Positive And Negative Effects Of Maquiladora Industry

Kelley commences her speech by providing a shocking statistic that “two million children under the age of sixteen years” strenuously work to support themselves and their families in order to create a forceful sense of emotion within her audience. By doing this she illuminates the rate of child labor to stress the severity of the problem. The author repeats “increase” to emphasize and describe that the American workforce is increasingly composed of girls/women in order to highlight their role and the growth of their participation in the workforce. Juxtaposing how girls spend their time with how

The link between Mexico and poverty is a large reason why children are forced to work in factories. Poverty began to be an issue for Mexico starting many years ago. In the 1940s, when industrialization began taking place, Mexico’s economy was growing at a rate of 6 per cent per year (Latapi and Gonzalez). This increase in the economy created two new social classes: the urban middle class and the new working class. By the late 70s, at least half of the working middle class held jobs related in manufacturing (Latapi and Gonzalez). This employment gave wages high enough to allow one worker the

Seventy-five percent of the workforce was made up of women,9 and most of these women were Mexican. These Mexican women faced extremely harsh treatment while working. The three biggest problems these women had that they wanted to get rid of by unionizing were the “pet” system, when male employees and supervisors would favor women they liked or went out with,10 the piece-rate system, when workers get paid by their work accomplished, not by the hour, and the supervisors, who would constantly watch the women and make sure they were working hard.11 Women particularly hated these three systems, especially since they are discriminatory. Also, the piece-rate system would make it hard to get consistent pay. All of the strenuous work would of course make the workers sore, and soon their workload would slowly start to decrease. Furthermore, it is hard to design the piece-rate system in such a way that women would get about the same amount of money men who are paid by the hour. In addition to discrimination, the jobs were often dangerous, as Julia Luna Mount stated, “After work, my hands were red, swollen, and I was on fire!”12 These working conditions inevitably made the labor force create the United Cannery, Agricultural, Packing, and Allied Workers of America (UCAPAWA). Most of the members in this

The former includes garments and textiles, footwear, electronics and various other sectors that require a large labour force to produce its goods or services, whereas the latter, includes—but not limited to— the production of chemicals, petroleum and automobiles. Among the many industries mentioned above, garment and textile and the automotive industries predominate in the maquiladoras. In fact, Wilson (1995) states that the automobile industry in its search for cheaper labor in the wake of increasing competition from the Asia market led U.S. companies like Ford, Chrysler and General Motors to significantly increase their investments in the maquiladoras in the 1980s (Wilson, 1995, p. 142). In regards to the garments and textiles, Billes (2003) argues that the movement from the border regions the interior parts was most apparent for firms that produced garments and textiles. Moreover, the search for cheaper labor as wages in the urban and northern border regions were rising led firm to migrate to poorer states like Yucatan (Billes, 2003, p.

The Dominican Republic (D.R.) has a deep-rooted history with the country of Haiti. This makes sense since they share the same Island. Yet, the culture, cuisine, and native languages are different and unique from one another. I was born in Haiti and spent a majority of my life living there until I immigrated to the United States with my parents. Although I have never been in the D.R. I have an interest in its history and people. As a female who has just entered the American marketplace as a worker I took particular interest in the role of women in the Dominican Republic workforce. In effect, I chose to explore the role of women in the labor force and how gender inequality affects their hiring prospects. Specifically, the unique challenges that affect Dominican women culturally that may prohibit them from entering the labor force. Additionally, systems of oppression that affect Dominican women 's opportunity for upward mobility. In exploration of these topics I used two academic research articles. First, “Social Context, Household Composition and Employment Among Migrant and Nonmigrant Dominican Women” by Douglas T. Gurak and Mary M. Kritz which explores how the household composition (among other things) of Dominican women affects their likelihood to be employed (Gurak & Kritz, 1996). Second, “Joining the Dark Side: Women in Management in the Dominican Republic”

To begin with, Sacrificing Families by Leisy J. Abrego, draws on the narratives of many Salvadorian families to tell the stories on how illegality and gender shape their lives. In Chapter five, Abrego accurately captures the gender roles of immigrant parents in transnational families. Abrego makes it clear that there are inequalities between genders, men have always been privileged individuals, and regardless of the work, they make more money when compared to women. Through her interviews Abrego provides evidence for the structural reality of gender-stratified opportunities and the gender roles that benefit men and constrain women. According to Abrego, “For women, the three most common occupational sectors were domestic, garment and hotel house-keeping work (102). With this we can see that how the occupations of women are tied to their gender roles. Women are supposed to stay at home, clean the house, and nurture.

On one perspective, the Maquiladoras compete with Americans for these jobs. Capitalists want the Maquiladoras because they are cheaper labor than the American workers. The capitalists also would have more regulations on labor and would have more taxes if they used the American workers.

