Maquiladoras Tijuana

Generan 67% empleos micro, pequeñas y medianas empresas en BC

Diario de San Diego, May 19 2010--El secretario de Desarrollo Económico de Baja California, Alejandro Mungaray Lagarda, aseguró que el 67 por ciento de los empleos que se generan en el estado tienen como fuente las micro, pequeñas y medianas empresas. En conferencia, el funcionario aseguró que la tasa de desempleo para Baja California bajó de 6.7 a 5.9 por ciento, lo que se traduce como la tasa más baja en toda la frontera norte del país. Dijo que se trata de cifras importantes, porque además de recuperar los empleos perdidos en 2009, también se atendió a una gran cantidad de personas migrantes desde el interior del país hacia esta zona.

http://www.diariosandiego.com/bin/articulos.cgi?ID=87075&q=1&s=34

Concentra Tijuana 60% de residuos peligrosos por maquiladoras

Diario de San Diego, May 19 2010--Esta frontera concentra el 60 de 80 por ciento de los residuos peligrosos que se generan en las ciudades fronterizas del país y que son desechados por las maquiladoras locales. El jefe de la Unidad de Gestión de la Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (Semarnat) en Baja California, Juan Manuel Guzmán García, indicó que a diferencia de otras delegaciones, aquí la actividad se centra en las maquiladoras. Destacó que la delegación de la Semarnat en esta entidad lleva a cabo cerca de 40 trámites de diversa naturaleza al año, de los que alrededor de 70 por ciento se centra en movimientos de residuos peligrosos por parte de esa industria.

http://www.diariosandiego.com/bin/articulos.cgi?ID=87099&q=1&s=34

Cierre de planta Toyota cancelaría en California 50 mil plazas
Diario de San Diego, Notimex San Diego, Mar 29 2010. El cierre esta semana de la mayor planta de la automotriz japonesa Toyota en California podría dejar sin empleo hasta a 50 mil personas, advirtió hoy un dirigente sindical. Alex Castillo, dirigente del sindicato de trabajadores automotrices, dijo a Notimex que el cierre de la planta Nummi de la Toyota en Freemont el próximo miércoles dejará directamente sin empleo a unas seis mil 500 personas, pero también a otros miles de trabajadores de fábricas que por 20 años han abastecido a esa fábrica. “Los cálculos van de los 30 mil a los 50 mil empleos en California directamente relacionados con el cierre de la Nummi”, dijo el dirigente del local 2244 del sindicato automotriz.
http://www.diariosandiego.com/bin/articulos.cgi?ID=85039&q=1&s=1

Llegan a Tijuana más empresas de las que salen
En el último año, en Tijuana, Baja California, la recesión económica en casas matrices, más que la inseguridad, motivó la salida de 23 empresas, pero llegaron 42 nuevas y otras 20 invirtieron en su expansión. La violencia e inseguridad preocupaban hace cinco o siete años, "ahora, en los planes de inversión, juega más la ubicación, la logística, los incentivos fiscales, la experiencia en materia de maquiladoras y los 52 parques industriales en Tijuana", dijo el presidente de Desarrollo Económico e Industrial de Tijuana, Gerardo Brizuela Altamirano. El representante expuso el comportamiento en esa ciudad fronteriza al anunciar el Encuentro Tijuana Innovadora 2010, que se realizará del 7 al 21 de octubre, con la asistencia de los premios Nobel de la Paz, Al Gore; de Química, Mario Molina; y de Economía, Robert Aumann. En el encuentro también se programa la presencia del director general de la OCDE, José Angel Gurría, dijo en una conferencia de prensa organizada por la Cámara Nacional de la Industria de Transformación (Canacintra). Brizuela adelantó también que en los próximos 45 días se concretarán inversiones por 17 mil millones de dólares en materia automotriz, lo que generará hasta 900 empleos, aunque se reservó el nombre de la industria automotriz.
http://diariosandiego.com/bin/articulos.cgi?ID=84381&q=1&s=34

Sony sold Tijuana to Foxconn (Sep 2, 2009)
Plunging TV prices challenge makers; competition prompts Sony's Baja decision. Sony's decision this week to sell its flat panel television factory in Tijuana to a Taiwan-based manufacturing conglomerate shows how TV makers are looking for new ways to compete as prices continue to plunge. “I think from Sony's perspective, it has been a challenge in the U.S. market because it's so competitive,” said Paul Semenza, a senior vice president with Display Research, which follows the industry. “In certain regions like Japan, consumers really want a certain high level of quality and are willing to pay for it. In the U.S., it's a much more price-sensitive market.”

 http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2009/sep/02/plunging-tv-prices-challenge-makers/

Sony Outsources Border Plant
Battered by multi-billion dollar losses, Sony Corp. has decided to outsource production at a large Tijuana factory. The Japan-based consumer electronics giant announced this week it will sell a 90 percent interest in a factory that manufactures LCD television screens to Hon Hai Precision Industry Co.of Taiwan. Production at the plant will be managed by Hon Hai’s Foxconn division. The deal was given a political stamp of approval by Baja California Governor Jose Osuna Millan and other high state officials. In a Tijuana meeting earlier this week, Governor Osuna thanked Sony President Takahiro Kawamura for investing in the northern Mexican state. The National Action Party governor told Kawamura that Baja California is quite open to future dealings with Sony. After returning the appreciations, Kawamura said that Baja California has a proven track record in doing business. No details of the Sony-Foxconn agreement were immediately disclosed, but initial reports suggested that the 3,300 workers at the Tijuana factory would still have jobs. Foxconn, however, is among many electronics manufacturers that routinely outsource jobs to temporary employment agencies which don’t pay the full range of benefits. The Taiwan-based industry leader makes computers and consumer electronics for companies including Sony, Apple, Cisco, HP, Nintendo, Motorola, and Nokia.
http://www.nmsu.edu/~frontera/ (See "Tijuana News")

