Hell is the Tijuana assembly line.

AuthorVigna, Anne
PositionInside the Maquiladoras - Tijuana, Mexico

"Crisis? What crisis? You're sure there's a new crisis? Here in Tijuana we're always in crisis," says Jaime Cotta with a smile. In spite of all the misery that trudges through his office, Cotta manages to retain his sense of humor. Without a doubt, he's the person who best knows what conditions are really like in the maquiladoras, the assembly-line factories built in Mexico since the 1960s along the 3,000 km frontier with the United States. They came to Mexico because of cheap labor, almost non-existent taxes and very lax authorities, all alongside the world's leading economy.

Cotta started out as a worker, then became a researcher. Now he's a lawyer. His Information Centre for Working Women and Men (Cittac) is the only organization to support those thrown out of the factories over the past 20 years. Sacked workers, people who've had work accidents, temporary workers without rights or contracts, all bring stories of flagrant abuse. He advises them and sometimes suggests taking legal action. So it's here that you come to take the social temperature of this frontier town with 1.5 million inhabitants.

Today, three workers are waiting to see him. One was suspended for two days because of one badly made component out of the 700 she produced in her 10-hour shift. "They want to sack me. They're always watching me and they make up anything that suits them," she says with lowered eyes. The piece of paper she hands Cotta claims that she "intentionally brought harm to the business." She adds that in this maquiladora "technical shutdowns" happen each week. That means one day without pay, further reducing an already pathetic wage (755 pesos a week, barely $58).

"Technical shutdowns" are one of the latest brainwaves of the factory bosses. Felipe Calderon, the Mexican president, has promoted them to prevent massive redundancies. The federal government pays one third of salaries, the maquiladora another third, and the employee loses the final third through days not worked. In return, factories undertake only to sack the number of employees proportional to--not higher than--the fall in production or in sales. But as Magnolia Pineda, president of the Tijuana Association of Maquiladora Industry, explained, "few businesses have agreed to accept this program because it's impossible for them not to have the right to sack workers. It's an unacceptable restriction." So they carry out "technical shutdowns" but without paying the wage, quite illegally. In any case, she added, "employees fully understand the situation. There has never been a strike."

"Don't talk to me"

True, workers' action has not been an issue at these subcontracting factories, which re-export their products to the US as soon as they are assembled. The most complete study of the sector established that 82% of Tijuana factories do not allow trades unions. The remaining 18% are blessed with organizations that the workers call "ghost unions," not the phrase that Pineda would use. She thought hard and said that in 50 years of maquiladoras there hadn't been unrest. However, it's not the workers' "understanding" but their fear of reprisals that keeps the peace in this border city. You only have to visit the industrial estates early in the morning to see why.

For several months now, lines of unemployed people...

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT