue that it gives an important glimpse of what these female workers have experienced and as such should be taken into account. 

The material gathered by these interviews will be presented  under 5 sub- themes: profile, experience of the employees before their dismissal, their experience of this crisis and dismissal and the kind of compensation they got, their experience regarding sexual harassment within the enterprise and or of insecurity issues in Cd Juarez  and  the possibility to organize themselves in trade unions. Worth noticing, none of these women were interviewed during the study carried out by the company, during the autumn 2020 to find out what had happened.

Profiles 

The interviewed are women from 25 to 53 years old, coming from different parts of the country, mostly from the South but also from neighboring states. Most of them have children, some very small ones, others already adults or teenagers. Some are married in which case their husbands  were also dismissed or are still working in Electrolux. Some even have children or other family members working for the company. These family bands are important as they influence women workers’ experiences. Regarding small children the closeness of the day care center or the fact that the husband works in the same factory makes it easier or more difficult to work in Electrolux. Another aspect is being a single mother as some of them are and having dependent children which makes their work essential to the survival of the family.

The experience of working in Electrolux, before the dismissal

The experiences are quite mixed. These women workers had worked for 1 to 7 years in Electrolux before being dismissed. Most had also worked in other maquilas up to 20 years before coming to Electrolux. Some of them, about half of the interviewees, said they liked working there, as the company was more positive with good security conditions and opportunities for promotion. These positive impressions can be correlated with the age, the younger ones are more positive than the older ones or having worked a longer time there. However there are also negative experiences that point to heavy work, extreme low or high temperatures, depending on the season of the year and even work accidents leading to permanent physical damage due to the enterprise negligence.

The work is rather heavy. I still have a daughter working there, she has been there for 2 years and she also complains that the work is very heavy (Marcela 53 years old)

I endured it (the work) because I needed the job as my two sons are studying… but that maquila in the cold times is very cold, there was no heating, our hands got numb and to warm them we tried to put them in the warm foam that we used to put into the refrigerators. In the winter times its really cold inside and the sleeves we had to use were also cold. In the summer it was too hot as the ventilators are too high up and didn’t refresh the air so we perspired a lot. Sometimes I said I have to go out as I cannot stand it.

Elsa 50, years old

I was thinking of resigning because of the accident I went through while working with a refrigerator case. My elbow got a blow and it was fracture but the supervisors didn’t allow me to go to the hospital (Seguro Social), they kept me 3 days in the nursing room with pain killers, they didn’t want me to go to the hospital. Afterwards I still complained because of the pain and they changed me from one area to the other. When I finally decided to go to the hospital on my own they told me (at the hospital) I had waited too long, they could not fix it any more so I still have pain. That was about one and a half years ago.

Alicia 29 years old

As to the salaries the views vary, from some of them the salaries had a good level, other say they were lower than in other maquilas.

I was fired in April and in June I managed to get a new job at another maquila. It’s better than Electrolux. I realized then that there are better maquilas than Electrolux, that pay better, with better working conditions. I realized I had been working for a very low pay.

Sonia, 25 years old

The experience of the dismissal

The experiences these women tell about their dismissal are quite dramatic. All of them coincide that they were in the protest more out of curiosity as to what was happening than because of an active involvement. They were all concerned with the lack of security regarding the pandemic, knowing some of their fellow workers had been infected and that someone had already died and they felt the enterprise was doing nothing to protect them (no masks or anti-bacterial gel, no safe distance) while several other maquilas had already closed to safeguard the workers’ health. So when some sections of the production started to stop working to force the management to take measures they thought it was right although they did not want to get involved directly. Some of them witnessed to violent reactions from different supervisors (the name of the Human Resources head was repeatedly named) that even tried to beat some women among the protestors for having questioned their authority. They felt the whole thing was handled in a very wrong way, calling the police (while there was no violent protest) and thus treating them as criminals. Even the police left the premises acknowledging no illegal actions had been committed.

All the interviewed women share the same feelings of surprise,  deception and disappointment  when they returned to work after the week-end, having been promised that measures would be taken and they would resume their work, just to be called in groups to be notified they had to sign a ‘voluntary resignation’.  

