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A delegation of workers, union leaders and community activists visited the Maquiladoras plant four months later and found workers made roughly one fifth the wages of their American counterparts. One worker had her photo taken sitting in the same chair on the line she once worked in Greenville. Another worker said, "In the beginning I was real bitter because the Mexicans took our jobs. Now I realize that Phillips took our jobs." The table-model TV, whether made in Greenville or Juarez, sold for the same price at Sears.

The global economy promises cheaper prices for consumers and prosperity for workers. In reality the global economy produces winners and losers. Only one third of the world's population can participate in that economy as consumers, though many more participate by sewing shirts and assembling TVs. After five years the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), an expression of the global economy, has doubled Mexican exports to $115 billion a year, but it has increased Mexican workers living in poverty from 34% to 60%. The global economy basically demands mobility for moving factories and jobs where the labor is cheapest and resources plentiful without interference from local governments.

The Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras (CJM), a group supported by churches, unions and grass roots organizations from Canada, Mexico and the US, began in 1989 by looking at environmental issues along the Mexican border. Since then the group's focus has expanded to health and safety issues and alternative economic development. Through lawsuits and labor education, CJM attempts to hold Fortune 500 giants and lesser Maquiladora companies accountable for practices that would never be tolerated in the US. Last June Coalition members met a very sick 8 year-old boy named Erick.

Maribel Martinez worked four years at Delphi's manufacturing plant in Matamoros, Mexico, making automotive steering wheels used in GM cars. She was exposed daily to dangerous chemicals and solvents without appropriate safety equipment. Working while pregnant, Maribel delivered her son, Erick, who was born with serious health problems including glaucoma, hydrocephalic and decalcification of the skull.

The market system represents an ingenious mechanism for producing and distributing goods and services, but it has its limitations. Pope John Paul II teaches the principle of the priority of labor over capital. Basically, he reminds us that every worker is a subject, not an object; a son and daughter of God, not simply a cog in the wheel of production. While wage differentials will invariably exist in different parts of the world, no wage should slip below a living wage; the amount needed to live a dignified life. If cheap clothes or goods come to market at the expense of the health and dignity of workers, the system itself is sick.

Members of CJM are currently searching for ways to help Erick with his health problems. He needs surgery to insert a valve to help drain the water that accumulates in his head. The CJM folks need a neurosurgeon or $6,000 for the operation (e-mail: bstock@bellsouth.net)

With all the hype about prosperity and good times, there exists a down side. Young Erick puts a human face on the global economy.

Read other articles of senlightenmentpiritual  in the November 1999 edition of The San Francisco Charismatics or return to the Main Menu by clicking on the blue. Fr. John Rausch, a Glenmary priest, teaches at the Appalachian Ministries Educational Resource Center, Berea, Ky. His column appears monthly in many Catholic journals and in ours beginning this month, courtesy of the Friends of the Good News. When you purchase books, videos, etc. from Amazon.com this site, we receive a referral fee from them that support the work of the Friends of the Good News.