TY - BOOK ID - 91942767 TI - Mexican women in American factories : free trade and exploitation on the border PY - 2012 SN - 0292739133 0292739141 PB - Austin : University of Texas Press, DB - UniCat KW - Offshore assembly industry KW - Women offshore assembly industry workers KW - Corporations, Foreign KW - Manufacturing industries KW - International business enterprises KW - Employees. KW - Mexican-American Border Region KW - Economic conditions. KW - Social conditions. KW - Industries KW - Manufactures KW - Foreign corporations KW - Juristic persons, Foreign KW - Business enterprises, Foreign KW - Corporation law KW - Business enterprises, International KW - Corporations, International KW - Global corporations KW - International corporations KW - MNEs (International business enterprises) KW - Multinational corporations KW - Multinational enterprises KW - Transnational corporations KW - Business enterprises KW - Corporations KW - Joint ventures KW - Women maquila workers KW - Employees KW - American-Mexican Border Region KW - Border Region, American-Mexican KW - Border Region, Mexican-American KW - Borderlands (Mexico and U.S.) KW - Mexico-United States Border Region KW - Tierras Fronterizas de México-Estados Unidos KW - United States-Mexico Border Region UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:91942767 AB - 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. ER -