‘Electrolux does no longer require your services because you are a ‘problematic person’, causing scandals and that type of persons are not welcome here’. I just stood looking at the person telling me this and wondering, what has happened? He continued, ‘from this moment you cease to belong to the enterprise and you have to sign these papers, you are not working here any longer’. I didn’t want to sign, I kept asking, what did I do? I was feeling very bad and started crying because I didn’t want to lose my job. This happened at about 4 pm and I finally left at 7 pm because I didn’t want to leave. I remained by the door and then they threatened me that if I didn’t leave they would call the security guards. I continued crying telling them I wanted back my work. I didn’t even look at how much they were going to give me, I just repeated that I wanted back my work, that this was my subsistence, that my daughters depended on me. I still feel bad telling this (she starts crying), is that I still feel enraged. Somebody called Yolanda took me to a dark room to persuade me to sign but I kept telling her I had done nothing but even if I had it could have been right because they didn’t want to stop production and there were already 2 people dead. And I repeated I didn’t understand why they were firing me. And she told me, ‘we are firing you because you were at the wrong  place in the wrong time’. I finally left but I didn’t sign anything.

Marcela, 53 years old

The rest of the experiences are quite similar to this one. All of these women felt deceived, frustrated and treated in a very unfair way. They felt trapped and with no alternative other than to sign and get a very small compensation and their ‘savings’ back. Some of them didn’t sign at that moment but later on, forced by their need of economic means.

The compensation

The experiences here seem to tell the same story: they were forced to sign a ‘voluntary resignation’ and they received very little compensation money and their ‘savings’ which were also very low sums. Those who didn’t sign didn’t get any compensation or savings at all. Afterwards, in December 2020, some of them, less than half of the interviewed women, were contacted by the enterprise or heard from others that Electrolux was giving more compensation 

Yes, we got some compensation, but it was nearly nothing, about one or 2 thousand pesos plus my savings. That was all until I heard that Electrolux was compensating more because they had been sued and I think, we won and they had to give us more. I tell my husband, I would like to come back to work there but they have told us we cannot be rehired.

Eva, 28 years

However, not all of them got  this compensation,  they got in touch with the officer they had been told to contact just to learn they had to come back in January. When they got back in January the officer who had informed them in December was no longer working there and they ended up not getting this late compensation at all. One of the workers told us of the organizing of support in form of food for those who had not signed and were close to starvation because of the difficulties to get a new job during the pandemic. The interviewed also expressed the difficulties to get a new job, they were job seeking from 3 months-to 1 year.

There was a lot of people who needed support, those who did not sign because they thought it was unfair. I got involved, together with my husband in preparing food baskets and distributing them among 3 families. Because it got really ugly, when they fired us the pandemic was at its strongest point.

Alicia 29 years old

Then several of us went to look for a lawyer… and the year came to an end I could not find a job, 9 months without working, I could not pay my bills, you know that even if they are online school bills have to be paid. So I finally accepted (to sign), I had too many debts. I don’t know if I got the right compensation, I was desperate.

Marcela, 53 years old

Sexual harassment, discrimination, insecurity

 None of the interviewees had suffered directly from any sexual harassment working for Electrolux, although they had heard that happened in other areas. However, several of them had witnessed a certain discrimination regarding  old female workers in favor of young and ‘attractive ones’. The latter got better and easier jobs, they got more easily promoted even if they didn’t have the required level of education.

The way they treat people, yes, they favor some of them. Just imagine I never got promoted because at that time I had no high school level, but some young girls who also lacked high school they got quickly promoted.

Marcela, 53 years old

There are several group leaders and supervisors that have certain preferences for young women, they give them more attention. I used to say, if we are all equal, we work in the same way why (do they favor) that girl and let her choose which are she preferred to work in… In other areas you can see there was a kind of sexual harassment but not in my area. What I personally saw was this kind of preference for young girls.

Diana, 42 years old

Although not directly harassed, young mothers were hardly supported regarding the care of young children. The pregnant daughter of one of the interviewees, also working for Electrolux, has recently been fired because she asked for a few days permit to travel to her hometown to get a person who could help her to take care of her children. 

My daughter is pregnant and she asked for a permit of a week to get somebody to help her with the children as she has already two and is expecting the third one. The supervisor, instead of giving her the permit just fired her. They also changed the working shift of her husband and he asked them, why do you change me? You also want to fire me as  you did with my wife?

Diana, 42 years old

Another issue that emerges from the interviews is the climate of insecurity surrounding Ciudad Juarez. The interviewees tell of the fear of circulating, specially late in the night when they had to work until midnight. Although Electrolux provides a bus that transports workers to their neighborhoods this transport rarely leaves them close to their homes even if they are single women in the middle of the night. It was up to the bus driver if they wanted to leave them closer. Some of the women complained to the company regarding this but they were never listened to.

Yes, it’s quite ugly here, specially after it gets dark, one should not get out. You can get killed here even if your are just standing in the corner. And the buses left us quite far away (from our homes). That should be revised. There were many people complaining of this in Electrolux… I told them, go and complain to Human Resources but it was to no avail. I also suffered in the beginning but then I convinced the driver to get me closer, I was the last to descend from the bus… I was in the second shift so I finished at 11.54, midnight. At that time I preferred to stay working the next shift, until 6 am, just to avoid coming back by midnight.. sometimes I started at 12, midday and finished at 6 am, it was extra hours and they paid them.

