"Most worked eight to twelve hour days, doing difficult or dangerous manual labor, and still find it a great hardship to afford the tuition, uniforms, and supplies their children needed to go to school. The women estimated that only twenty percent of the children in their settlement finish high school, most choosing instead to go to work. Many deal every day with chemicals or dangerous machinery, and are provided little to no protective gear."
" The Maquiladoras in Mexico are taking part in what has become a common practice among transnational corporations around the world: the global assembly line. This is the concept that regardless of where a company is rooted, it will move its production to the country with the cheapest labor and the most relaxed environmental laws. If the wages are raised or the environmental standards begin to rise to expensive levels, they will just pick up and leave. This makes the raising of wages very difficult. These companies give a little bit of work to a desperate country, but the jobs they give do not lead to promotions as jobs in the U.S. do. They are not stepping stones. The poor are staying poor no matter how hard they work, which means that they have no money to put into the economy, and no way to build a middle class. If the Maquiladora workers fight for wage increases are successful, it may mean the retreating of these companies from Mexico. But if they do not demand a living wage now, where will their children find themselves?"
Amanda Flore
April, 2010
amandafiore.com/articles
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