Rosa Moreno lost both her hands in an industrial accident, working for
a contractor for a multinational brand. She was lucky to get help to
sue for compensation, but
lost
the suit on a technicality.
Ms Moreno is not entirely innocent. Lacking a sure income, she did
wrong to have six children. Indeed, it is
wrong
for anyone to have six children. But that is a separate issue and in no way justifies the way she has
been treated after her injury, nor the dangerous conditions maintained
at her workplace.
This is what "free trade" does: it enables the multinational to make
countries compete to attract production by allowing the worst possible
working conditions and workers' rights.
If Mexico had had a real compensation system for accidents at work,
the company would have maintained Machine 19 carefully and followed
proper safety procedures, and this accident would probably not have
happened.
That is the basic reason why we must get rid of those treaties. We
must require companies to situate their production somewhere and leave
it there, so that governments will respond to public pressure to start
protecting workers' rights.