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Work time

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General

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Started by trying to find newspapers of record, going by the Alexa ratings[1], the following are good starts, in order of unique online visitors:

  • La Jornada [2] Their website is hosted by the National Autonomous University of Mexico.
  • El Universal [3]
  • Milenio [4]
  • El Universal [5]
  • Reforma [6] Requires subscription.

Work Feb 13

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Note For the moment, Milenio seems to be the most accessible news source, their search engine is effective (yielding 29 results for "lecheros" [7]) and all hits are fully viewable. I will start here. -- Peraltita (talk) 06:46, 13 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Note Dates will be set in YYYY/MM/DD format.

  • 2008/01/31 Campesinos pidieron la renuncia del delegado de la Sagarpa en La Laguna [8] Torreón, Coahuila. Farmers from the 'Lagunera' (northern-western) region have asked have asked for Minister of Agriculture in that region to step down from his post. Conrado Antúnez, a representative for the group states that the region's dairy farmers support the national movement to suspend (literally "reject") the Free Trade Agreement (I'm assuming NAFTA, although the United States is not mentioned explicitly, it refers only to a FTA, Tratado de Libre Comercio), asking specifically for reform of the agricucultural and husbandry chapters. A group of dairy farmers showed up at an unrelated meeting between mayors of four municipalities, and made their way to the Department of Agriculture, stuck around for four hours. This was a joint effort of 10 racher/farmer groups that hade never previously joined under a single cause. -- Peraltita (talk) 16:09, 13 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]
  • 2008/01/30 Delegado de la Sagarpa en La Laguna acusa a lecheros de haber desviado recursos [9] Lerdo, Durango. A delegate of the Ministry of Agriculture in the 'Laguna' region, MX, accused the local dairy farmers of misappropriating funds ($7M MXP or $700K USD). Farmers deny the claims and note that ther funds have in fact been used, as proven by the construction of three 'milking modules'. Of which only once is working. The other two are note working b/c the farmers have been unable to put up the funds. According to an agreement, the federal government was to put up 70% of financing, the rest by the farmers, the farmers argue that they have been unable to procure their part of the funding due to some 'price debacle'.
  • 2008/01/29 Sigue la protesta de lecheros en Monumento a la Revolución [10] Mexico D.F. Members of the 'National Front of Milk Producers and Consumers are staging a sit-in Plaza of the Republic to demand a fair price for every liter of milk. Members are from the states Hidalgo, Veracruz, Chiapas, & Zacatecas. In addition, they are giving away free milk to anyone who drops by with a container.
  • 2008/01/21 Campesinos del norte marchan para pedir freno al TLC [11] Torreón, Coahuila. Farmers and Dairy producers arrived in the Capital city of this state to demand a halt to the Free Trade Agreement following the initialization of the 'Agricultural' chapter/condition of the FTA. "You need only go to the countryside and see the ejidos (communal lands) abandoned, where things are truly ruined and there are no young people because they have had to emigrate, only in the pueblos are there kids or men but the lands are dead. This is the situation I see. I am not one of the miserables, I can't say I live in misery, but I see the situation through which millions of Mexicans are living" (Gabino Gomez, Director of "El Barzon" in Chihuaha). It is important to note that this reports distinguishes the incorporation of the Dairy Farmers into the movement. A march is planned to the capital, where they will demand the purchase of Mexican milk. They note the country manages a production of only 27M liters of milk while national the demand exceeds 47M liters. The producers ask that the government buy their 5.9M liter production in the 'Laguna' region, at $5.5 MXP per litre, that is, at a lower cost of the import price that Americans demand: $7.9 MXP per litre.
  • 2008/01/06 Acusan productores de leche que son maltratados por el gobierno [12] Milk producers accuse that they are mistreated by the government
  • 2007/12/04 Demandan productores aumentar leche Liconsa a 5.50 pesos [13] Producers demand Liconasa raise milk proce to $5.5 MXP
  • 2007/11/11 Sembrarán 60 mil hectáreas el próximo ciclo agrícola [14] Sixty thousand hectares to be planted next year

