Maquiladoras

Working in depressing conditions, making far less than minimum wage, and having your labor rights denied is slavery. In Mexico sweatshops which are called Maquiladoras, mostly employ women from poverty stricken communities that are between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five. These Maquiladoras manufacture goods for the United States, Japan, Europe, China, and North Korea. The women who are employed by the maquiladoras are paid around fifty cents to three dollars an hour, and work about forty eight hours or more a week. Women are considered to be preferred to men because women will typically work for cheaper wages."Some maquiladora operators have admitted a preference for women, because women often display a greater level of patience and higher dexterity than men in performing the standardized and repetitive work of an assembly plant"(The Maquiladora Reader: Cross-Border).The employees of the maquiladoras work under very horrible conditions. "Industrial accidents and toxic exposures are common in the plants." Often workers are not given adequate training or provided with safety equipment." "Physical risks such as noise, heat, vibrations, poor ventilation, and awkward posture have a high occurrence in maquiladoras." There are also many forms of discrimination against the women. Women must have mandatory pregnancy tests, and if they are found to be pregnant they are most times forced to resign.

They do not provide nor have any interest in the healthcare, education, or housing of their employees or their families. The employees of maquiladoras usually live in “do it yourself projects.” The shacks are usually made with wood pallets that are bought from their employers for a dollar each. “They drag wood pallets to a squatter village and recycled material is collected; a shack is nailed, tied, and somehow erected to withstand the almost unbreakable daytime heat and nighttime cold, sandstorms, occasional rain, and vermin to raise their family." These problems are the worst in Tijuana and Juarez, Mexico.”

In 1994 the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was adopted by Mexico. NAFTA stepped in to try and stimulate trade, exports, jobs, and increase the economic growth in Mexico. This plan did increase jobs but as jobs increased wages decreased. "The profits that are generated from the maquiladoras are typically sent back to the United States, or other investor based countries, and therefore, maquiladoras do not promote direct economic development within Mexico"(The Maquiladora Reader: Cross-Border). Jose Guerro, wrote a poem about his mother who was a maquiladora worker, “I remember waking up and her already being gone, She would catch the ruta before the sun and arrive home after dawn, Being awake that early in Juarez can be dangerous for a woman, She always lied and said she was a fashion designer but in reality she spent long hours sewing holes into designer jeans that her children would never wear, The Maquiladora swallowed her and she just became part of the machine...” This is slavery; if the maquiladoras were on the California side of the border, they would be making at least eight dollars an hour, receive healthcare, and their labor rights would be enforced. Instead these companies bring their businesses across the boarder to Mexico and abuse these workers by denying their rights and paying them next to nothing wages.

There are some organizations that help to improve the problems in the Maquiladoras. One of these organizations is the Maquiladora Health & Safety Support Network. This is a group of trained professionals that donate their time and expertise to create safer and healthier working conditions for the one million maquiladora workers employed by primarily U.S.-owned transnational corporations along Mexico's northern border from Matamoros to Tijuana. Hopefully one day this problem will be resolved and these maquiladora workers will finally get paid what they deserve.