The Political Economy behind maquiladoras in Juarez, Mexico at whatever cost

The maquiladoras are Mexico’s economical globalization. The maquiladoras create economic opportunities for Mexico. The NAFTA agreement opened the doors for transcontinental organizations into Mexico. The foreign companies set up factories in Mexico for the greatest advantage of economic cooperation into a global economy. The capital gains of the maquiladoras gained by a commodity of cheap labor into a free market of neoliberalism. The transcontinental organizations have helped decrease the unemployment rate at a cost of human rights violation and environmental pollution. This article will present the history of the NAFTA agreement and the political economy that it creates between the U.S. and Mexico border. It will also present the globalization of the female maquiladora workers and the exploitation of a patriarchy society. The maquiladora has also generated many forms of sexual and physical violence toward the women factory workers. Mexico ignores the negative aspects of maquiladoras for fear of losing the foreign companies to other countries that offer cheap labor.
In 1994 the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) allowed an open invitation to many corporate companies to shift their production companies across the U.S. border into Mexico. The manufacturing plants located in the border towns of Mexico are called maquiladoras. Maquiladoras are assembly manufacturers in Mexico whose production must generally be exported and who is subject to other special regulations (South 549). Transnational corporations own the maquiladoras. These plants have been extremely popular modes of economic cooperation with the global economy. U.S. companies that opened maquiladoras as assembly plants in Mexico use temporarily imported raw materials to manufacture products that will be shipped back to the U.S. for final sale or assembly (Valentine 67). Mexico’s Ex-President Carlos Gortari signed the agreement with the U.S. and Canada to reduce unemployment, gain foreign capital and improve technology in Mexico with the maquiladoras programs. Foreign companies have been attracted to Mexico with its low wages.

Look at the political cartoon above that represents the effects of the NAFTA agreement on both sides of the U.S. and Mexico border.


American companies have benefited the most on its Southern border neighbor. The low wages allow U.S. companies to price products more competitively in the global markets (Miller, Hom, Gomez-Mejia 585). The maquiladoras have become a large source of foreign revenue for Mexico. The NAFTA agreement has permitted the increase of plants in the maquiladora industry.
Prior to NAFTA, maquiladoras began existing in 1965 after the Bracero program ended and the Border Industrialization program began (Valentine 68). The new program allowed foreign-owned assembly plants known as maquiladoras to set up in border towns of Mexico. The maquiladora plants have grown at 3000% since the 1960s (Valentine 68). In 1994 with NAFTA in place, made the U.S. as the front-runner in operating about 68% of the maquiladoras located in Mexico (Valentine 68).
The biggest advantage of maquiladoras in Mexico is the low wages. In 1994, the pay rate was about 41 cents the hour, compared to the U.S. minimum wage of $4.75 an hour (Cooney 59). Another advantage of maquiladoras is higher productivity. The productivity advantage allows longer workweek, unpaid overtime, higher levels of intensity and stricter workshop control (Cooney 64). The absence of independent unions and precarious labor regulations is a great advantage for factory management. The maquiladora management is freely able to force overtime, long workdays, increase work intensity and hire or fire at their own will (Valentine 68). Many workers refrain from complaining to government official because of fear to job loss or being black listed in the industry.
Maquiladora management is also granted privileges and impunity to control or stop independent labor union. The Mexican government turns a blind eye and many so-called unions are bribed and prevent union influence in the maquiladoras (Bacon 341). The transnational corporations that operate the maquiladoras are at an advantage with their politically economic influence to prevent labor unions. The root of the problem is that protecting worker’s right would require for the promotion of labor rights that would undermine the profits that NAFTA had designed by opening it’s borders to transnational corporations. Mexico’s reformation of enforcing independent labor union would risk transnational corporation to shift factory plants to other countries with lower production costs. The transcontinental companies will transfer anywhere that offers cheaper labor with higher surplus value. The Mexican government is biased toward the foreign companies over its own citizens for fear of losing the economy from the maquiladoras. Mexico’s ultimate interest is to subsidize capital by not enforcing labor laws (Kopinak 44).
The maquiladoras helped decrease the unemployment in Mexico. The maquiladora workers are represented by a majority of women. These women travel from their poor, remote villages to the big city like Juarez with hopes to seek employment (Cooney 72). The owners of the maquiladoras take advantage of women’s cheap labor. These women are usually young, single or single mothers (Cooney 72). Mexico’s high unemployment rate leaves these women with no other option but to contribute their cheap labor to the factory plants to produce capitalist revenue for foreign countries.
The article, “Murder in Juárez,” clearly defines the human rights violation and crime that maquiladoras create. The author explains that these maquiladoras are hiring more women than men (Livingston 59). The high percentage of women workers in the maquiladoras has caused a major job loss for the Mexican men. The maquiladoras hire women because of their small hands and ability to tolerate tedious and repetitive work (Livingston 61). The women never imagine that employment in the maquiladoras will violate their human rights and endanger their health. The health and safety conditions in the maquiladoras put factory workers in danger (Bacon 338). Safety guards on machinery are removed to increase production and workers are not protected from toxic chemical fumes in the factories (Bacon 338).
A documentary film, Maquilapolis by Vicky Funari and Sergio De La Torre documents factory workers in Mexico that depict the globalization through the eyes of the women who live in the border towns surrounded by the environmental hazards. One of the central characters is Carmen Duran who has worked in six maquiladoras and lives in a shack she built out of recycled garage doors and in a neighborhood with no sewage lines or electricity. She suffers from kidney damage and lead exposure from the toxic chemicals within the factories she worked for.


Click below to see a 20 minute intro to the film, Maquilapolis:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3401277500988865555&ei=1l4gS_TOGpTiqgLfxZWZAw&hl=en



In Jessica Livingston’s essay, describe the hiring managers as sexist and sexual harassers. The women are hired by their good looks. Many women are taken out on dates by the supervisors. It is evident that these women have to tolerate these types of sexual harassments for job security. The hiring requirements include a medical exam and pregnancy test (Kopinak 44). The maquiladoras do not hire pregnant women because of Mexican law requirements that enforce maquiladoras to pay social security coverage to pregnant women during the third trimester (Livingston 62). These women are provided plenty of birth control at the factories. In some cases women are given pills to force a miscarriage and told that it is a vitamin (Cooney 72).
The maquiladoras have also generated the brutal killings of many female workers in Juárez. These women are factory workers. Irma Angelica Rosales, a thirteen-year old girl was sent home from her factory job for having left her workstation. Her murdered body was found in a drainage canal (Livingston 59). Time and time again many women are gone missing and found murdered. These women are raped, strangled, gagged and mutilated. The Mexican government has not been able to stop the murders of the factory female workers.
The murders have been linked to the frustration of women’s introduction and restructuring of the labor market in Mexico. Women’s empowerment and participation in Mexico’s workforce has gained them a recognition that they are now taking over the male role.
Mexico’s culture of “machonism” is men’s domination over women. The empowerment of the Juarez women as workers has created a threat to men. It is women’s gain and men’s loss of autonomy authority. The loss of male autonomy has contributed to a high increase of domestic violence against women in Mexico and Juárez has the highest rate. Livingston believes that the murders of the women in Juárez would cease if Mexican government would restructure the labor market, and stop tolerating violence against women.
In the essay “The Traffic in Women: Notes on the “Political Economy” of Sex,” the term patriarchy is explained as the sex and gender system that distinguishes the forces that maintain a sexist society from other social forces. Foreign capital has taken advantage of Mexican patriarchy to exploit women (Kopinak 31).
The brutal deaths of women factory workers are the ultimate act of violence. Some women are raped and mutilated with nipples and breast cut off. The mutilation of the women’s bodies is a clear example of violence against women working at the maquiladoras. Below is a link posted on youtube.com for a film documentary about the murders of the Juarez maquiladora workers. In the film one mother describes the brutal death of her 17-year old daughter who did not come home from her job at the maquiladora.

Click the link below to see an intro to the film City of Dead Girls:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_dLdhmBptM

Marx clearly defines that women are a reserve labor force for capitalism (Rubin 160). The women of the maquiladoras travel from their poor, remote villages to the big city of Juarez with the only hopes to seek employment. The owners of maquiladoras take advantage and offer cheap pay. Women have no other option but to contribute their cheap labor to produce capitalist revenue for local and foreign governments. It is the U.S. who is benefiting from the exploitation of cheap labor in the maquiladoras.
The globalization of the women maquiladora workers is a commodity for the cheap labor that results in the capital gain of a free market of neoliberalism. The NAFTA agreement creates many jobs for Mexicans. Foreign companies are attracted to Mexico’s cheap labor and less rigid labor laws and the flexibility of non-existent to non-enforced labor laws. It is the maquiladoras that are contributing to human rights violation. The Mexican government ignores the human rights violations, the environmental pollution, the violent acts and the corruption that maquiladoras produce in border towns like Juarez. The NAFTA agreement is Mexico’s political economy to increase government revenue, decrease foreign debt (especially with the U.S.) and decrease unemployment.
The Mexican government is biased towards the transcontinental corporations for fear of losing factories to other third world countries that offer lower labor wages. The U.S. is one the largest countries that benefit from the neoliberalism produced by transnational corporations. The women of Juarez are victims of exploitation while creating a commodity for transnational corporations in a free market of neoliberalism. The women are a surplus value of the cheap labor they provide. The end of women’s exploitation by maquiladoras can be enforced and restructured by government, states and individuals that are willing to overlook at the surplus value of women factory workers.




