A maquiladora factory, Schumex-Schumacher worker recently informed World Socialist Web Site the car battery charger maker is obliging them to work even with the COVID-19 outbreak at the factory which has 300 employees.

Union delegate at the plant, Gilbert Blass, according to report, died on Thursday due to complications in breathing after working amid the shutdown in exchange of a 300-peso bonus (or $13). 

The next day, a group of laborers staged a demonstration outside Schumex-Schumacher, demanding the company to release information about Blass's death along with other cases of contagions during the production's shutdown.

Allegedly Denying the Cause of Death

The management, as well as the trade union, SITPME, which belongs to CTM or Confederation of Mexican Workers keep on denying that the worker's death was because of COVID-19, referring to a prior negative test.

Blass' wife mentioned in a report that Blass was part of SITPME's health and safety committee. A Schumex worker who preferred not to be identified explained that the firm wants to conceal "the situation at any cost" so the plant would remain open and operational, "while killing us."

The anonymous maquiladora also said she opted not to be named as these companies have the ability of blacklisting workers like her "so that we never find a job again." All of them, she added, fear speaking out since layoffs are on the company's agenda, not to mention abuses from the human resources and supervisors. 

She also revealed that there have been at least four COVID-19 cases in the factory and these include a co-employee who has been tested positive on three different occurrences. 

This particular worker, she added, was sent to the state insurance health care agency, IMSS since, as indicated in the contract with Schumex, sick leaves for three consecutive days are considered as excused absences but unpaid by the company.

The fourth day of absence, she explained, that's when the IMSS starts paying. However, the IMSS, she said, refuses to offer medical attention with an argument that the said worker should have followed the "stay-at-home policy instead of working."

Treated like a Ping-Pong Ball

The anonymous worker said, her co-worker who was infected by the virus was treated as if she was a ping-pong ball. She added the ill employee was being treated as such because Schumex is refusing to be accountable as those working amid the closure were said to be "volunteers."

As a result, she added, no one was doing anything to address the issue and the company was in denial about the reality "claiming it has taken all the essential processes to prevent an outbreak."

The unnamed Schumex employee revealed that the, workers at the plant struck in early April and forced the shutting down of the factory. 

Nevertheless, Schumex and SITPME both agreed to compensate workers just 80 percent of their salary and have the production restarted nearly immediately by providing them with a bonus.

When she was asked about how things are going at the plant, the unnamed employee explained that at "the entrance and exit, a sanitizing tunnel was set up." This same tunnel, she said, was where accidents have taken place from falls because of the liquid chemicals sprayed in the morning and at night.

The worker explained too, that employees who refused to work referring to the official decree of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, that supposedly postponed the factories' reopening until June 1 "were being fired and blacklisted."

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