Being Disposable – What is Legal Means it’s Moral?

Written by: Poirot

On Feb.19 2011, Rosa Moreno was getting ready to work but she couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. She needed the money so she went to work.

At the time, Rosa was working for HD Electronics, a South Korean firm that had moved to Reynosa in 2006 to produce the metal backing for flat-screen televisions made by another South Korean firm, LG Electronics—a $49 billion corporation. LG also has a plant in Reynosa and could scarcely keep up with the North American demand for its plasma and LCD televisions. At HD Electronics, Rosa operated a 200-ton hydraulic stamping press. Every night, six days a week, she fed the massive machine thin aluminum sheets.

At approximately 2:30 a.m., Rosa was centering a piece of metal in the machine when she heard something metallic give way.

Jose Olmos was working one of the large stamping presses when he heard the screams. By the time he got to Rosa, “some of the women had fainted,” he said. “But Rosa just stood there silent. I imagine she was in shock. A maintenance man was pressing the buttons, trying to get the hydraulic press to open. Rosa wasn’t bleeding very much because the press had actually forged the ends of her arms to the metal sheet.

Rosa Moreno with her 2 children

Five days after the accident, the bills were piling up at home. Rosa checked herself out of the hospital and went directly to HD Electronics to speak with the manager. He seemed shocked to see her in his office, her mutilated arms wrapped in white bandages. “He said, ‘Señora, why don’t you go home and rest.’ I said, ‘No, I want to have a meeting because you need to give me compensation. How will I feed my children?’”

The general manager said the company could offer her 50,000 pesos, approximately $3,800 in U.S. dollars, as a settlement.  “I told him, ‘I’m not going to accept that. I’ve lost both of my hands, how will my family survive on 50,000 pesos?’” “That’s our offer,” the general manager said, according to Rosa. “Stop making such a big scandal about it and take it. It will help your family.” 

But she refused. As a single parent, she had to do better for her family than 50,000 pesos. But the law wasn’t on her side. Mexico’s federal labor law mandates that the loss of each hand was worth 75 percent of two years’ wages. Rosa made $4,800 a year. That meant under the law her settlement should be about $14,400, much higher than what the company was offering but scarcely enough to replace a lifetime of lost wages.

Rosa, learned that an employee at HD Electronics had been crushed to death in one of the larger presses two years earlier and his family had taken a settlement of 150,000 pesos, approximately $11,538. “The lawyers advised me to take the money because it was all they were required to pay under the law,” Rosa said.

• In 2006, HD Electronics moved from South Korea to Reynosa to service its main client, LG Electronics. LG had acquired the formerly U.S.-owned Zenith plant in Reynosa in 2000, launching its “Life’s Good” campaign in North America. The world’s second-largest supplier of liquid crystal and plasma televisions, LG announced in 2012 that its Reynosa factory made $2.5 billion in sales in the North American market. This year it plans to earn $3 billion.

• It’s unclear what corporate relationship, if any, there is between HD Electronics and LG Electronics. On HD’s website, LG Electronics is listed as its only client. John Taylor, vice president of LG Electronics USA, Inc., said HD Electronics is not a subsidiary of LG. “It is a separate company. One of the tens of thousands of LG’s vendors around the world,” Taylor wrote in an email.

• If Rosa could raise the money then she could go to Texas, where she could be fitted for high-tech prosthetic hands that would allow her to support her family again.

• Rosa was unable to find anyone in Mexico who would represent her but she filed a lawsuit in U.S. court against LG Electronics, Inc.

• John Taylor, spokesperson for LG, said in an email that there was no basis for the lawsuit. “Ms. Moreno’s injuries were tragic, and LG Electronics extends its sympathies to Ms. Moreno and her family. At the same time I want to emphasize that in no way did LG Electronics cause or contribute to Ms. Moreno’s injuries, and LG Electronics bears no responsibility for them. LG Electronics had no control over the machine that apparently malfunctioned and caused Ms. Moreno’s injuries. All that LG Electronics did was to purchase a part manufactured by [HD Electronics].”

Right now the lawsuit is pending. Rosa receives about $200 dollars a month as compensation from the government. It’s been almost 4 years since Rosa lost her hands, but she is about to lose something more. Rosa’s houses is about to be repossessed since she is not able to make the monthly payments.

 Rosa signs a contract designating Scott Hendler, an Austin attorney, as her legal representative in the United States.

One of the legal terms in Law is the Joint and several liability which means when two or more persons are liable in respect of the same liability. HD Electronics won’t help Rosa and LG Electronics claims that they are not responsible.