Work Cited


Valentine, Sean. “The Effects of NAFTA-Driven Relocations on Organizations of the United States and Mexico”. Journal of employment counseling, 34 (June 1997): 65-75.

Cooney, Paul. “The Mexican Crisis and the Maquiladora Boom: A Paradox of Development or the Logic of Neoliberalism”. Latin American Perspectives. 2 (May 2001): 55-83.

Miller, Janice, Peter, W. Hom, and Luis R. Gomez-Mejia. “The High Cost of Low Wages: Does Maquiladora Compensation Reduce Turnover?” Journal of International Business Studies, 32 ( 2001): pp.585-595.

South, Robert B. “Transnational “Maquiladora” Location”. Annals of the Association of American Geographers. 80 (Dec. 1990): 549-570.

Bacon, David. “Health, Safety and Worker’s Rights in the maquiladoras.” Journal of Public health Policy. 22 (2001): 338-348.

Kopinak, Kathryn. “Gender as a Vehicle for the Subordination of Women Maquiladora Workers in Mexico.” Latin American Perspectives. 22 (1995): 30-48.

Livingston, Jessica. “Murder in Juárez; Gender, Sexual Violence and the Global Assembly Line.” http://muse.jhu.edu/.

Rubin, Gayle. “The Traffic in Women: Notes on the “Political Economy” of Sex.”

City of Dead Girls. Journeyman.tv, 2006. Youtube.com, 2 Jan. 2008. Web. 3 Dec. 2009. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_dLdhmBptM.

Maquilapolis. Dir. Vicky Funari and Sergio De La Torre. 2006. Youtube.com, 2007. Web. 3 Dec. 2009.

The Political Economy Behind Maquiladoras in Juarez, Mexico at Whatever Cost

The maquiladoras are Mexico’s economical globalization. The maquiladoras create economic opportunities for Mexico. The NAFTA agreement opened the doors for transcontinental organizations into Mexico. The foreign companies set up factories in Mexico for the greatest advantage of economic cooperation into a global economy. The capital gains of the maquiladoras gained by a commodity of cheap labor into a free market of neoliberalism. The transcontinental organizations have helped decrease the unemployment rate at a cost of human rights violation and environmental pollution. This article will present the history of the NAFTA agreement and the political economy that it creates between the U.S. and Mexico border. It will also present the globalization of the female maquiladora workers and the exploitation of a patriarchy society. The maquiladora has also generated many forms of sexual and physical violence toward the women factory workers. Mexico ignores the negative aspects of maquiladoras for fear of losing the foreign companies to other countries that offer cheap labor.
In 1994 the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) allowed an open invitation to many corporate companies to shift their production companies across the U.S. border into Mexico. The manufacturing plants located in the border towns of Mexico are called maquiladoras. Maquiladoras are assembly manufacturers in Mexico whose production must generally be exported and who is subject to other special regulations (South 549). Transnational corporations own the maquiladoras. These plants have been extremely popular modes of economic cooperation with the global economy. U.S. companies that opened maquiladoras as assembly plants in Mexico use temporarily imported raw materials to manufacture products that will be shipped back to the U.S. for final sale or assembly (Valentine 67). Mexico’s Ex-President Carlos Gortari signed the agreement with the U.S. and Canada to reduce unemployment, gain foreign capital and improve technology in Mexico with the maquiladoras programs.
Foreign companies have been attracted to Mexico with its low wages.

Look at the political cartoon below that represents the effects of the NAFTA agreement on both sides of the U.S. and Mexico border.


American companies have benefited the most on its Southern border neighbor. The low wages allow U.S. companies to price products more competitively in the global markets (Miller, Hom, Gomez-Mejia 585). The maquiladoras have become a large source of foreign revenue for Mexico. The NAFTA agreement has permitted the increase of plants in the maquiladora industry.
Prior to NAFTA, maquiladoras began existing in 1965 after the Bracero program ended and the Border Industrialization program began (Valentine 68). The new program allowed foreign-owned assembly plants known as maquiladoras to set up in border towns of Mexico. The maquiladora plants have grown at 3000% since the 1960s (Valentine 68). In 1994 with NAFTA in place, made the U.S. as the front-runner in operating about 68% of the maquiladoras located in Mexico (Valentine 68).
The biggest advantage of maquiladoras in Mexico is the low wages. In 1994, the pay rate was about 41 cents the hour, compared to the U.S. minimum wage of $4.75 an hour (Cooney 59). Another advantage of maquiladoras is higher productivity. The productivity advantage allows longer workweek, unpaid overtime, higher levels of intensity and stricter workshop control (Cooney 64). The absence of independent unions and precarious labor regulations is a great advantage for factory management. The maquiladora management is freely able to force overtime, long workdays, increase work intensity and hire or fire at their own will (Valentine 68). Many workers refrain from complaining to government official because of fear to job loss or being black listed in the industry.
Maquiladora management is also granted privileges and impunity to control or stop independent labor union. The Mexican government turns a blind eye and many so-called unions are bribed and prevent union influence in the maquiladoras (Bacon 341). The transnational corporations that operate the maquiladoras are at an advantage with their politically economic influence to prevent labor unions. The root of the problem is that protecting worker’s right would require for the promotion of labor rights that would undermine the profits that NAFTA had designed by opening it’s borders to transnational corporations. Mexico’s reformation of enforcing independent labor union would risk transnational corporation to shift factory plants to other countries with lower production costs. The transcontinental companies will transfer anywhere that offers cheaper labor with higher surplus value. The Mexican government is biased toward the foreign companies over its own citizens for fear of losing the economy from the maquiladoras. Mexico’s ultimate interest is to subsidize capital by not enforcing labor laws (Kopinak 44).
The maquiladoras helped decrease the unemployment in Mexico. The maquiladora workers are represented by a majority of women. These women travel from their poor, remote villages to the big city like Juarez with hopes to seek employment (Cooney 72). The owners of the maquiladoras take advantage of women’s cheap labor. These women are usually young, single or single mothers (Cooney 72). Mexico’s high unemployment rate leaves these women with no other option but to contribute their cheap labor to the factory plants to produce capitalist revenue for foreign countries.
The article, “Murder in Juárez,” clearly defines the human rights violation and crime that maquiladoras create. The author explains that these maquiladoras are hiring more women than men (Livingston 59). The high percentage of women workers in the maquiladoras has caused a major job loss for the Mexican men. The maquiladoras hire women because of their small hands and ability to tolerate tedious and repetitive work (Livingston 61). The women never imagine that employment in the maquiladoras will violate their human rights and endanger their health. The health and safety conditions in the maquiladoras put factory workers in danger (Bacon 338). Safety guards on machinery are removed to increase production and workers are not protected from toxic chemical fumes in the factories (Bacon 338).
A documentary film, Maquilapolis by Vicky Funari and Sergio De La Torre documents factory workers in Mexico that depict the globalization through the eyes of the women who live in the border towns surrounded by the environmental hazards. One of the central characters is Carmen Duran who has worked in six maquiladoras and lives in a shack she built out of recycled garage doors and in a neighborhood with no sewage lines or electricity. She suffers from kidney damage and lead exposure from the toxic chemicals within the factories she worked for.


Click below to see a 20 minute intro to the film, Maquilapolis:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3401277500988865555&ei=1l4gS_TOGpTiqgLfxZWZAw&hl=en#



