Memories from 7 years ago

From April 2010:

Sunday, April 18, 2010

The Long Spring

Yes, I know, Laredoans are always talking about the weather when not much changes. However, this year it's different! Winter normally starts about the day after Christmas, then gradually disappears by mid-January. For the first three months of this year, 2010, Laredo was just darn cold--colder than New York City on many days. Instead of the air conditioner coming on, the heater was used for a gracious plenty of nights in the 30's and 40's. Finally in March, our Spring appeared, and it's still here at the end of April. It rained last week for 7 days, and not quite 7 nights. Our prominent weather forecaster, "Heat Wave" Berler says we are 5" of rain ahead of our year to date average; Heatwave had to change this year from shorts to his "long johns"!

Well, enough already, it has been a good year for the most part. Our 6 week celebration of George Washington's Birthday went off great. Anna and John Galo did their expected superb job portraying Martha and George. Laredo raised $60,000. for Haitian earthquake relief--donated to Habitat for Humanity International, Doctors without Borders, and the Red Cross. The Laredo Bucks made it to the CFL Hockey Playoffs, and many out of town college students (working for Habitat Laredo on an alternative Spring Break experience) enjoyed seeing the Bucks in action.

The pool was used last week, the rain has stopped for now, and we may have our start of Summer by May. It's been a long Spring, hope yours has been enjoyable as well.

If you wanted to know but never asked--just what is a Maquiladora?

Maquiladora:
 In the 1940’s and 1950’s, the U.S. allowed Mexican workers to come legally across the border and work under a “Bracero Program." This provided the United States with migratory farm hands to pick American grapes, onions, apples, etc. at low wages. “Bracero” is the Spanish word for “hired hand” or “day laborer," and these jobs provided money for poor families throughout improvised Mexico. When the laws changed in the early 1960’s, Mexican workers were shut out of the U.S., losing a source of income, and sparking an inevitable rise in illegal immigration. In an attempt to compensate, Mexico established an “in-bond” border industrialization program, in 1964 that became known as the “maquiladora” program. 

The maquiladora plant could be 100% owned by a foreigner (other new industry in Mexico had to be majority owned by Mexicans). The maquiladora could import raw materials into Mexico, in-bond, without paying import duties; these materials could be next assembled into a finished product, and then exported 100% to the U.S. Under United States Customs Regulations that had existed since the 1930’s, these Mexican products (assembled from U.S. sourced materials) would be charged U.S. duty only on the cost of the “valued added” to the product in Mexico—or the cost of assembly. This combination of Mexican and U.S. regulations sparked some initial investment in maquiladoras, but not much.

 In Nuevo Laredo, the first maquiladora was established in 1969—A.C. Neilson, a company whose sole function in Nuevo Laredo was to count grocery store promotional coupons. In 1971, the Barry Corporation opened a maquiladora to sew ladies’ slippers, and in 1972, the Springfield Wire Company started a maquiladora to assemble heating elements for small appliances. In the mid 1970’s, a maquiladora by the name of “Transitron” was established. In a few short years, it nearly ruined the reputation of Nuevo Laredo as a good location for industrial investment. Transitron was in the business of assembling electrical components in a large building in the southern part of the city. Its management consisted largely of Laredoans who crossed the river each day, and were inexperienced with dealing with Mexican workers and unions. The labor boss, at that time, was Pedro Perez Ibarra. He would become a typical “calcique” or political boss as well as union leader. As Nuevo Laredo’s calcique, he picked city officials, and his political influence grew to where he was rumored to have the power to also choose the State’s Governors. His political control was made possible by the one-party state that was Mexico through the period from the 1929 to 2000. Transitron suffered a prolonged and nasty strike. The “chamber of commerce” types in Laredo consistently blamed the strike on the management. Similar voices in Nuevo Laredo agreed, but there was still an undercurrent of warning to newcomers—be careful how you deal with the Mexican unions. 

By 1981, a number of companies had established maquiladoras in Tijuana, Ciudad Juarez, and Matamoros—all border cities. In Nuevo Laredo, there were seven in total, with Sony having established an assembly operation in 1979. Of these, only the successor to A. C. Neilson (NCH Promotional Services), Barry, Springfield Wire, and Sony remained operating in Nuevo Laredo in the year of 2000. The total number of maquiladoras in Nuevo Laredo by 2000 (the peak year for these plants) was 64, employing approximately 22,000 persons. In Mexico as a whole, approximately 3400 maquiladoras employed over 1.2 million persons that year.

