MANUFACTURING POVERTY - THE MAQUILADORIZATION OF MEXICO

Based on interviews with social workers, attorneys, feminists, union a ctivists, and factory workers, the author argues that the maquiladora free trade zone of Northern Mexico portends developments under the Nor th American Free Trade Agreement. Today some 500,000 Mexican workers l abor in 2,000 factories for $4.50 a day in Mexico's maquiladoras. Two- thirds of the workers are women, many single women who head their hous eholds. These women work in the new, modern manufacturing plants in in dustrial parks, but live, in squalid shantytowns without adequate wate r, sewage, or electricity. On the job, workers face exposures to toxic chemicals and dangerous work problems. The Mexican government does no t have the political will, the trained personnel, or the equipment to monitor these occupational health problems. While Mexico's Constitutio n and labor laws guarantee workers the right to organize, bargain coll ectively, and strike, in practice the state controls the unions and op poses worker activism. In the face of employer and state repression wo rkers are forced to organize secretly to fight for higher wages and sa fer conditions.