Mexican Women in American Factories: Free Trade and Exploitation on the Border

by Carolyn Tuttle

Prior to the millennium, economists and policy makers argued that free trade between the United States and Mexico would benefit both Americans and Mexicans. They believed that NAFTA would be a “win-win” proposition that would offer U.S. companies new markets for their products and Mexicans the hope of living in a more developed country with the modern conveniences of wealthier nations. Blending rigorous economic and statistical analysis with concern for the people affected, Mexican Women in American Factories offers the first assessment of whether NAFTA has fulfilled these expectations by examining its socioeconomic impact on workers in a Mexican border town.

Carolyn Tuttle led a group that interviewed 620 women maquila workers in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico. The responses from this representative sample refute many of the hopeful predictions made by scholars before NAFTA and reveal instead that little has improved for maquila workers. The women’s stories make it plain that free trade has created more low-paying jobs in sweatshops where workers are exploited. Families of maquila workers live in one- or two-room houses with no running water, no drainage, and no heat. The multinational companies who operate the maquilas consistently break Mexican labor laws by requiring women to work more than nine hours a day, six days a week, without medical benefits, while the minimum wage they pay workers is insufficient to feed their families. These findings will make a crucial contribution to debates over free trade, CAFTA-DR, and the impact of globalization.

253 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2012

Reviews

[Naomi · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a very interesting look at the Maquiladoras in Nogales from the words, experiences, and perspectives of a large sample of women working in the factories. I always appreciate books that have very solid field work sources as well as books that center the actual protagonists (the workers) and not the bigger and easier targets (the companies). The role that the state union played in taking over the space from the possibility of independent unions was super interesting.

Much of her framing was isn't it a surprise that the multinationals on the Mexican border don't treat their workers very well and, honestly, no, it's not a surprise in the least. I also at times was frustrated by her reliance on the diametrical positions of NAFTA is great or NAFTA is terrible / workers are liberated or workers are slaves when her own data showed a much more nuanced and complicated understanding of the experiences. I was also puzzled by the way she didn't differentiate in the discussion of comparative studies over the various time frames of maquiladora development and how and why some of the previous studies' results could have depended on temporal and geopolitical situations.

All that to say (as a lawyer reading socanth books), this was very valuable as an understanding of the border economy, the situation of women workers in maquiladoras, and the actual impacts of NAFTA on labor politics.