In what may be the most significant labor action in many years, U.S. auto workers are directly challenging the practice of "outsourcing" -- buying parts from suppliers who pay wages less than 10% of prevailing U.S. rates. Many of these suppliers operate in Mexico near the U.S. border, and PNS correspondent David Bacon reports that there are signs of profound unhappiness coming from that direction as well. Bacon covers labor and immigration issues for PNS.

TIJUANA, BAJA CALIFORNIA -- A strike at the Han Young factory here has provoked a crisis involving the firm, city, state, and federal governments -- and an international trade agreement.

Enrique Hernandez, organizer of the independent union of Han Young workers, and members of the factory's strike committee charge that the Baja California state government is allowing foreign maquiladora investors "to trample on the Federal Labor Law and the Constitution, which protect the right to strike. In Baja California, labor justice is a dead letter."

The Han Young plant makes truck chassis under contract for the huge Hyundai Corp. manufacturing complex. Hyundai is one of the largest investors in Tijuana.

Early in June, the city's labor board, its maquiladora association, its government-affiliated unions and Baja California state authorities moved to crush the unprecedented strike, the first by an independent union among maquiladora workers. On June 3, over 100 members of the city's SWAT "Special Forces" team went to the factory, where they not only tore down the red-and-black banners which traditionally mark a strike in Mexico, but burned them in the middle of the street. Police then opened the factory doors, and ushered in a contingent of strikebreakers.

State authorities also issued arrest warrants for Hernandez and for Jose Peñaflor, the union's attorney.

The government actions violate Article 123 of the Mexican Constitution, and the country's Federal Labor Law, which prohibit anyone from removing strike flags and entering a struck business until the dispute is settled.

The reopening capped a week of efforts to force the strikers back to work -- including two government-organized elections marked by ghost voters and extensive irregularities. At week's end, Tijuana's labor board took full-page ads in almost every newspaper in the city, declaring the strike "nonexistent." Strikers charge that in return newspapers agreed to a press blackout along the border.

Irregularities in the labor board's procedures provoked federal Judge Maria Lourdes Villagomez Guillon to issue an order suspending their actions. In direct violation of her decision, however, the government reopened the plant the following week.

Labor board chief Jesus Cosio says "there are political forces among the strikers seeking to use this dispute to their own advantage." Han Young plant manager Pablo Kang also sees "political groups" among the strikers and says their union "is not sincere." Both company and city authorities allege that the strike is a provocation by U.S. unions who want to poison the climate for foreign investment in Tijuana.

For their part, the strikers -- many of them supporters of the left opposition party in Mexico -- charge that they face a cabal involving the labor board, maquiladora owners, and government affiliated unions.

"We're challenging the system the government uses to attract foreign investment," Hernandez says. "They keep wages low by encouraging corrupt unions to sign protection contracts with the maquiladora owners, guaranteeing labor peace. If our strike is successful, thousands of other workers will try to break out of that system."

The strikers are demanding recognition of their independent union, a 35% wage increase, wage scales based on seniority and experience, and a profit-sharing plan in accordance with Mexican law. Han Young wages currently average about $8 a day.

Over 500 labor and human rights leaders in the U.S. and Mexico signed a letter to Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo, asking him to overrule the Tijuana authorities' actions against the strike and its leaders. In Washington, Congressional Minority Whip David Bonior has declared Han Young to be a test case with "long-term implications for U.S. trade policy."

Last fall, Bonior used Han Young as an example of NAFTA's failure to protect workers' rights in Mexico in arguing against Clinton administration proposals for fast track authority to expand the agreement. He won over enough of his fellow Democrats to defeat fast track.

Earlier this spring, the U.S. Department of Labor office charged with hearing complaints under NAFTA's labor side agreement, concluded that Mexico wasn't enforcing its own labor laws at Han Young.

Despite the police action in reopening the plant, it produced only five truck chassis in its first four days of work, compared to regular output of 18 to 20 chassis per day. Meanwhile, strikers continue daily demonstrations and marches throughout the city.