JAPANESE MAQUILADORAS - PRODUCTION ORGANIZATION AND GLOBAL COMMODITY CHAINS

During the last decade at least 66 Japanese maquiladoras have been est ablished in Mexico employing in excess of 20,000 workers. This paper e xamines the organization of production in these plants and the inserti on of these production activities in the global commodity chains of th ese firms. Managers at 17 firms were interviewed either in person or b y telephone and 10 of the plants were visited. The results indicate th at the production organization and labor-management relationships rese mbled that of temporary employees in Japan. Most of the activities und ertaken in the maquiladoras are relatively low-skill level, labor-inte nsive activities. In Tijuana there are now at least 31 Japanese maquil adoras most of which are in the electronics industry and these include a number of Japanese suppliers, thereby creating a proto-industrial c omplex.