Work Feb 18

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  • 2008/01/26 Avanzan campesinos a la capital; repudian TLC [15] Laborers advance to the capital, denouncing NAFTA The paper announces the start of marches from around the country to the capital. Some numbers are offered: 12 thousand laborers will march from the state of Morelos, 5 thousand from Hidalgo and Jalisco, while a collective 2 thousand will come from Veracruz, Puebla, Querétaro and Sinaloa. All of these groups are annexing themselves to the original movement that started in Chihuaha (a northern border state). The movement, that began with the "Plan de Chamizal" (detailed below), started on the first minutes of 2008. In that protest, just past midnight on January 1st 2008 (point marking the implementation of the final chapter of the NAFTA, that concerning the lifting of tarrifs on corn, beans, sugar cane, and milk powder) dozens of fieldworkers gathed at the Cordoba-America bridge to form a human wall, effectively blocking the transport of said goods. It was at that protest that laborers agreed to mobilize toward the capital city, where they plan to collapse traffic along the city's main arteries. At least 40 tractors will be mobilized as well. The group from Chihuahua is composed of only 300 laborers, for whom the cost of completing the march is around 300 pesos. The Countryworkers National Confederation (CNC) and the National Workers' Union (UNT). Corn growers in Oaxaca are also planning to block the Transistmica Highway as part of the movement, under the slogan "Without corn there's no country. Without bean either". In the state of Hidalgo, miners, electricians, and telephony laborers will join the movement as well. In Queretaro, the movement will count on the support of workers from the Mexican Institude of Social Security (IMSS). The Cardenista Countryworkers' Campaign also said it will count on 5 thousand of its members (farmers and ranchers) to come to the capital as well.
  • 2008/01/31 Toman campesinos el Zócalo [16] Countryworkers take over the Zocalo The labor organization heading this movement called for the formation of a national congress to renegotiate the terms of the agricultural chapter of the NAFTA. Leaders of the movement also called for a stop to the importation of Genetically Modified Foods. They denouce the rules of operation mandated by the Ministry of Agriculture (SEGRPA) and the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT) and claim that Mexico has been turned into an agriculturally importing country, not an exporting one. Cruz Lopez, director of the Countrylaborers' national confederation (CNC) assures that since the implementation of the NAFTA in 1994, employment in the agricultural sector has been halved. He points out that only 2% of country laborers are currently capable of export. He assures that migrants from the countryside have increased from two thousand in 1994 to 455 thousand in 2006. He states that the group's intentions to work with the National Congress for policy
  • 2008/02/01 Campesinos protestan contra la apertura total del TLC de América del Norte [17] Laborers protest the complete implementation of the NAFTA This article provides the same details from the above papers. "The measure would put millions of Mexican producers - many of whom live in subsistence conditions - in a difficult position to compete with American goods subsidized by the United States, said the directors of the organizations". Cruz Lopez, Director of the CNC states: "We are millions and we will make our efforts count. The NAFTA is very good, but only for the damn gringos (americans)". The government, the paper states, has discarded amendments to the trade agreement. Instead, Secretary of Agriculture Albrto Cardenas, promised subsidies for animal feed and some agricultural producers as well. "The NAFTA is an open wound for Mexican agriculture, you may recieve medical attention, but if you don't close the wound the patient will die. This requires an integral solution." - Victor Suarez, a countrylaborer and leader. The manifesters formed a corral of a dozen cows on Reforma Ave., in front of the Mexican Stock Exchange while noisy tractors advanced in front of dozens of police officers. Along the avenue, one group of laborers walked carrying a black coffin while women marched behind them carrying a sign that read "Death of the countryside, NAFTA responsible". "We fear no longer being able to even eat our beans or tortillas, because we won't have any monoey left to produce so expensive and sell so cheap" - Maria Teresa Ramirez, bean farmer from Zacatecas. In a number of other mexican states, laborers joined in protest outside the regional ministries of agriculture. "The government has created a Frankenstein for the countryside with its bad public policies" - Armando Villarreal, leader of a group of producers from a northern state. The laborers fear that the elimination of tarriffs will motivate the mechanized american camp to start producing greater amounts of white corn. While the laborers called for the Secretary of Agriculture (Alberto Cardenas) step down, the minister himself stated that the negative effects of the NAFTA will be compensated for by an increase in the international price for ethanol resulting from American demand.

