Exploitation or Choice? Exploring the Relative Attractiveness of Employment in the Maquiladoras

This study investigates the relative attractiveness of production level jobs provided by multinational firms in Mexico's maquiladora industry. We take the position that workers themselves are an important and often overlooked source of information relevant to the controversy focusing on the res...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of business ethics
Authors: Sargent, John (Author) ; Matthews, Linda (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Springer Science + Business Media B. V 1999
In: Journal of business ethics
Further subjects:B Work History
B Multinational Company
B Local Economy
B Production Level
B Economic Growth
Online Access: Volltext (JSTOR)
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Description
Summary:This study investigates the relative attractiveness of production level jobs provided by multinational firms in Mexico's maquiladora industry. We take the position that workers themselves are an important and often overlooked source of information relevant to the controversy focusing on the responsibilities of multinational companies to their employees in the developing world. We conducted interviews with 59 maquila production level workers in the Mexican cities of Cd. Juárez and Chihuahua. Using a relative attractiveness framework that compared maquila jobs to other employment available in the local economy, maquila line and technical workers responded to questions addressing why they were working at a maquila, their work history, the attractiveness of maquila jobs compared to both their prior jobs and the jobs held by friends and family, and whether they planned to continue working in the maquilas. While the responses from maquila workers are diverse, they suggest that maquila jobs provide attractive employment for the economically disadvantaged in Northern Mexico.
ISSN:1573-0697
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of business ethics
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1023/A:1005742629319