RT Article
T1 Exploitation or Choice? Exploring the Relative Attractiveness of Employment in the Maquiladoras
JF Journal of business ethics
VO 18
IS 2
SP 213
OP 227
A1 Sargent, John
A1 Matthews, Linda
LA English
PB Springer Science + Business Media B. V
YR 1999
UL https://www.ixtheo.de/Record/1785611704
AB 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.
K1 Multinational Company
K1 Work History
K1 Local Economy
K1 Production Level
K1 Economic Growth
DO 10.1023/A:1005742629319