This week we visited a maquiladora, which was quite interesting; it was a manufacturing plant for Burlington Co., a U.S. textile company. When you think of a maquiladora in Mexico, this was not what came into my mind. The plant itself was more or less clean, and relationships between subordinates and managers seemed respectful, in some cases warm and friendly. The manager giving us the tour for example greeted several workers warmly in our presence and you could also clearly see other friendly interactions between workers and their bosses.
Women working in a maquiladora (http://elproyectomatriz.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/maquiladora.jpg)The factory was quite loud, and as such we all got a complimentary pair of earplugs, which at the same time complicated things a little bit because it also made it quite difficult to hear his explanations for things. We also went with a woman who was a manager there in past years, and told us that they had a union, and respected their workers.
The only negative aspects of this maquiladora in my eyes were the repetitive motions/loud noise inside the factory and workers’ roles that were clearly attached to gender. All the managers that I saw were men, but beyond that it seemed like men did one job and women another—closely related to traditional roles of a man and woman in traditional, conservative Mexican culture. For example, there was 50 workers, all of them female, working on what were more or less sewing machines. I witnessed men doing most of the heavy lifting, jobs that are culturally acceptable for men.
All in all it was an enlightening experience for all of us to see a U.S. company’s manufacturing in Mexico. NAFTA had many negative aspects of NAFTA in Mexico. NAFTA itself was not bad for Mexico but rather the time at which it was signed, Mexico was predisposed for failure because of its inferior technology, education, infrastructure, regulation (environmental and legal) and economy. In other words NAFTA itself is not to blame for the fact that Mexico does not enjoy anywhere close to the benefits that its neighbors to the North do. All in all it was a great week, learning about the U.S.’ involvement in Mexico through globalization first hand.
It was true that this Maquiladora seemed relatively clean and well lit. I would agree that the repetitive motions and constant noise from the machines have to be detrimental to the health of the workers in one way or another. I wonder how many of the positive circumstances at this Maquiladora had to do with the workers having a union. How hard do you think it must have been for them to successfully enter into a union? Also, if Mexico was not internally set up correctly to gain all of the benefits from NAFTA and that is where many of the negative perceptions of Maquliadora's in border cities come from, where do you think the difference in the Maqulidora came from? It was an interesting excursion and good recap of the events. Thank you.
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