Alcoa Background

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The Struggle:
The workers at Macoelmex, Alcoa’s subsidiary in Piedras Negras, Mexico, were violently attacked on February 25, 2002 after electing officers for an independent union at the plant. Leaders of the corrupt union the newly elected officers were meant to replace attacked the independent union supporters in the factory during working hours. The company took no action against the attackers, leading to suspicion of collusion of the corrupt union and the company.

Despite the violent repression, a second vote was held on March 4 that confirmed the vote for an independent union and Macoelmex’s sister factory also voted in an independent union this October. However, the independent unions have not been recognized and reports of the anti-independent union repression have continued from March until today, including physical harassment, firings, Alcoa sending private security guards to videotape activists in meetings held off company property, and massive “therapy” sessions against the democratic movement inside the plants.

Throughout the fight for an independent union at the Macoelmex
plants, Alcoa holds itself as a has not respected the workers’ call for democracy!

The Company
Alcoa, Inc. is the world's largest producer of aluminum. Headquartered in New York and Pittsburgh, Alcoa has 129,000 employees in 38 countries.

Former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo was recently named to Alcoa's Board of Directors, while Paul O'Neill, Alcoa's CEO from 1987 to 2000, left the company to become secretary of the treasury under George W. Bush.

The Alcoa Fujikura Ltd. Division (AFL) is one of the five largest suppliers of automotive electrical distribution systems in the world. In Mexico, it manufactures wire harnesses for Ford, Volkswagen, Subaru, Harley-Davidson, and other firms.

Alcoa maquiladora operations in Piedras Negras and Ciudad
Acuña employ more than 17,000 production workers.