Marcela 53 years old

Yes, Electrolux buses leave many of the female workers quite far from their homes. There was a woman who didn’t come to work during 3 days and when she came back we asked her why she had been absent. She told us she had been robbed…we had to walk about 4 or 500 meters. We were told to speak with Human resources but they never listened and the drivers just said, this is the bus route and that’s it. Yes, for women it is very dangerous here in Juarez. The police is of no use, everything is the same, women continue to disappear, they get killed and they are found dead, their bodies hidden…

Diana 42, years old

Other issues: forming a trade union?

When asked about the possibilities of forming a trade union to deal with all the problems they have complained about, none of them see this as a possibility. This is something they have not even thought about, so far away has this possibility been. Fear of being sacked is something extremely present among all workers there.

People don’t dare to talk because of fear, fear of losing their job. They saw what happened, they are frightened, they saw they fired us, that the threat was real, they said they would fire us  and they did, so all went silent, they continued working, nobody said anything more. To form a trade union? No because it will go wrong, you see what happened.

Alicia, 29 years old

Final reflections

One can be tempted to think that what happened in Electrolux in April 2020 was the responsibility of a local management that misread the signals and took radical measures to stifle what they thought was a dangerous workers movement threatening production. However, the experiences of these women reflect deeper problems of working conditions, of  disrespectful attitudes towards the workers, of machismo among the supervising personnel, of nonchalance regarding the workers’ rights and safety. This is specially problematic given the context in which these factories work, Ciudad Juarez, that as already noticed, is notorious for its permanent climate of violence affecting women particularly. But it is also problematic given the codes of conduct the company advertises to follow and which are clearly violated as these experiences witness.

This situation affected naturally both men and women workers but as the statistics presented show, women and particularly elder women, have a hard time finding new employment opportunities, after this pandemic crisis.

The more serious conclusion is the lack of mechanisms these workers have to confront the company. There are no trade unions and no possibilities to get any because of the permanent climate of fear that the management seeks to sustain taking measures as the massive dismissal of April 2020. This is something the higher management of the company has to reflect upon. To honor contracts of production may mean more profits in the short run but to honor the respect of human rights may sustain larger profits in the longer term.

References 

Amnesty International 2003, Mexico: “Intolerable Killings : 10 years of Abductions and Murders of Women in Ciudad Juárez and Chihuahua: Summary Report and Appeals Cases”. Amnesty International Report 10 August 2003, Index number: AMR 41/027/2003 https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/AMR41/027/2003/en/

De la O, Martínez, M. E. 2004 ”Women in the maquiladora industry: toward understanding gender and regional dynamics in Mexico.” Chap. 3 in The social costs of industrial growth in northern Mexico, edited by K. Kopinak, 65-96. La Jolla, California: Center for US-Mexican Studies, 2004. 

El Pais, “Siete de cada 10 desempleados por la pandemia en Mexico son mujeres”. El Pais May 17, 2021 https://elpais.com/mexico/economia/2021-05-17/siete-de-cada-10-desempleados-por-la-pandemia-en-mexico-son-mujeres.html

Electrolux. Code of Conduct 2019: https://www.electroluxgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2015/04/electrolux-code-of-conduct-2019-english.pdf

Ellas tienen nombre. See: https://www.ellastienennombre.org/2020.html Accesed June 23 2021)

El Financiero, Mexico, Jan 1 2021. https://www.elfinanciero.com.mx/economia/nuevo-salario-minimo-de-141-7-pesos-entra-en-vigor-a-partir-de-este-viernes/

Infobae 2020,  “El sombrio panorama de las maquiladoras en  Ciudad Juarez ante el Covid-19”. April 23, 2020. https://www.infobae.com/america/mexico/2020/04/24/el-sombrio-panorama-de-las-maquiladoras-en-ciudad-juarez-ante-el-covid-19/ Accesed June 23 2021

Quintero Cirila, 2021, “La Aportación de las trabajadoras de la maquiladora a la económica local y regional: una historia pendiente”.  Notas breves de la AHENME, Ano 2021, vol. 4, nr 21

Swanger Joanna, 2007, Feminist Community Building in Ciudad Juárez: A Local Cultural Alternative to the Structural Violence of Globalization, Latin American Perspectives, Vol 34, issue 2 pp. 108-123.  

US Department of Labour, State minimum wage laws.  May 1, 2021. https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/minimum-wage/state Accesed  June 23 2021