On September 26, the México Solidarity Project organized a protest in front of VU manufacturing headquarters in Detroit, MI, which illegally slammed its doors on its workers in Mexico. We excerpt from the flyer used to inform strikers about VU.

A heroic and historic UAW strike today: Auto industry jobs used to be good jobs. But since the 1990s, US automakers have impoverished autoworker families through plant closings, stagnant wages, and wage tiers.

But how were the companies able to impose the take-aways? A big reason was NAFTA. It allowed auto companies to go to México to take advantage of low wages and their company unions that protected employers, not workers. Ending wage tiers is a major goal of this strike. But the first tier structure ever was created between Mexican and US workers. New US auto worker hires and UAW bargaining power were casualties of this international race to the bottom. Right now, Stellantis has threatened to transfer truck production to México to counter the UAW’s just demands.

Mexican and US workers must stand together: At VU Manufacturing in Piedras Negras, which makes vehicle upholstery, the workers faced down threats of violence and replaced a company union with a rank and file union. But rather than negotiate a contract with the new union, the company shut down the plant. The last 71 workers at the plant have not received a dime. Now there is a city-wide blacklist 

against hiring any of the 400 former VU workers. The bosses want to make these workers suffer to scare other workers from organizing. That way, auto companies can continue to force US workers to accept concessions while profits soar.  

VU manufacturing workers speak:

Jovanna: "At the job fair, it looked like a funeral, because no one would hire us.”

Dario: “Vicente and I [rank and file union organizers] were unjustly fired. The company did not pay our severance, vacation, week of back-pay — they didn’t pay us anything.”

Miguel: “We are unemployable, but we are not problem employees. This is a message against all independent unions in the future.”

Join the Detroit protest at VU headquarters. Auto companies cross borders. SO CAN WE!