Maquiladora “sweatshops” staffed by a female workers
Maquiladoras, or assembly plants, are large factories where mostly female workers work for low wages constructing materials to be exported to other countries.
The maquiladora industry allows companies to temporarily import materials without paying export tax on the products they produce.
The work is tedious, repetitive, and sometimes dangerous, but for many women, it is their best or only option for employment.
They are one of Mexico’s biggest sources of exports with companies such as Toyota (Tijuana), Kenworth (Mexicali), Panasonic (Tijuana), Fender Guitars (Ensenada), and Sony (Nuevo Lardo), operate maquiladora factories in Mexico.
There are thousands of maquiladoras in Mexico, many along the U.S. Mexico Border.
Women are mostly hired because they will work for less money and are presumed to be easily controlled by male supervisions. The assembly lines in the maquiladora industry are often sexualized environments that lead to male supervisors dating the workers, or women flirting with supervisors to compete for the best jobs or rewards. The mangers have a psychological leverage over the female workers on the factory floor, who are constantly under the male gaze.
I recently sat down with University of Arizona Mexican American studies lecturer Raquel Rubio Goldsmith to talk about the maquiladora industry and its effects on women.
“Woman get all sorts of things like carpal tunnel because they are at one machine.” Goldsmith said. “Its often very demanding on their eyesight because they have to move very little tiny things like a semiconductor.”
Goldsmith said the maquiladora industry hires many more women then men, and that there have been a lot of accusations of sexual harassment from male supervisors.
“They tend to hire just young women because they don’t like to deal with problems with older women who maybe get sick,” she said.
A lot of women work there because it is the only place they can get a permanent - or semi permanent job, Goldsmith said. They are not that permanent because as soon as there is a downswing in the U.S. economy they close up right away.
“Often they’ll work there for years and then they’ll get laid off. A lot of them are closing down now for example” Goldsmith said.
She describes the maquiladoras as having “heavily intensive labor” where women spend hours upon hours a day putting small pieces of products together. T
It is assembly of any number of things. A lot of things they use in hospitals a lot of medical kinds of things
Televisions, transistor phones, electronics and medical supplies are common outputs of maquiladoras.
She said that women in border factories get paid around $270 to $300 a week from working about 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. for a 6 days week.
“Its very low pay,” Goldsmith said.
She said that many women leave maquiladoras and try to migrate to the United States, and the ones that stay behind often have family ties.
