Alternate Sub-Stories      
             
               

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1. AutoTrim/Custom Trim
2. North and South
3. The NAO Process
4. A Case History
5. The CJM
6. The FAT/UA

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The Story Selection Menu gives you access to six shorter alternate stories which use selected and rearranged chapters of the documentary to create shorter narratives with differing foci. When you select and play a story, the related chapters are automatically shown in the new sequence. This facilitates use in classrooms and by discussion groups with limited time frames. The stories and their lengths are described below.
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Story Descriptions and Lengths
      Auto Trim/Custom Trim 36 mins.
         
   

Links the related stories of workers from Auto Trim (Matamoros) and Custom Trim (nearby Valle Hermosa), both owned by the same corporation.

The Matamoros workers tell of their children being born with birth defects which they attribute to chemical exposure in the plant.
   

The workers from Valle Hermosa give the history of a long struggle to try democratize their "official union" and make it fight to protect them against similar damage.

The final section of the story sees the two groups joining together in a complaint under the NAFTA "Side Agreement" which is heard in San Antonio by the U.S. National Administrative Office under NAFTA. Chapters: Matamoros, Custom Trim, AT/CT NAO

                 
  North and South 27 mins.  

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1. AutoTrim/Custom Trim
2. North and South
3. The NAO Process
4. A Case History
5. The CJM
6. The FAT/UA

         
   

This story shows that worker to worker support goes both ways across the NAFTA borders. In the first segment we see the UE and the AFL-CIO supporting Mexican workers and the the FAT, an independent Mexican labor federation, as they take a complaint to the NAO.

The second part concerns apple workers in the State of Washington, where we see the FAT,

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  and labor organizations from as far away as Brazil and and from as close as Canada supporting these workers in a follow up to a complaint that they filed before the Mexican NAO.
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Chapters: The FAT/UE ALLIANCE, YAKIMA
 
The NAO Process 32 mins.
   

This story links three sections that reflect on the NAO complaint process and the efficacy of the hearings.

It begins with the hearings in Washington on the Echlin/ITAPSA struggle near Mexico City. We hear testimony claining massive intimidation of workers.

 

We shift to the Han Young workers in Tijuana who feel excluded from the followup to their NAO hearings on similar issues. They see the company, the Maquiladora Association, local and state government, the official union and the labor board all lined up to prevent them from organizing independently.

We end with the hearings on the Auto Trim/Custom Trim complaint. This is the first complaint to be based solely on violations of worker's health and safety. Once again workers feel that the NAO, though finding in their favor, lacks the power to defend them.

Chapters: The FAT and the UE, Han Young, and The Custom Trim/Auto Trim NAO
                   
    A Case History 26 mins.  

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1. AutoTrim/Custom Trim
2. North and South
3. The NAO Process
4. A Case History
5. The CJM
6. The FAT/UA

           
     

A multi-faceted telling of the history of the Custom Trim struggle in Valle Hermosa, from its beginnings up to the end of the NAO hearing on their complaint.

Told from the point of view of some of the Custom Trim workers, of the Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras, which was providing

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  expertise and coordinating support from other labor and human rights organizations, of the New York Religious/Labor Coalition, which was supporting one of the worker/organizers, and from the Canadian Steelworkers who were participating in mutual support while their jobs with Custom Trim in Waterloo, Ontario were being shifted to Mexico.
 
Chapters: Custom Trim, The AT/CT NAO
                   
    The CJM 36 mins.
           
      The Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras, led by Martha Ojeda and based in San Antonio, is a key and long established organization in working directly with agrieved maquila workers and in coordinating international support for their struggles. It has a board made up of representatives of organizations in the three NAFTA countries, with a strong representation from Mexico.
 
This story re-arranges the Auto Trim and Custom Trim stories in a way that gives prominence to the role played by the CJM.
Chapters: Custom Trim, Matamoros, The AT/CT NAO
                   
  The FAT/UE Alliance 18 mins.  

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1. AutoTrim/Custom Trim
2. North and South
3. The NAO Process
4. A Case History
5. The CJM
6. The FAT/UA

         
  The Mexican labor confederation, El frente aútentico de trabajo, and the U.S. based union, United Electrical Workers, form another long established cross-border alliance. They represent workers from some of the same transnationals and coordinate mutual support between these workers.
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  Here we follow them in the Echlin/ITAPSA struggle and we also take a look CETLAC, at a worker aid organization in Ciudad Juarez that they cosponsor.   Go to Crossing the Line
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The Echlin Chapter is followed by a section on CETLAC from the bonus chapter.