Work Feb 19

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  • '2007/03/15 El queso, salvación de ganaderos [18]. Cheese, salvation of the Ranchers. Hidalgotitlán, Verazcruz.

At more than 800 km distance from the dairy region of Tiyazucam Hidalgo, the cheese production facilities have turned, for many ranchers in Hidalgotitlan, Veracuz, into the salvation in light of the dairy crisis, a salvation that has helped to prevent Nestle, one of the most powerful milk producers in the country, from gaining unfair market advantage.

By comparison to this southern municipality of Veracruz, in Tiyazuca there is only one cheese producer left, Gustavo Osorno, who saw no other way out than to turn his milk stable (#184) into "oaxaca cheese" (a type of cheese i believe). It was the only way of getting something out of it. He associated himself with his father in law, ALejandro Juarez, and for four years they began with 200 liters that they turn into 25 kg of cheese, as the ratio is approximately 10:1.

At the moment, they have 11 thousand liters that they transform into 200 bags. "The thing is that the milk, they paid it real cheap," he says. Now he doesnt rest a single day of the week, he employs seven workers and has 17 clients who purchase his product. Per day, he invests 53 thousand pesos and sells between 60 and 62.

"The idea is to keep going with this, it's a very docile business, everyday you bring in money, but everyday you're out there working. The risk is that if it costs me more to produce a litre of cow milk, they're going to force me turn the cheese into powder, and that would be the only form of cheapening the cost of cheese", says Osorno.

But at in this municipality in southern Verzcruz, a semi-tropic (semi-jungle) region, the workd 'husbandry' does not resonate when you're dealing with people who have between 10 and 40 cows, as it's the only option they have to eat. (strange statement, up to interpretation).

Three escapes from reality

This is the gold mine of Nestle, although Sergio Godinez, the plant amnager in Coatepec, assures that his employer purchses only 15% of the milk produced in Hidalgotitlan and its vicinity. Here, there are no more than three escapres from reality: selling the milk to a transnational, commercializing it with the cheeseries, or migrating illegally ("wet") to the United States.

It's hundreds of country laborers who put all their hope in milk. These men live in an over-fertile land where the rains never desamparan (I cant get this); before the plantede bean, corn, and rice, but never felt economically secure. Later they dedicated themselves to the sale of meat thanks to a bank credit they were offered, but in the crisis of 1994 the interest finished them. Today their bets is on milk.

Men who for years traveled hours with their 40 litre containers on horseback, mule or trucks to reach the intersection where the nestle pipa (pipe? tank?) would pass, which iwoudl take the product to Nestle.

Entry to Hidalgotitlan, a town of seven thousand ranchers, requires crossing a fence, who Omar, a 9-year old boy, is in charge of opening. He says he must keep it closed because his boss', Carlos Cruz, cattle must not escape, since it could cause an accident.

In the town there is a reunion of ranchers in which a government representative of Verzcruz asks them for fidelity and loyalty to the Local Ranching Association of Hidalgotitlan, that has more 1200 associates and is itself a part of a recgional ranching association of southern Veracruz, with more than 25 thousand members. The argument he uses is that "hard times of of globalization in 2008" are approaching.

Supposedly, both groups are supposed to be a part of the national association of ranchers, the strange thing is that the president of the association himself , Leonilo Perez Guzman, doenst really know if they are :"I think so" he says.

The person who left it more clear was Armando Peresz, a man who's been selling his mil to Nestle for 14 years: "We are associated (referring to the national association of ranchers, me thinks), but they have never done anything to defend us. It's pointless, and we haven;t sought an alternative, I guess it's because we're dumb. Years and years working, providing and providing cold milk and now they are paying it at 2.60 the liter."

