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Women Workers in Mexico's Maquila IndustryExcerpts from presentation to International Women's Conference by Gemma Lopez Limon (Mexico) By GEMA LOPEZ LIMON [Note: Following are excerpts from the presentation by Gema Lopez Limon to the Feb. 21, 2002, International Women's Conference in Berlin. Lopez Limon is a researcher at the University of Baja California in Mexicali, Mexico.] In this contribution, I will report on a group of women workers who toil in one of the most dynamic economic sectors in the Mexican economy -- the maquiladora [assembly plant] export industry. According to the National Institute of Statistics, Geography and Information (INEGI), an estimated 1.1 million people, half of whom are women, work in Mexico's maquiladora industry. The real number is undoubtedly much higher. These maquiladora plants are exempt from Mexico Federal Labor Law (LFT). All real trade union activity is banned. All attempts to organize independent unions have been repressed severely. Where "unions" exist, they are run and controlled by the employers and the government. The maquiladora industry is deregulated industry par excellence. The lack of basic labor rights pertains to both men and women. There is no legal 8-hour workday. Shifts of 10 to 12 hours are commonplace, as is forced overtime without overtime pay rates. The worst conditions of superexploitation are prevalent. The rates of pay are roughly 1/20th of what they are across the border in the United States. In the maquilas you find all of the following: no hygiene on the job, no protection against hazardous materials, no ventilation, no regular rest and food breaks, no benefits, no Social Security or heathcare coverage, no protection against employer abuse (including physical abuse), no recourse to redress grievances, no government inspection to prevent child labor -- and the list goes on. To these conditions of super-exploited labor one must add others which directly affect women: Mexico's Federal Labor Law (and Convention 103 of the ILO) establish maternity rights so to grant protection to pregnant women. Nonetheless, the maquiladoras negate these rights across the board, as they demand that women present a certificate stating they are not pregnant if they want the job -- or later, if they want to keep their job. (In numerous plants, the supervisors go so far as to order women to show their menstrual sanitary napkins.) If a woman is found to be pregnant, she can be fired immediately. There are no childcare centers for working mothers. Night work for women in the maquilas is widespread -- despite the fact that it puts workers' health, security and life at grave risk. A very high proportion of the 270 women murdered in the past few years in the border city of Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua -- the main maquiladora center of the country -- are maquila workers. One who was killed was a girl 13 years old. Their deaths are still unpunished. Reports of rapes and assaults on women who work the night shift and leave in the early morning are frequent. Another regular problem is sexual harassment suffered by women workers at the hands of their supervisors, managers and bosses, who pressure them for sexual favors in exchange for being hired, made permanent or being promoted in a job. During some of our own research on women in the maquiladoras in the border city of Mexicali, Baja California, we gathered testimonies from many workers. Here are some examples we found: Maria is 15 years old. She is a maquiladora worker like her mother. Between the two they sustain the family. She tells us she works from 6 a.m. till 4 p.m., but very often she is forced to work double shift (at straight pay). She does all her work standing up. Sitting is not permitted, even for a moment; they can only sit when they have a short break. The environment is full of noise, and the tasks are very heavy. She is very worried because her mother is pregnant and when her situation becomes evident, they will fire her and Maria will be left with the job of sustaining the household. Carmen is an older person. She entered work in one of the few maquilas that hire women her age. She, too, is on foot the entire work day -- even though her legs swell up. She is not allowed to sit. Carmen and the other workers in her plant do not have social security or healthcare coverage. She got her job from official state institution known as the Whole Family Development (DIF), which rounds up these women and takes them to the factory. Silvia had worked as an administrative employee in a maquiladora for more than 10 years. Now she is studying in college. They just changed her schedule, increased the work day by one hour and took away an hour from her lunch break -- all for the same salary. As a result, Silvia cannot continue her studies. She protested and the bosses fired her. These three stories reflect the harsh reality confronting an increasing number of working women in Mexico. We must put a stop to these mounting attacks by reversing the corporate "free trade" agenda, by building independent trade unions, and by fighting for enforceable labor rights, based on the ILO Conventions -- without any exemptions!
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Open World Conference of Workers