Members of the original independent union committee at the Mex Mode maquiladora.

Two veteran maquiladora women organizers offer their vision for a new era of labor solidarity

Benedicto Martinez and Robin Alexander march together in Mexico City, in a 2014 national protest on the 20th anniversary of the implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement. The marchers protested the economic and political reforms by the Mexican government and the then-ruling Party of the Institutionalized Revolution, setting the stage for the privatizing oil and electrical industries, implementing corporate education reform and social benefit policies, and changing the country's labor law.

The Strategic Cross-Border Alliance

Mexico City, Mexico. September 1, 2011. Humberto Montes de Oca is interviewed in Mexico City's main square, the Zocalo, on the day Mexican President Felipe Calderon gave his annual speech about the state of the country. The protest, called the Day of the Indignant, was organized by unions including the Mexican Electrical Workers (SME) because the Mexican government fired 44,000 electrical workers and dissolved the state-owned company they worked for, in an effort to smash their union. Humberto Montes de Oca is the international secretary of the SME. Photo by: David Bacon

A New Life For Mexico’s Oldest Union