 In the early 1980’s maquiladoras existed primarily as light assembly operations, employing predominately young women. The legal age for work in Mexico is 16, and maquiladoras were filled with 16 to 18 year old females working at their first paying job. Compensation was at the Mexican minimum wage with those benefits provided by the Mexican Labor Law. Since this law is based on a European socialist model, it does provide for family health insurance, paid vacations, Christmas bonuses, and medical leaves. As medical leaves included pregnancy, maquiladoras would routinely screen the young women for this condition—and married women were seldom hired. These maquiladora jobs were new to the Mexican economy and to this young female segment of the population, and companies had no shortage of applicants for their factories.

 The derivation of the name “maquiladora” is from the Spanish word meaning a mill where you bring your corn or wheat to be ground. The usual arrangement at such a mill was for the mill owner to keep a portion of the flour in payment for services. Since the in-bond plants received parts not owned by the plant, performed an assembly-only operation, and shipped the assembly back to the original owner of the parts—the term “maquiladora” was an analogous descriptive name for these plants. “Maquiladora” was not the term consistently used, however. Proponents of these plants preferred the term “Twin Plants.” This name symbolized the relationship of the plant(s) that produced the parts (mainly in the U.S.), with the assembly (or twin) plant located in Mexico. One the most widely read trade magazine about maquiladoras was “The Twin Plant News” published in El Paso, Texas. Politicians in U.S. border cities envisioned the U.S. half of the twin plants being relocated from northern states to their side of the border, but with a few exceptions, this never happened. The shortened version of maquiladora—“maquila” is also often used. The provisions of the North American Free Trade Act, signed on December 17, 1992 by U.S. President Bush, Mexican President Salinas, and Canadian Prime Minister Mulroney, provided for “maquiladora” plants to cease their existence by 1-1-2001. The plants are still there, but now exist as Mexican plant operations under NAFTA.

Living on the Border--1980's vs Present Day

Living on the Border

            Whenever new employees and families from the North Country of the United States, and later from France, arrived to Laredo, I would put them through cultural awareness training.  Living in Laredo, and working at the plant in Nuevo Laredo, was a much pleasanter experience if you could lessen the “cultural shock” these folks always felt.  I would start by telling them that they would think their first year on the border was terrible, the second year would seem much better, and if they stayed past a third year they would be unfit to go anyplace else!  Of course, they did not believe me until my prophecy was vindicated.

            During the 1980’s and 1990’s, the quality of life on the Laredo border was quite good.  Independently owned, unique, and very good restaurants on the Laredo side included Goldings, Favaratos, and the Tesoro Club at the La Posada Hotel.  In Nuevo Laredo, excellent eating establishments, at very reasonable prices, included La Fittes,  The Winery, and the Cadillac Bar.  If you had out-of-town visitors, you could walk across the downtown bridge and shop at the Nuevo Laredo Market, or buy up-scale jewelry and clothing at Marti’s.  Laredo’s first professional City Manager, Marvin Townsend, and his wife, started a “Newcomers and Friends Club”, which welcomed the new residents to Laredo.  There were two large shopping malls, two English language newspapers, and English speaking AM Radio stations with local news broadcasts.  Unfortunately, by the 2000’s, all of the above, except for one newspaper, disappeared.  In their place came three Wal-marts, national chain restaurants, and the demise of the Nuevo Laredo tourist scene due to an explosion of drug cartel violence along Mexico’s northern border. 

            I had several job opportunities while working at Delredo to leave the border, but chose to turn them down.  My wife, family, and I had come to truly appreciate the warm friendships we had made on both sides of the border.  We had also taken advantage of participating in the many opportunities for community service in Laredo, and had quickly discovered that “newcomers” were very much welcomed in organizations like Rotary Clubs, the Laredo Chamber of Commerce, the Washington Birthday Celebration, Habitat for Humanity, and others.  Laredo has grown to a medium-sized city but has retained its small town feel. 

There are still Maquiladoras in Nuevo Laredo, but the drug cartel violence in Mexico has kept many Americans from crossing the border, and most new plants have opened in Mexico’s interior.  I know from experience that the Maquiladoras contributed to both the Mexican and U.S. economies, but also trained and developed their employees to enable them to enjoy better lives for themselves and their families.  In the new “global economy” the decisions to establish maquiladora plants in Mexico, rather than in Asia, have strengthened the NAFTA partnership.