The small-time rancher Florentino Cruz Garcia, while eating a barbacoa taco from a cow slaughtered for the occassion, gets into the conversation. He says Nestle is the producer that hoards and pays out what it wants. "We're fighting to get another (animal or producer, i'm not sure, he just says "another") one to come in because there's very little money left for the family.

Cruz Garcia has 30 producing cows but, compared to the cows in Tizayuca, Hidalgo, his are prairie cows that graze, eating natural pasture. In total, between him and his father they have 50 hectares. His thought is simple, when Nestle arrived here they paid 90 cents the liter. In 14 years, the pating price has increased only 1 peso and 40 cents, as today it is paid at 2.60 MXP, and that's only if it's cold.

The Nestle manager, Sergio Godinez, states that when the initiated programs to grant livestock to the countryworkers of the region, the company financed them so they could buy refrigerators, but moreover, the company sells them all the necessary equipment for the production of milk.

Both men agree that the only advantage of selling milk to Nestle is that it pays biweekly, in contrast to the cheese producers, who pay one batch and don't pay the subsequent two. The problem with the company is that sometimes they workers fill the tank and Nestle won't come to pick it up, nor make themselves responsible.

For the president of the association, Leonilo Perez Guzman, there's only one way out. "What we want is that they raise the buying price of milk".

In the towns planted in the hills, individuals and groups show how they care for, like treasure, the refrigerating tanksthat help them survive. Local milk municipalities like Las Choapas, Carranza and Hidalgotitalan, which belongs to the Adalberto Tejeda ejido, expresses its desperation.

They took seat next to the tank the MNC sold them for 32 thousand pesos. Not all of them are here because it was difficult to gather them all without the "highspeaker" (representative I assume) of the town. Says Jose Cruz Gonzalez: "One can't go and protest at the office of Nestle, because there isn't anyone to protest to, they toss the ball around amongst each other (figure of speech)".

Jose Cruz reocunts that 17 years ago "Nestle put a regrigerating tank in the town of Jesus Carranza and a 3 ton tank passed along three routes. All the producers were "catching" him because if you weren't there it left. Later we were approved a credit from Banrural (a bank) to purchase a tank with a cpacity of 10 thousand liters that was places in the ejido Arroyo la Palma (Palm Creek), a move that failed due to bad management. The tank is over there, abandoned" says Jose. That was until Nestle startes selling 500 and 1000 liter tanks.

The first tank they bought was paid off with milk, they were unremunerated for an entire year.It was 1996, when they paid the litre at 80 cents. Eleven yrs later, its at 2.70 or 2.80. Enthused with the production they were achievning, the next year they wanted to put more milk in a Ritoplas tank (?), but the milk would go bad. There was no other remedy than to buy another tank. Everything was going well.

The ranch Pablo Chagala" says:

"But right now milk looks obsolete, no more, no more. We keep working, we like working, but we feel exploited. A deparasitic agent costs 700 pesos; a roll of wire 500; a jar of vitamin ADE, 240 pesos, moreover the operation requires the purchase of "bettered" grass because the old grass gave out. Greening a hectare costs 2000 MXP, (three heads per hectare).

"Here we ahve much to inform because we are not marginalized, we are neglected by the government", says Jose Cruz.

"I dont understand why the government gives more support to the corporations or why when we were fieldworkers the Ministry of Agriculture (Segarpa) gave its support to those who have money, because the programs are obtained by those who have money. We understand what they (?) must do, but we can't pay it"

"Nestle is killing the people" say the ranchers "And the matter is it doesn't have competition. THere are some cheeseries but they scarcely buy" says rancher (or ranch?) Chagala.For Jose Cruz, Liconsa (another company) would be an option, "but Liconsa hasn't come" he adds while laughing.

Members of the ejido Adalberto Tejeda say that the National Fund of Support for the Companies of Solidarity will put a milk producing plant, but they add it won't start operating until a 30th of February, as that day will never come.

=References

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