Several Hesperian books are helping a collective in Tehuacan, Mexico develop training to improve the health of women workers. Tehuacan has been at the forefront of the worker rights movement in Mexico since the late 90s, when the town of just 300,000 became the home of more than 600 jean-making factories. Worker-led initiatives garnered strength over the years and gained the support of local, national, and international organizations, including the Labor and Environmental Rights Collective of the Tehuacan Valley, The Border Committee of Workers, and The Maquila Solidarity Network. Workers were able to win important battles, from fighting illegal working conditions to establishing independent unions. But the movement put gender aside to focus on labor rights. As a result, women, who compose almost 80% of the workforce, did not have the opportunity within the worker movement to fight for women’s rights.
In 2007 El Colectivo de Trabajadores Insumisas, The Collective of Not-So-Docile Women Workers, was formed by women who felt that gender and labor rights could no longer be separated. The organizers hope to create a forum “de mujer a mujer,” from woman to woman, where women workers can come together to share their experiences and the problems they face in and outside of the factory, while creatively and collectively coming up with solutions.
Another purpose of the Collective is to organize regular health trainings focused primarily on women’s and environmental health. The Collective has already begun to use some of Hesperian’s materials to develop these trainings, including Where Women Have No Doctor, A Book for Midwives, and sections of the upcoming title A Worker’s Guide to Health and Safety. All of these titles can be downloaded in English and Spanish from our English and Spanish websites.
The Collective is still caught up in the legal process of becoming a non-profit while confronting harsh criticisms about its name (including criticism from the largest foundation in Mexico). Nevertheless, it has already started organizing meetings with women workers, learning about the issues that matter to them the most, and promoting the idea that the labor movement cannot continue to evolve if it does not include women.
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