CLUW members held a special conference in Phoeniz, AZ in March 2003 to link women globally. The goal, according to CLUW President Gloria Johnson, "is to support trade that improves wages, living standards and working conditions and to expose the exploitation of workers and women that is being promoted by US multi-national corporations."

In Arizona, a state that was promised more jobs through NAFTA, the economy is sputtering. "NAFTA is a failure," said Carrie Biggs-Adams, International Affairs Representative, CWA. "A Mexican consumer market for goods produced by U.S. manufacturers never materialized because the multinational companies that were producing goods in Mexico deserted the maquiladoras for cheaper labor in China."

AnaElsa Aviles of the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center has spent the past 15 years helping workers in the US and Mexico. Her facts are gruesome. "In Juarez, Mexico, home of 300 US manufacturers, women are being murdered in droves. Last year, 300 women were killed. Scores more were raped, bound and left for dead in ditches. The Mexican government and President Fox are doing nothing to protect this vulnerable population."

Most workers in the US-owned plants in Juarez are women ages 16-25. At a time of rising unemployment and crime in the border towns, the well-being of women workers is not even an afterthought. "Many young women are forced to walk miles home in the dark," Aviles explained. "This has led to an open season on their safety."

According to a March 22, 2003, Washington Post story on NAFTA, 19 million more Mexicans are living in poverty today than 20 years ago. The story also cited that Mexico's inability to enforce the rule of law also discourages the investment needed to create jobs.

With the U.S. Government now in speedy negotiations to extend free trade to Central and South America, CLUW members listened to the challenges and human rights violations workers in these nations face.

Colombia is one nation that receives much financial assistance from the US, but is an abysmal violator of workers' rights. Ibeth Vergara, a school teacher in that nation, shocked CLUW members with violent stories about an open-season on those who want to improve the lives of Colombian workers.

Vergara said, "Last year there were 30,000 homicides in Colombia. Of those, 172 trade unionists were assassinated, 164 received death threats, 26 were kidnapped, seven disappeared and 50 families were forced to flee into exile." Vergara's own life was threatened when funeral flowers arrived at her family's doorstep with a sympathy card on Ibeth's passing.

Being hosted in the US by the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center, Vergara has taken huge risks to educate the American public and learn from labor leaders. Last year, the Solidarity Center hosted 28 Columbian trade unionists to develop their organizing skills, teach them English and take them out of life-threatening situations for a period of time. In addition, a unique fund by the CWA donates ten cents from workers paychecks to bring Colombian labor leaders to the US for six months of training. This is one way unionists are showing their solidarity.

Cathy Feingold of the AFL-CIO outlined several other ways concerned women can make a difference in Ibeth's life and in the world economy. "Host a trade unionist, learn to speak another language, don't buy goods produced in sweatshops, support the Wal-Mart campaign. These are simple and effective ways to help change people's worlds and our own."

To learn more about how to support workers' rights in Colombia and other nations, go to www.aflcio.org and www.colombiasolidarity.org.

Ways union women can support Colombian workers:

• Organize a delegation of women to accompany Ibeth back.
  
• Colombia to ensure her safe return.
  
• Develop a sister city program.
  
• Put information on local websites about the Colombia program.
  
• Share information about the program with universities and labor study programs.
• Educate Congresspeople--write letters asking them to stop military aid to Colombia.
  
• Ask for speakers from the Colombia program to participate in women's summer institutes.
  
• Organize internships at unions for Colombian participants.
  
• Connect with Latino organizations doing this work in your community.
  
• Develop fact sheets on Colombia for CLUW lobby day.

Ways to help workers in Mexico:

• Educate workers who have lost their jobs due to NAFTA about why this is happening.
• Educate people about migrant workers in US.
• Educate about conditions of women workers in Mexican sweatshops.
  
• Participate in the Juarez postcard campaign.
  
• Organize worker-to-worker exchanges.
  
• Participate in international union summer.
  
• Organize delegations to Mexico.
  
• Use media and popular education to educate people about the situation of women workers in Mexico.