Unsanitized: The COVID-19 Report for July 10, 2020

Labor Repression in Mexico
and Dangers in the COVID Workplace
Also, the testing problem.

 

A protest in Mexico demanding freedom for Susana Prieto. (Guillermo
Gutiérrez/NurPhoto via AP)

First Response

In a world without coronavirus, this would have been a big week for
Trump's re-election. He had planned to host the leaders of Mexico and
Canada to celebrate the updated NAFTA agreement coming into force on
July 1. Instead, Justin Trudeau didn't show up and few paid attention
to
Andrés Manuel López Obrador showing up. Even fewer have paid attention
to the fact that the new NAFTA (the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or
USMCA), designed to improve labor rights in Mexico and therefore create
a more level playing field for North American workers, appears doomed to
not accomplish that goal.

Throughout Mexico, workers and worker advocates trying to assert the
rights given through USMCA and in the country's new labor law are
being harassed, fired, and arrested. And coronavirus is being used as a
smokescreen to facilitate these subjugations. Manufacturing wages in
Mexico are 40 percent lower than wages in China, according to Public
Citizen's Lori Wallach
,
and the resistance from mostly U.S.-owned manufacturing sites along the
border ensure that things will stay that way.

On Wednesday, Wallach hosted a remarkable event with Rep. Chuy Garcia
(D-IL) and Susana Prieto Terrazas, whose story the Prospect has
previously covered
.
Prieto, a labor attorney, was arrested and held for a month in a
Matamoros prison for "leading a riot" at a labor court. In reality, it
was a protest that Prieto didn't attend. She was put in jail because
she represents one of the first independent labor unions in Mexico, not
the sham "protection unions" that the USMCA was supposed to eliminate.
Prieto helped workers in Matamoros win wage hikes last year, and
therefore she must be punished.

The main thing that Prieto was organizing at the time of her arrest was
workplace and wage protections due to COVID-19. Most of the border
manufacturing sites, known as maquiladoras, have not shut down or even
slowed down their assembly lines. Masks or other protective equipment
were not distributed, and travel on packed buses to the factories
continued. Prieto alleged that 25 percent of workers in the maquiladoras
have fallen ill, and "death has begun in Matamoros."

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So the maquiladora owners reacted to Prieto trying to assist workers in
asserting their right not to be killed in a pandemic by throwing her in
jail. After a month without release and international outcry
,
Prieto was finally let out on bail. However, under the stipulations of
the order, she was banned from the state of Tamaulipas for 30 months and
banished to Chihuahua, while being ordered to pay "reparations" to
government officials (really) who were at the labor court protest. There
are now warrants for her arrest in Chihuahua, and she expects to be
hauled back into prison. This all violates the new Mexican labor law,
but those are words on a page, a "fallacy" as Prieto puts it.

Prieto noted that, during her time in prison, she attempted to appeal on
multiple occasions, but because the courts were closed due to COVID-19,
she could not file the proper documents. Even now, the promised labor
tribunals have not opened in the north of the country, where most of the
maquiladoras are. "This political persecution against me, they planned
it all, so during the pandemic I couldn't use legal resources," Prieto
said.

So the maquiladoras ignore the coronavirus when it would impact their
profits, but capitalize on it to carry out trumped-up charges that they
know cannot be challenged. This tactic is likely replicated around the
world, with authoritarians and big business using the pandemic to their
advantage wherever possible. And because it has crowded out most
official concerns, the cries of people like Susana Prieto are seldom
heard.

"There's little for people in either country to celebrate," on USMCA,
said Rep. Garcia. "The continuing threats against Susana Prieto are
casting doubts on the prospect that the new NAFTA will deliver better
labor conditions." While López Obrador has nominal control of the
federal government, he does not control the state law enforcement
apparatus, still in the hands of right-wing officials conducting
business as usual for the benefit of the maquiladoras, who are typically
under control of U.S. ownership.

Protests and wildcat strikes continue at the Mexican border, as they
have in the U.S., from workers unwilling to subject themselves to risk
of COVID-19 on the job. Mexican workers have little recourse to assert
their rights, and the USMCA doesn't improve the picture. Prieto is
planning to sue, saying that her arrest violated the new trade
agreement. "My real crimes," she said, "have been the defense of
workers' rights."

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This is Only a Test

Here in Los Angeles County testing was once open to everyone who
requested one, but after requests surged amid the flood of new cases, it
has now been restricted only to the sick. This has been a trend in surge
areas of the country, and it still hasn't been enough to keep up with
demand. So we keep hearing stories about people waiting a week or two
for test results
.

This is really bad for a number of reasons. First, if someone doesn't
know they have tested positive for a week, they could be spreading the
disease in their community or to their family members. It makes the
entire concept of contact tracing impossible. Worse, it means that the
statistics and curves derived from testing might not be showing what we
think they're showing. If a positive test today reflects a test taken
a week or two ago, we don't know if the spread is improving or
worsening in real time. Mixing together tests from two days ago and six
days ago and twenty days ago presents an artificial picture, and it
makes it hard to know if certain interventions work. Finally, if some
people are barred from being tested, we just know about less of the
population in terms of spread.

Testing is most strained in areas with the biggest surges, which is
obvious but also the worst possible outcome, because that's where you
need the most information. It's worth sinking more effort into pooled
testing, where you test 100 people at a time. If they all are negative,
the test is negative, and you've accomplished with 1 test what you'd
otherwise accomplish with 100. That could lower the strain on supplies
and lab work. In the meantime, we are living with delays and
restrictions. Which means we're flying somewhat blind.

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Today I Learned

* I wish it weren't so, but the death tolls are now rising

in the most affected states, despite improved therapies and a younger
population. Not rising to New York levels yet, but rising. (Los Angeles
Times)

* The most important thing for the economy, according to one Fed
governor: wearing masks
.
(CNBC)

* Oil prices headed back in a tailspin

as cases surge. (Axios)

* Whaddya know, you give people money

and it helps them. (The Atlantic)

* Companies acting like stressed-out households, delaying reckonings by
using the credit card
.
(Financial Times)

* Fake church selling bleach

as a COVID cure. (TPM)

* The rise of coronavirus-shaped desserts
.
(Washington Post)

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