Fort McIntosh--a Laredo Jewel!

The following is from a book written by Kathleen Da Camara:

"OLD FORT MclNTOSH was originally a star-shaped

earthwork occupying an area of about one acre on a

bluff some fifty feet above the waters of the Rio

Grande. It was partly constructed by the Engineers De-

partment and was finished by troop labor. Within was

a fine magazine of stone with an arched roof overlaid

with earth. There were descending steps, iron doors,

and secure locks, and there was a tunnel under the riv-

er. This old fort stood near the most important place

of entry along the Texas-Mexican border, the Indian

Crossing. This for a century or more had been used

by all the prairie schooners. The old fort adjoins the

present Fort Mclntosh on the northwest end of the

military reservation, with its earthen walls still intact

According to the United States Army records of the

Reservation of Fort Mclntosh, the United States troops

entered Laredo immediately after the Mexican War,

and a post was established on March 3, 1848, and

named Camp Crawford. This name was changed to

Fort Mclntosh in 1850 in honor of Lieutenant Colonel

James Mclntosh, who died in Mexico City in 1847.

This post was abandoned in 1858, and its stores re-

moved to Fort Brown near Brownsville, and the build-

ings, some thirty in number, then reverted to the city

of Laredo, from which a tract of land, twenty-five

hundred acres, had been leased. Upon abandonment of

the post, the authorities of Laredo leased to the United

States for a nominal consideration, for ten years, the

old fort and five acres of land. In 1859 two companies

of the First Infantry were sent to Fort Mclntosh to

take post. On September 7, 1860, the city of Laredo

entered into another lease with First Lieutenant John

Slaughter, covering the land on which the fort is lo-

cated. The land was leased for a period of twenty years,

and during the period of lease the United States could

buy the land if it was wanted.

On March 2, 1861, at the outbreak of the Civil

War, the post was abandoned by the United States

garrison, and Colonel Benavides became commander of

it during the war. In 1865 the Federal forces reoccu-

pied the post, and it again came into the hands of the

United States Government, The post has been gradual-

ly improved, and it is now headquarters for the posts

along the river from Del Rio to Brownsville

In 1870 many new buildings were erected. A hospi-

tal, post office, bakery, six quartermaster storehouses,

and three barracks were built.

From 1900 till the First World War, the Ninth In-

fantry was stationed at Fort Mclntosh, and when the

war broke out they were moved and the Thirty-Sev-

enth Infantry and the Sixth Field Artillery were sta-

tioned here. From 1916 to 1918 the First Infantry,

New Hampshire National Guard, was stationed in La-

redo. From 1920 to 1939 this post was the home of

the Eighth Engineers, and these men were transferred

to the Philippines in September, 1941. In 1942 Fort

Mclntosh was a cavalry post and about two thousand

enlisted men and officers were stationed there. New

barracks were constructed, old ones enlarged, and tem-

porary buildings were set up. At the end of the war

Fort Mclntosh was closed. The northern half was

turned over to the Boundary Commission and the

southern half was given to the city. It is here that the

Laredo Junior College is located."

LAREDO

on the

RIO GRANDE

by

Kathleen Da Camara

Press of

THE NAYLOR COMPANY

SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS

Years of Living Dangerously--The Mexican Union

Nuevo Laredo had a tough time in the 1980’s attracting maquiladoras because of a lingering threatening image of the local union, and especially because of the negative reputation of its’ boss, Pedro Perez Ibarra. These fears stemmed from the demise of the Nuevo Laredo Transitron plant in the 1970’s –attributed to hostile relations with the CTM Union. The Sony Corporation had taken a chance, in 1980, and established a maquiladora headed by soft spoken, Jerry Brochin, who had been successfully running a Springfield Wire maquila in the city. Jerry’s positive attitude toward the union was very instrumental in the decision by General Motors to locate in Nuevo Laredo. To facilitate this decision, a meeting was arranged to have Tony Paris meet with the union leader, and receive assurances that the GM plant would not be “bothered” by a union contract so long as Mexican Labor Laws were followed. This accomplished, I was given the task of dealing with the union, following the Mexican Labor Law provisions, but ignoring the part of the same law that required a written contract!

