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Case Study: THE NEW SWEATSHOPS OF MEXICO
- With trade barriers coming down, Mexico has gained thousands
of jobs in new factories producing goods for the US market.
- But earnings on this side of the border remain 80% below those
in comparable jobs in the USA. Workers enjoy little job security
and few paid holidays.
Analysis
What constitutes 'reasonable' hours of work and 'reasonable' paid
holidays will vary in different parts of the world. 35 hours per
week may seem reasonable to the Scandinavians, whereas surveys show
that workers in the USA are happy to stay at their desks for 50
hours or more.
But these are both wealthy economies which can
afford to reward effort. Just across the USA's southern border,
an abundance of cheap labour has made Mexico an ideal location for
companies manufacturing goods intended for sale in the American
market. In these so-called 'sweatshops', employees work long hours
for very low wages.
While the employee of a US garment maker would
earn around $8 dollars per hour, their Mexican counterpart could
be paid as little as 85 cents. Since the signing of the North American
Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994, some 2,700 of these factories
have sprung up in Mexico, usually to be found in 'export processing
zones' or 'maquilas' where labour laws are more relaxed.
Despite the long hours and low pay people flock
here in search of work.
Without international standards, Article 24 can
at the very least be useful as a tool in demanding, for instance,
that an employer recognises religious holidays. But the International
Labour Organisation points to Article 23: the right to join trade
unions and engage in collective bargaining as a more potent force
to improve working conditions.
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