In Jessica Livingston’s essay, describe the hiring managers as sexist and sexual harassers. The women are hired by their good looks. Many women are taken out on dates by the supervisors. It is evident that these women have to tolerate these types of sexual harassments for job security. The hiring requirements include a medical exam and pregnancy test (Kopinak 44). The maquiladoras do not hire pregnant women because of Mexican law requirements that enforce maquiladoras to pay social security coverage to pregnant women during the third trimester (Livingston 62). These women are provided plenty of birth control at the factories. In some cases women are given pills to force a miscarriage and told that it is a vitamin (Cooney 72).
The maquiladoras have also generated the brutal killings of many female workers in Juárez. These women are factory workers. Irma Angelica Rosales, a thirteen-year old girl was sent home from her factory job for having left her workstation. Her murdered body was found in a drainage canal (Livingston 59). Time and time again many women are gone missing and found murdered. These women are raped, strangled, gagged and mutilated. The Mexican government has not been able to stop the murders of the factory female workers.
The murders have been linked to the frustration of women’s introduction and restructuring of the labor market in Mexico. Women’s empowerment and participation in Mexico’s workforce has gained them a recognition that they are now taking over the male role.
Mexico’s culture of “machonism” is men’s domination over women. The empowerment of the Juarez women as workers has created a threat to men. It is women’s gain and men’s loss of autonomy authority. The loss of male autonomy has contributed to a high increase of domestic violence against women in Mexico and Juárez has the highest rate. Livingston believes that the murders of the women in Juárez would cease if Mexican government would restructure the labor market, and stop tolerating violence against women.
In the essay “The Traffic in Women: Notes on the “Political Economy” of Sex,” the term patriarchy is explained as the sex and gender system that distinguishes the forces that maintain a sexist society from other social forces. Foreign capital has taken advantage of Mexican patriarchy to exploit women (Kopinak 31).
The brutal deaths of women factory workers are the ultimate act of violence. Some women are raped and mutilated with nipples and breast cut off. The mutilation of the women’s bodies is a clear example of violence against women working at the maquiladoras. Below is a link posted on youtube.com for a film documentary about the murders of the Juarez maquiladora workers. In the film one mother describes the brutal death of her 17-year old daughter who did not come home from her job at the maquiladora.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_dLdhmBptM

Marx clearly defines that women are a reserve labor force for capitalism (Rubin 160). The women of the maquiladoras travel from their poor, remote villages to the big city of Juarez with the only hopes to seek employment. The owners of maquiladoras take advantage and offer cheap pay. Women have no other option but to contribute their cheap labor to produce capitalist revenue for local and foreign governments. It is the U.S. who is benefiting from the exploitation of cheap labor in the maquiladoras.
The globalization of the women maquiladora workers is a commodity for the cheap labor that results in the capital gain of a free market of neoliberalism. The NAFTA agreement creates many jobs for Mexicans. Foreign companies are attracted to Mexico’s cheap labor and less rigid labor laws and the flexibility of non-existent to non-enforced labor laws. It is the maquiladoras that are contributing to human rights violation. The Mexican government ignores the human rights violations, the environmental pollution, the violent acts and the corruption that maquiladoras produce in border towns like Juarez. The NAFTA agreement is Mexico’s political economy to increase government revenue, decrease foreign debt (especially with the U.S.) and decrease unemployment. The Mexican government is biased towards the transcontinental corporations for fear of losing factories to other third world countries that offer lower labor wages. The U.S. is one the largest countries that benefit from the neoliberalism produced by transnational corporations. The women of Juarez are victims of exploitation while creating a commodity for transnational corporations in a free market of neoliberalism. The women are a surplus value of the cheap labor they provide. The end of women’s exploitation by maquiladoras can be enforced and restructured by government, states and individuals that are willing to overlook at the surplus value of women factory workers.




Work Cited


Valentine, Sean. “The Effects of NAFTA-Driven Relocations on Organizations of the United States and Mexico”. Journal of employment counseling, 34 (June 1997): 65-75.
Cooney, Paul. “The Mexican Crisis and the Maquiladora Boom: A Paradox of Development or the Logic of Neoliberalism”. Latin American Perspectives. 2 (May 2001): 55-83.
Miller, Janice, Peter, W. Hom, and Luis R. Gomez-Mejia. “The High Cost of Low Wages: Does Maquiladora Compensation Reduce Turnover?” Journal of International Business Studies, 32 ( 2001): pp.585-595.
South, Robert B. “Transnational “Maquiladora” Location”. Annals of the Association of American Geographers. 80 (Dec. 1990): 549-570.
Bacon, David. “Health, Safety and Worker’s Rights in the maquiladoras.” Journal of Public health Policy. 22 (2001): 338-348.
Kopinak, Kathryn. “Gender as a Vehicle for the Subordination of Women Maquiladora Workers in Mexico.” Latin American Perspectives. 22 (1995): 30-48.
Livingston, Jessica. “Murder in Juárez; Gender, Sexual Violence and the Global Assembly Line.” http://muse.jhu.edu.

Rubin, Gayle. “The Traffic in Women: Notes on the “Political Economy” of Sex.”

City of Dead Girls. Journeyman.tv, 2006. Youtube.com, 2 Jan. 2008. Web. 3 Dec. 2009. .

Maquilapolis. Dir. Vicky Funari and Sergio De La Torre. 2006. Youtube.com, 2007. Web. 3 Dec. 2009.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbFixUgJkVA