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Feminist Economics
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To cite this Article Domínguez, Edmé , Icaza, Rosalba , Quintero, Cirila , López, Silvia and Stenman, Åsa(2010) 'Women
Workers in the Maquiladoras and the Debate on Global Labor Standards', Feminist Economics, 16: 4, 185 — 209
To link to this Article: DOI: 10.1080/13545701.2010.530603
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Feminist Economics 16(4), October 2010, 185–209
ABSTRACT
This paper represents a collective contribution to an ongoing debate on the
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W OM E N W O R K E R S I N M A Q U I L A D O R A S I N M E X I C O A N D
C E N T R A L A M E R I CA
Since the 1990s, we have seen an enormous proliferation of studies and
debates around the situation of women workers within globalization, their
struggles for rights, and strategies to enforce these rights. Some examples
of this debate are Naila Kabeer’s article in Feminist Economics in 2004 as well
as Elizabeth Fussell (2000), Christine M. Kogell (2003), and Ana
Bergareche (2006). Ajit Singh and Ann Zammit (2000), Anita Chan and
Robert J. S. Ross (2003), Stephanie Luce (2005), and Stephanie Barrientos
(2007a, 2007b) have also debated the advantages or shortcomings and risks
M A Q U I L A JO B S : W O R K I N G W I T H D I G N IT Y A N D
E NH A N CI N G W O M E N’ S A U T O N O M Y ?
Some authors, in particular Linda Lim (1990) and Kabeer (2004), challenge
the negative descriptions of the conditions within garment factories
producing for export. Kabeer not only questions such negative images of
working conditions but also argues that this is the only option most women
have for ‘‘working with dignity’’ (2004: 4). For Lim (1990), these kinds of
jobs are a good alternative within the formal sector. Kabeer wants to stop
‘‘victimizing’’ these women and to have others recognize that these women’s
jobs are improving their sense of self-esteem and independence. We would
like to discuss two of the main arguments developed by Kabeer (2004) and
Lim (1990), in the context of the regions we study: first, that these jobs are
good alternatives to informal work and, second, that they have a beneficial
effect on women’s autonomy and self-esteem.
Even though globalization and the transnationalization of capital have
increasingly and more intensely created common patterns among distant
localities, it is rather problematic to assume that the Bangladeshi or other
Asian export industrialization experiences could be similar to those of
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WOMEN WORKERS IN THE MAQUILADORAS
some of the interviewed women had formal (legal) stands at the municipal
market, and they claimed to earn more than the maquila workers with the
advantage of having a steady inflow of money every day instead of a
paycheck every fifteen days. The group of interviewed maquila women
workers also included several who had chosen to quit their maquila job or
not look for a new job when they were fired, and nearly all those
interviewed would prefer their daughters not to work as maquiladora
workers if they could avoid it. As arguments for leaving the maquila, they
adduced harsh working conditions, long working hours, and low salaries.
But the decision to leave the maquila often coincided with receiving a
relatively stable extra income, such as migrant remittances from a daughter
or son or a small pension from a deceased husband (Diana Santillán and
Marı́a Eugenia Ulfe 2006; Stenman 2010).
Although these income differences between formal and informal jobs
may not be generalized to the whole Mexican border area, nor to all of
Central America, it is well known that maquiladora salaries are so low that
they are insufficient to cover basic needs, and workers have to complement
them with informal work (Informe 2005; Red Regional 2008).3 And even if
there may be other advantages than salaries in the form of medical
insurance and other security and monetary benefits (such as bonuses), we
believe that it is important to contextualize and problematize women’s
choices between the maquiladora and the informal sector. As we have
mentioned, the bad working conditions and the comparably low wages in
the maquiladoras might make women choose other alternatives in the
informal sector. However, it would be important to question how ‘‘free’’
this choice is. Most women would probably argue that their first choice
would be formal employment with a decent paycheck and social security
benefits. These women are simply making the best possible choices in a
segmented and discriminating labor market.
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poor wages, but also extremely poor living conditions and serious
environmental problems that are reflected in the workers’ health. Most
workers live in poor housing in slum areas that lack infrastructure, where
schools and hospitals are quite scarce, and where drug-related violence is
common. This scenario contrasts with the neighboring export-processing
zones (EPZs), which have modern infrastructure and machinery. Moreover,
many of the female workers are heads of households, and in everyday life,
they face the multiple social, economic, and environmental problems of
living in communities located close to these industrial parks.5 In the case of
the garment industry in Mexico, those sites in which this industry is
established particularly face the problem of scarce water resources due to
extensive industrial use of water, which affects not only the communities of
factory workers but also the population in general (Tello Sánchez
2003; Juárez 2004). The environmental and health problems that
Central American workers face have also been widely documented and
corroborated by our own fieldwork in El Salvador (see also Informe 2005;
Peña Hena 2005; ICFTU 2006).
We must also take into account that working conditions constantly
change in response to economic cycles and thus affect the bargaining
power of labor. One example is the case of the maquiladora workers in
the garment industry in the Lagunera region of northern Mexico. During
the early 1990s, this region became the new ‘‘blue jeans capital’’ when
some of the most important companies dealing with garment production
moved from Los Angeles to Torreón and Gómez Palacio, and 75,000 jobs
were created offering higher wages and better working conditions than
elsewhere in the border area (Gary Gereffi, Martha Martı́nez, and
Jennifer Bair 2002). However, this situation changed rapidly: the
economic recession in the US in 2001 meant a massive loss of 35,000
jobs. The favorable bargaining position of the workers was lost, salaries
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WOMEN WORKERS IN THE MAQUILADORAS
W O M E N W O R K E R ’ S A G E N C Y : T O W A R D N E W F O R M S OF
M O B IL I Z A T IO N
As experience has shown, traditional unions’ ability to defend women’s
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L A B O R ST A N D A R D S , C O D E S O F C O N D U C T , A N D
‘ ‘ C O M M O N F L O O R ’ ’ A S A L T E R NA T I V E S : V I E W S F R O M
G R A S S R O O T S OR G A N I Z I N G E X P E R I E N C E S
There is a worldwide discussion as to how to enhance core labor rights
(processes) and improve labor standards (outcomes) (Luce 2005;
Barrientos 2007a, 2007b).12 The inclusion of rights and standards in
trade agreements or other compulsive frameworks has led to continuing
controversy. We argue that a North–South dichotomization (‘‘the industrial
rich North wants labor standards and the poor developing South opposes
them’’) fails to grasp a more complex reality (Ajit Singh and Ann Zammit
2003; Kabeer 2004). According to Chan and Ross (2003) and Luce (2005),
support for or opposition to these labor standards does not necessarily
follow a North–South alignment. In the South, some unions (in South
Africa and some countries in Latin America), NGOs, workers, and even
governments support ‘‘hard law’’ labor standards (Luce 2005). Other
organizations supporting the implementation of social clauses are
international unions, like the ICFTU, which represents 226 unions in 148
countries, including nineteen from developing countries that have
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explicitly expressed their support for a social clause regulating labor rights
in the World Trade Organization (WTO) agreement (Chan and Ross
2003).13 Governments in the South, Northern banks, multinationals, and
employers, together with many workers in the South, have favored
unrestricted trade without any labor standards, while some Western
governments and Northern and Southern NGOs dealing with labor and
human rights issues, several trade unions and many workers in the South do
support such global social clauses (Chan and Ross 2003; Ian Thomas
MacDonald 2003; Luce 2005). Some authors like Kabeer (2004) and Singh
and Zammit (2003) point out the desirability of labor standards but are
worried about the risks of their inclusion in compulsory international
frameworks, like trade treaties.
We argue that linking trade to labor standards is not always negative. To
illustrate the problem with dichotomization and these unexpected results
of linking, we highlight the case of NAFTA and its parallel agreement, the
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Another way to address labor standards has been the use of codes of
conduct. As Luce (2005) and Barrientos (2007a) have described it, there
are two sorts of codes: voluntary corporate codes and negotiated codes or
multi-stakeholder initiatives like the Ethical Trade Initiative (ETI ) in the
United Kingdom. However, the effectiveness of codes of conduct is
questionable. According to Barrientos (2007a, 2007b), even though codes
may direct behavior at a deeper level in production networks than social
clauses can, they are still a top-down and paternalist approach that
suppliers see as a condition for receiving orders, not as a recognition of
workers’ rights. Barrientos (2007a, 2007b) assesses both types of labor
codes and concludes that although multiple-stakeholder initiatives like
the ETI have better performance because they provide a possibility of
collaboration between companies, trade unions, and NGOs, their impact,
when there is one, is more on outcome standards, such as health and
safety provisions, the reductions of working hours, or increased wages,
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gendered social structures, though not fixed, would act as constraints for
turning a universal material basis into a transformative experience for
women. Even if a universal material basis is achieved for all sectors of
society, one cannot assume that complex material, cultural, and ideational
structures of inequality and exploitation would start to fade away.
Moreover, it is uncertain that a common social floor is a ‘‘win–win’’
situation for women in general.
Although the idea of a common social floor is not the same as the limited
cash transfer programs we see today, it is useful to see how these have
performed as such programs form the principle on which a general social
floor would build. According to Maxine Molyneux (2006), who takes the
example of the ‘‘Oportunidades’’ program in Mexico, such schemes are
problematic from a gender perspective because they have increased
women’s daily burdens by giving them the main responsibility for resource
allocation within the family, ensuring children’s attendance at school, and
performing volunteer work.20 Moreover, traditional gender structures are
not questioned, as Molyneux (2006) and Silvia López Estrada and Gerardo
Ordoñez (2006) have shown.21 Thus, gendered structures of inequality
need to be problematized if any alternative, such as a common social floor,
is to be further discussed.
A common social floor would probably be very difficult to attain in the
short or medium term due to the problem of financing, especially in the
current economic crisis. The introduction of a common social floor would
imply a considerably larger public investment in the social budget than is the
case in most countries today. The major part of such an investment would
probably need to be financed domestically by increasing or diversifying
taxes. At least in Mexico and Central America, the present tax system (and
the collection of taxes) is very limited and far from being even a first step to
financing a common social floor. It would also be necessary to analyze more
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FINAL REFLECTIONS
As mentioned, our objective has been to contribute to a dynamic and
constructive debate on the implications of export-based, industrial jobs for
women workers and on the potential effects of global labor standards for
these women. Based on our own research and experiences from Mexico
and Central America, we have contested the argument that these jobs
would always be the first choice of certain groups of women workers and
that they necessarily represent a better alternative compared to any other
income-generating activity that these women could engage in and, finally,
that enforcing global labor standards might only worsen the conditions of
women workers in the export-based industries. We claim that there are
several heterogeneous realities that defy generalizations.
First, we have argued against the perception that these kinds of jobs are
the best or only alternative for women workers. We have also shown that in
Mexico and Central America, women have in some cases found better and
more dignified income possibilities outside the maquiladora sector.
Industrial jobs may provide good opportunities for women to earn
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WOMEN WORKERS IN THE MAQUILADORAS
Edmé Dominguez
School of Global Studies, University of Gothenburg
Konstepidemins Väg 2, Box 700, 405 30, Gothenburg, Sweden
e-mail: edme.dominguez@globalstudies.gu.se
Department of Political Science, Linnaeus University
91 82 Kalmar or SE-351 95 Växjö, Sweden
e-mail: edme.dominguez@lnu.se
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ARTICLES
Rosalba Icaza
Institute of Social Studies
SG2 Kortenaerkade, 12 The Hague 2518 AX, The Netherlands
e-mail: icaza@iss.nl
Cirila Quintero
Dirección General Regional Noreste, Colegio de la Frontera Norte
Calle Herrera No. 169 entre 16 y 17, Zona Centro, CP 87300,
Matamoros, Tamaulipas, Mexico
e-mail: cquintero@riogrande.net.mx
Silvia López
Departamento de Estudios de Población, Colegio de la Frontera Norte
Blvd. Abelardo L. Rodrı́guez No. 2929, Zona Rı́o, CP 22010
Tijuana, B. California, Mexico
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e-mail: slopez@colef.mx
Åsa Stenman
School of Global Studies, University of Gothenburg
Konstepidemins Väg 2, Box 700, 405 30 Gothenburg, Sweden
e-mail: asa.stenman@globalstudies.gu.se
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We are very grateful to the associate editor and the reviewers for their
enormous help in producing the final version of this article. It has been a
long process but a fruitful one. We are also grateful for financial support
from the Institute of Iberoamerican Studies (research-environment
support) in order to revise the final version of this manuscript.
NOTES
1
See Brı́gida Garcı́a and Orlandina de Oliveira (1994) and Fussell (2000). In interviews
carried out during 2004–5, Domı́nguez and Quintero have also found these
testimonies, especially in the cities of Piedras Negras and Ciudad Acuña, border
areas in northeastern Mexico.
2
This fieldwork, carried out during July 2009 in El Salvador, is part of the project
Maquilas and Remittances in El Salvador: Transnational Processes, Women and Gender
financed during 2009 by the Swedish Agency for Development Cooperation (SAREC-
Sida). Edmé Domı́nguez leads this project with the assistance of Åsa Stenman.
3
Fieldwork in Tijuana, Piedras Negras, and Matamoros carried out by the authors, as
well as Domı́nguez, Quintero, and Lopez’s already-mentioned fieldwork in El
Salvador in 2009, support these findings.
4
In government regulation, a ‘‘race to the bottom’’ is a phenomenon that is said to
occur when competition between nations or states (over investment capital, for
example) leads to the progressive dismantling of regulatory standards.
202
WOMEN WORKERS IN THE MAQUILADORAS
5
For examples of different campaigns trying to fight companies for environmental
damages, see Edmé Domı́nguez (2002). See also the Coalition for Justice in the
Maquiladoras (CJM 1993), and the documentary films produced by CJM and other
NGOs involved in labor issues in the northern Mexico border area (Dan Oko 2001).
6
Human Rights Watch, together with several local NGOs, undertook a campaign to
stop these compulsory pregnancy tests in 1997. The result of the campaign was that
some, but not all, of the big maquiladoras stopped testing (Domı́nguez 2002).
7
Cirila Quintero Ramı́rez (1999) distinguishes two types of unions in maquiladoras:
traditional unions, which focused on better wages and labor benefits for workers, and
subordinate unions, which were controlled by managerial interests. In spite of their
differences, the labor board (Junta de Conciliación y Arbitraje) recognizes both.
8
However, studies of different transnational networks, like Factor X and CJM, have also
found complicated relationships with international donors and internal conflicts
within the organizations themselves (Domı́nguez 2007).
9
An interesting case of combative union activity occurred in the Dominican Republic,
where the Federación Nacional de Trabajadores de Zonas Francas (FENATRAZONAS)
organized a sizable percentage of the companies in the free zones during the 1990s. By the
end of the decade, this organization had unionized at least twenty maquiladoras.
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10
Trade unions like the Sindicato General de Costureras [General Seamstresses Union] and
the Federación de Asociaciones y Sindicatos Autónomos de El Salvador (FEASIES) are
either organizing women directly or cooperating with NGOs in training women workers to
organize and claim their rights (fieldwork in El Salvador, summer 2009).
11
See Domı́nguez (2002) and Luce (2005) for examples of such successful campaigns.
12
By labor rights, we understand those included in core ILO conventions: 1) abolition
of forced labor, 2) abolition of child labor, 3) elimination of discrimination, 4) the
right to organize and freedom of association (Luce 2005).
13
Our interviews with several Mexican labor organizations since 2004 and our fieldwork
in 2009 in El Salvador also support these findings.
14
Publicly, the Confederación de Trabajadores de Méxio (CTM) argued that Mexican labor
legislation was more advanced than that of Canada or the US, and therefore, the NAALC
was both irrelevant and a violation of Mexico’s sovereignty (MacDonald 2003).
15
See the examples in MacDonald (2003), Bensusan (2002), and Domı́nguez (2007).
16
In 1984, there was an amendment to the GSP legislation that provided an opening for
requiring that specific labor standards, such as the freedom of association and the abolition
of child and forced labor, be respected by countries granted GSP treatment (Luce 2005).
17
Rosario Ortiz is the main leader of the RMSM, a women’s trade union network in
Mexico and one of CJM’s member organizations.
18
See Domı́nguez 2007. Other critical voices also claim that codes of conduct have
created new business opportunities for NGOs, which market themselves as
independent teams monitoring the implementation of such codes (Wolf Herrera,
Mármol, and Martı́nez 2003).
19
There have also been multiple stakeholder projects involving international institu-
tions like the World Bank, multinational corporations, NGOs, and national
governments that propose comparative advantage schemes focusing on the respect
of decent labor norms and other advantages like geographic proximity to central
markets (Marion Traub-Werner 2006).
20
The Mexican program ‘‘Oportunidades’’ is based on transferring cash amounts to
mothers in extreme poverty on the condition that their children attend school and
health clinics and that the mothers act as volunteers to clean clinics and schools and
promote the program (Molyneux 2006). According to Sylvia Chant (2007)
and Molyneux (2006), these women are made responsible and empowered to deal
with their own poverty.
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21
In analyzing the Mexican Jefas de Familia [female family heads] subprogram, which is
part of the government project Habitat, López Estrada and Ordoñez (2006) found
that Jefas de Familia reinforces traditional divisions of labor.
22
For Pakistan and India, see the Pan Asia Cooperation Society’s clothing stores, which
are rapidly spreading in Sweden. For the case of Zapatista women in Mexico, see
Christine Eber (2003) and Yolanda Castro Apreza (2003). For other experiences in
southern Mexico, see Lynn Stephen (2005).
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