The new free-trade zones. Slaves of commerce

Extended description: In the last few years, more than one hundred countries have declared areas of their territory free-trade zones, where companies pay close to nothing in taxes and have access to very cheap labor, especially young women. These conditions enable them to sell their products at highly-competitive prices in Europe or anywhere else in the western world. But the workers in these factories are subjected to such denigrating labor conditions that alarmed trade union organizations are claiming they do not respect the most basic human rights. This report brings to light some of these practices. The report was filmed on site in Sri Lanka, El Salvador, Mexico and Morocco, where perfect examples of this phenomenon were investigated. In Sri Lanka and El Salvador, there are two fairly new free-trade zones devoted to the textile industry. In Mexico there are areas next to the United States border, where there is a 30-year-old history of this practice. These areas have the highest industry density in the country since practically all major U.S. firms are operating there. In northern Morocco, 12 kilometers from Europe, certain areas have recently been declared free-trade zones in an attempt to provide the same service for Europe as Mexico provides for the United States. This new phenomenon is changing the world's economy. At the same time, human rights are being flagrantly violated. In El Salvador, workers are sometimes forced to spend nights locked inside factories, and the slightest attempt to organize is punished by massive firings. In Sri Lanka the work day is 12 hours for monthly wages of about $70. In Mexico the factories have transformed farming regions into cities with hundreds of thousands of inhabitants that have no social services and with pollution levels so high that there has been an alarming increase of brain-damaged newborns in the nineties. In the U.S. the parents of babies with birth defects are paid a compensation by the company; in Mexico the government tries to hide the problem. Interviewed in this program are international trade union leaders whose opinions are contrasted with those of the industrialists in favor of economic globalization. - Sri Lanka DP noies i nois treballant a l'interior d'una maquila PG arribada en autocars de treballador DP noies treballadores tancades de nit a la fàbrica - EUA/Mèxic DP zona franca TRAV dones treballadores de Sri Lanka a la fàbrica - Marroc DP dones treballadores marroquis a la zona franca PM em