Desert Capitalism: What are the Maquiladoras?Sociologist Kathryn Kopinak here examines the maquiladora industry in Nogales, Sonora, and explores various questions concerning how it is changing with NAFTA and other attempts at regional integration. Focusing on the auto-parts industry, Kopinak observes that few maquiladoras have taken steps toward more sophisticated technology and innovative labor practices anticipated by the "second wave" hypothesis of modernization. She argues instead that the apparent advances have not benefited the overwhelming majority of Mexican employees by increasing their wages or involving them in the workplace. Women workers in particular are segmented at the bottom of the job ladder. Kopinak provides information on facilities in both Nogales and the town of Imuris to offer a balanced perspective on border and inland maquiladoras. Desert Capitalism draws on interviews with workers about their daily lives in both their home and adopted communities and on interviews with Mexican and U.S. plant managers. Community surveys, newspaper advertisements, and government records are other important sources of data. Kopinak reviews and synthesizes literature published only in Spanish and utilizes creative quantitative statistical techniques. The book thus marks a significant study of people's lives that seeks to contribute to the understanding of ongoing continental economic reorganization, and it holds important lessons for scholars of economics, anthropology, political science, history, sociology, women's studies, and regional planning. |
Contents
Introduction | 3 |
Implications of Economic Restructuring for Regional Development | 28 |
Constructing the Nogales Maquiladora Labor Market in the Eighties | 49 |
Technology and the Organization of Work | 115 |
Workers Reactions to Wages and Working Conditions | 146 |
Heterogeneous Maquila Development and Corridor Integration in Crisis | 181 |
Notes | 203 |
Bibliography | 213 |
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administrative Agua Prieta Aguascalientes argued Arizona auto auto-parts average Barajas Escamilla benefits bonuses border capital Carrillo chapter Ciudad Juárez cluster crisis devaluation direct workers dual-technology thesis earned economic eighties employees employment federal labor law Financiero International flexible Fordism free trade Friedrich Ebert gender Guasave Guaymas Hermosillo incentives income increase industrial corridor interviewed jobs advertised Juárez labor force labor market labor process ladora lean production locations male manufacturing maquila industry maquila job maquila workers maquiladora association maquiladora industry Mexican workers Mexico migration minimum wage NAFTA Nogales and Imuris Nogales and Region Nogales area Nogales maquiladora old paradigm old pesos operators overtime percent personnel Plant F predicted prerequisites quality circles quality-control quartile real wages sample SECOFI sector Sonora subsectors Tijuana Tillsonburg tion transport-equipment plants transport-equipment workers turnover U.S.-Mexico border unions United Voz del Norte wage earners western corridor women workers workplace