Pedro Perez Ibarra was known as “El Professor” because he had once been a 6^th grade teacher. He had progressed to the level of a “cacique”, or union boss, with powers reaching far beyond labor issues. The Professor had a resume that included the positions of federal congressman, state legislator, city councilman, head of the State of Tamaulipas Confederation of Mexican Workers (CTM), while, at the same time, being the Secretary General (boss) of the Nuevo Laredo union. The CTM, nationally, was the strongest part of the three sections of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (or PRI).

The Professor had control of not only the unions, but also the politicians in the City. He first over extended his power on Tuesday, February 21, 1984. Carmina Danini of the San Antonio Express reported that on “Black Tuesday---mobs of young people destroyed his house and other property, including a newspaper he owned, set cars on fire and wounded three people”. The violence was a reaction to a city-wide general strike, called by the Professor, which had paralyzed Nuevo Laredo for 24 hours. The National CTM labor leader, Don Fidel Velazquez, flew to the city, and successfully managed, or ordered, the return of the Professor’s power.

Pedro Perez Ibarra’s final public protest occurred in November, 1992. He led a sizable crowd to rally support against a recently imposed Federal order limiting the dollar amount of U.S. merchandize that could be brought back to Mexico by citizens of Nuevo Laredo. This time, his followers (or more likely, government embedded agents) sacked and burned Mexican Federal Government offices at both downtown international bridges—with damage estimated at U.S.$20 million. The Professor fled to Laredo, Texas, not to return to Nuevo Laredo until shortly before his death at age 87 on August 30, 2006.

After Pedro Perez Ibarra’s career demise in 1992, I felt it was time to have a legal union/management labor contract in hand. I borrowed, as a template, the existing labor contract in effect next door at the GM Packard Electric plant (later to become “Delphi”). Packard Electric had arrived in Nuevo Laredo in 1985, and had quickly expanded sister plants in Monterrey and farther south. I simplified their contract as much as feasible, and reached agreement with the Delredo shop committee—the three union shift “delegates”. By 1993, the Professor had been replaced as head of the Nuevo Laredo CTM Unions by Senior Jose Maria Morales—known as “Chema”. He was a pleasant, likeable man, and popular in the city as head of the restaurant workers union. Unfortunately, my first encounter with him was over the discharge of three of our union workers.

Delredo had never had a union strike. All of our neighboring automotive parts plants—Packard Electric, Ford (Lamosa), and an aluminum foundry, CMI, had suffered some walk-outs. An official union strike in Mexico is unlike that in the U.S. The union files the official paperwork with the appropriate Mexican government officials, the strike is legally declared, and the doors of the plant are barred shut. Once the strike starts, no one is allowed into the plant, and anyone inside the plant is not permitted, by law, to leave. One fall afternoon, one of our employees had his car stolen from the plant parking lot. He became so upset, he and two others, convinced the employees working on the then second shit to leave their machines and congregate in the cafeteria. My Personnel Supervisor, Manuel Lope, went to the assembled group, and convinced them to go back to work after about 40 minutes. The three union delegates were not present in the plant that day, but were attending a union convention out of town. As a result of this “wild cat”, or unofficial work stoppage, we fired the three instigators. When “Chema” and I first met, a few days later, he asked that the three fired employees be re-instated. When I refused, he left my office somewhat angry, but friendlier relations were established over the next weeks.

Manuel Lope and I were able to “smooth” matters over with Chema through numerous future meetings—more social in nature than anything pertaining to business. We became regular patrons of Chema’s favorite downtown Nuevo Laredo café for breakfast, and made a habit of meeting him, when we had to discuss union matters, at his office or at other restaurants he frequented. From 1993, until I left Mexico in 2004, we had a good working relationship, talked frequently about mutual friends on both sides of the river, and attended many union dinners and social events. At the same time, the union benefited from the continued success of the Delredo plant, with increased wages and benefits.

One huge benefit of working with strong union leaders in Mexico was a sense of personal security. Yes, you were still subject to petty crime (I once had my trunk reconfigured with a sledge hammer while parked in front of the plant), but you knew the union boss (“Jefe”) controlled the police as well as the Municipal politicians and bureaucrats. Late one evening in November, 1984, I received a call from Manuel Lope that our Delredo Security Chief had been arrested and taken to the Nuevo Laredo Police Headquarters. I had recently been introduced by the Professor to the Mayor of Nuevo Laredo, and I knew the Mayor was at a “Teacher Day” recognition function at the Lion’s Club in Nuevo Laredo. Meeting Manuel there—at about 11:00 pm, we talked to the Mayor, and he sent his personal assistant with us to get our man released. At the Police Headquarters we found our Security Chief, Raul De la Rosa, sitting in a holding room which featured several prominent holes, about the size of a human head, in the surrounding walls! Raul had earlier completed a successful “stake-out” at Delredo, catching two of our Security Guards stealing office supplies. We had our guards arrested (a mistake in hindsight), but they proceeded to have their cohorts pay the police to have Raul arrested as a “witness”. At the Assistant to the Mayor’s direction, Raul was sprung just after mid-night.

General Motors' First Manufacturing Plant in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico

"On September 16, 1981, I was in Nuevo Laredo for the ground breaking ceremony at the plant site. Our supervising GM construction engineer, Art Collins, and our purchasing agent, Herb Ball were there with me. We had driven to the plant site on unpaved Nuevo Laredo roads—with promises having been secured that a paved road would soon reach our site in Nuevo Laredo’s first industrial park.  This was the time of  Ronald Reagan, the “Urban Cowboy" movie, disruptive years of the 80’s. We wanted to be the “Texans” of the movies—and we enjoyed wearing cowboy boots and jeans to work; going to honky tonks at night, and legally driving down Texas highways drinking beer. Governor Ann Richards had not yet civilized Texas, and driving distances were still measured by how many beer bottles you needed in your cooler to reach your destination without thirst.

. In 1981, GM had already constructed four maquiladora plants in Ciudad Juarez, across from El Paso, Texas, and three plants in Matamoros, across from Brownsville, Texas. El Paso is 600 miles from Laredo, and Laredo is 200 miles from Brownsville—all three cities situated on the Rio Grande River. The Rio Grande is known as the Rio Bravo in Mexico—and since both names are in Spanish, I have never been able to discover why the difference. In terms of distances between the cities, El Paso is nearer Los Angeles, California, than it is to Brownsville. Laredo was chosen by GM primarily so as not to have too large a presence in any one city. GM had gone through a “southern strategy” during the 1970’s of trying to have union free plants in the U.S.. They had built plants in Mississippi, Georgia, and Louisiana—trying to keep out the UAW and IUE unions that populated GM plants in the North, and to thereby reduce wages and work rule related costs. The southern strategy cracked when a GM plant in Monroe, La., voted for UAW representation, and the domino effect took hold—with all the other GM southern plants becoming unionized. GM’s new strategy in the 80’s was a deep southern strategy—Mexico. To avoid wage pressures by Mexican unions, GM did not want a concentration of its plants in any one Mexican city—thus Nuevo Laredo got its opportunity to be home to GM’s newest plant in 1981.

The plant in Nuevo Laredo was named “Delredo”-- a combination of the GM Division’s name, Delco Products, and Laredo. It sounded great to the English only speakers in Ohio and Michigan. Unfortunately, Delredo, sounds like the name for a bar to Spanish speakers. After some initial recruiting problems—because of the plant’s name, the locals accepted “Delredo” as a maquiladora, and it lasted for 17 years until it was changed in 1998.

Delredo was built on 10 acres of virgin desert like land in less than a year--quick for a plant built of pre-stressed concrete sections with 165,000 square feet of floor space. Production shipments of strontium ferrite magnets, for use in automotive electrical motors, started in August of 1981".-- from "Maquiladora" by E.C. Sherwood

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　

　



　



　

Laredo's First Annual International Auto Show

Twenty years ago I organized a General Motors Auto Show for two years. Both were held at large logistics warehouses in Northwest Laredo, but the crowds exceeded all expectations! The first year, along with new GM vehicle models, we had the "Sun Racer"--the solar powered GM car that won a solar race across Australia. The second year we had a NASCAR replica of Tom Cruise's "Days of Thunder" movie racing car. I think we might have also had free beer--that probably helped attendance. Well, now in 2012, on Friday, 9-21, and Saturday, 9-22, will be a really exciting International Auto Show, free to the public, at the new Laredo Unitrade Stadium. No free beer this time, but free parking. New 2013 vehicles from 13 Manufacturers, representing 7 countries, will be on display! Food and refreshments will also be available from booths maned by volunteers from Habitat for Humanity of Laredo Webb County. The good folks from Habitat will have a share of the concession proceeds to help them provide decent affordable housing. Law enforcement agencies will also have their specialized vehicles on display. So a good time for all is about to happen--check the Laredo Morning Times and Guerra Communication stations Z93 and FM98 for details.