The historical Chicano women’s strike of Tex-Son in San Antonio, Texas, began in 1959. Tex-Son was a company that specialized in the production of children’s clothing. Tex-Son employed women and immigrants for cheap labor. The working conditions at Tex-Son were not up to par – filthy ventilation systems and unsanitary work areas made labor dangerous. Wages differed between women and men; women were paid by the piece, while men were paid by the hour – this made labor even more risky since the women tried to rush. Tex-Son - aware of the influx of immigrants from Mexico, and taking into consideration the stigma attached to women in the work force - knew that they could employ the women and non-citizens for cheap labor. Tex-Son also had plants throughout the country, and could send work to other cities, where labor was even cheaper. The women were employed by Tex-Son, and were members of union ILGWU. They knew something had to change, and so began the “unladylike” strike. At the start of the strike, the women garment workers established a negative reputation for their selves. Initially protesting violently, the strikers against Tex-Son successfully transformed their image by reverting their struggle’s focus to the theme of motherhood; in addition, they improved their image by befriending the Anglo women, male unionists, and the Catholic Church.

Around the early 1900’s, concern for child and women labor grew throughout the American public. In the factories, women faced discrimination as employers would usually pay woman about one-half the salary as a man for the same job received. During this period, working conditions were terrible as these factories were not air-conditioned or heated and women worked for

We have read and watched a lot of information about the women and the way they are treated in their working area, specifically when we talked about the maquiladoras on the boarder. This week we are presented with another source of information about the maquiladoras and how maquiladora employees live their daily lives. The film, “Maquilapolis” by Vicky Funari and Sergio de la Torre uses a social art practice to contribute to the privileging of subalterns voices. In the film, the filmmakers start by telling the stories of a few women who worked for the maquilas and tell their experience as employees of those big corporations such as Sony, Panasonic, Sanyo, among many others. Some of these women explain how they started working since those maquiladoras opened in the 1960’s and they explain how it was a big deal to work

Companies in the 1960’s realized that they could lower labor costs by moving plants to other countries with lower minimum wage than here in the united states. These assembly plants just south of the Us-Mexico boarder are called maquiladoras. These plants didn't just allow for labor costs to be lowered but also duty-free production, only rule was the goods must be exported out of Mexico. The maquiladoras also gave much needed jobs to the Mexican workers. The first few years of the new millennium many of these maquiladoras went out of business, due to lower wages in countries such as China and Guatemala. Since 2004, we have seen a rise in the number of maquiladoras on the Mexican boarder. We are seeing this increase because of high value products

Regarding females in the workplace, the common opinion across the American continent used to be that by working outside the home, women were abandoning their primary job in life—that of a mother and wife, taking care of the house and the family. In modern times, Latinas take on multiple roles; not only are they still expected to look put together and run the family and the household—for most Latinas in the US, without any outside help—, but many are also breadwinners, some by choice and others by default. The decision made by many Latinas to work has already changed society due to growing feelings of self-empowerment. This newly discovered power is reflected in the increased use of contraceptives by Latin American women. Despite the Roman Catholic teachings, Latinas have taken matters into their own hands by using birth control to decrease the size of their families and lessen their burden, thus allowing them to fulfill their multidimensional desires and duties.

As a major contributor to the global economy, Mexico’s sweatshops have contributed to the United States’ wealth and economic growth. It is the unfortunate truth that many individual workers have suffered as a result of this prosperity. The sweatshops, known as maquiladoras, are in debate because of the ethical and lawful reasoning behind their existence and conditions. How can we, as a First-world nation, allow such industries to exist where people are denied basic and fundamental human rights? What, if any, laws and regulations are put into place for the maquiladoras? Are these laws and regulations hindering, harmful, or helpful? Are they enforced emphatically? If not, how does this affect development? After

They express that women’s economic status has changed dramatically in the recent decades and that we need to step outside if what we deem women workers as and realize labelling is not helping. We need to realize that women are diverse and have a range of skills, just as men do. This is useful for my paper as, the authors find that hours are the most dominant factor for the contributing of the GWG and that breaking stigmas about women workers not only need to happen in the workforce but forced in family dynamics as well in order to create

Abstract: Many countries, industries and people are becoming more affected by sweatshops in different ways because of they’re continuous increase in growth. Sweatshops benefit many developing countries as they provide opportunities of employment to the people living in poverty and benefit the community at large by creating an economic infrastructure that utilizes the country’s resources and increases their tax base. These institutions first came into existence in the early 1800’s and were referred to as dwelling houses, which were local factories that generally had the same idea of the sweatshop that we have in today’s society. There