Comment by Citygroup about Sony
"Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) will buy the stake in a liquid-crystal-display TV unit based in Tijuana, Mexico, and the unit’s manufacturing assets...The sale signals that Sony — which is cutting 16,000 jobs and has shut eight factories to revive its profitability as it heads into its first consecutive annual losses since its listing in 1958 — may eventually stop making TVs, said Kota Ezawa, an analyst at Citigroup Inc in Tokyo."
See also http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2009/09/02/2003452602

Sony Sells 90% Of Tijuana LCD TV Plant, Forms Strategic Alliance with Taiwan’s Hon Hai Precision Industry (Sep 2009)
Sony Insider--Sony has announced that it has agreed to form a strategic alliance with Taiwan’s Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Ltd. (also known as Foxconn) for the production of LCD TVs in the Americas. Based on this agreement, Sony will sell to Hon Hai Group 90% of its shares in Sony Baja California and certain manufacturing assets related to Sony Baja California’s Tijuana site in Mexico, which mainly manufactures LCD TVs for the Americas region. Following the sale, Hon Hai Group will hold 90% ownership of Sony Baja California and the Sony Group will retain a 10% share. The Tijuana site will remain a key manufacturing facility of Sony LCD TVs for the Americas region. Hon Hai Group will assume employment of employees at the Tijuana site. Within its LCD TV business, Sony is concentrating internal resources towards areas that contribute to product differentiation, such as R&D, engineering and design, while also establishing a structure that enables the company to bring attractive products to market at the earliest possible opportunity. At the same time, by proactively leveraging external manufacturing resources Sony will also seek to reduce fixed costs, drive other cost reductions, improve profitability and achieve business expansion.
http://www.sonyinsider.com/2009/09/01/sony-sells-90-of-tijuana-lcd-tv-plant-forms-strategic-alliance-with-taiwans-hon-hai-precision-industry/

Maquiladoras en México

Cáncer y Maquiladoras
Estudio acerca de la enfermedad en las poblaciones mexicanas en la frontera con Estados Unidos, donde se concentra alrededor del 75% de las maquiladoras en México
"Enfermedades no comunicables son también una preocupación creciente en la poblaciones de la frontera. La mortalidad debida al cáncer en todas sus modalidades fue de 62.9 por 100,000 habitantes en la zona fronteriza mexicana en 1990, comparada con 50.8 en todo el país; la mortalidad producida por cáncer de tráquea, bronquitis y pulmones fue 70% más alta en los municipios fronterizos.”
1994 Health Conditions in the Americas. Vols. 1 and 2. Scentific publication, No. 549. Washington, D.C.: PAHO

Cancer and Maquiladoras
Study about diseases on the Mexican population at the US/Mexico border area, where about 75% of all Mexican maquiladoras are located.
"Noncommunicable diseases are also a growing concern among border populations. Mortality from all cancers combined was 62.9 per 100000 population in the Mexican border zone in 1990, compared with 50.8 in the country as a whole; mortality due to cancers of the trachea, bronchi, and lung was 70 percent higher in the border municipalities."
1994 Health Conditions in the Americas. Vols. 1 and 2. Scentific publication, No. 549. Washington, D.C.: PAHO

Maquiladora huye sin pagar a 130 obreros,  3 de marzo de 2010
La Jornada. Nuevo Laredo, Tamps., 2 de marzo. Propietarios extranjeros de la maquiladora Lobo aprovecharon el fin de semana anterior para desaparecer con todo y maquinaria, sin pagar sueldos y ahorros a 130 obreros.
http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2010/03/03/index.php?section=estados&article=029n3est

Gender in the Workplace

Maquila Social Forum

On June 5-7, the Maquila Social Forum was held to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras, a workers’ organization that has fought in defense of labor rights for two decades. There was reason for celebration—the coalition has not only managed to survive a downturn marked by economic crisis, unemployment, offenses against labor rights in Mexico, and militarization, it has also overcome internal challenges to face the new developments. New topics for reflection were opened at the forum. An example of this is the text presented here. For the first time in this rank and file workers’ organization, the subject of sexuality was discussed. The author, a young organizer with the Center of Hope for Peace and Justice in El Paso, presented a version of the following text to the participants, who revisited its themes in their conclusions and resolutions. Read also the Declaration of the Maquila Social Forum.

http://www.cipamericas.org/archives/1936

Despide Foxconn maquiladora de Juárez a 300 obreros a raíz de protesta

Ciudad Juárez, Chih., 25 de febrero, 2010. La maquiladora de capital taiwanés Foxconn comenzó a despedir a alrededor de 300 empleados que la semana pasada participaron en una protesta en la cual quemaron el comedor de la empresa y apedrearon los dormitorios de los gerentes. Jesús Sánchez, representante legal de Foxconn, dijo que a raíz de los problemas con los trabajadores, “un cliente” decidió cancelar un contrato de proveeduría, por lo que fue necesario recortar a los trabajadores del área que producía dicha mercancía.
http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2010/02/26/index.php?section=estados&article=033n1est

Despide Foxconn a los obreros que protestaron por abusos laborales
Seis días después de haber protestado contra supuestos abusos laborales, la noche de este miércoles la empresa Foxconn despidió a decenas y quizá cientos de empleados. Obreros de la maquiladora localizada a las afueras de la ciudad, próxima a la garita de cruce internacional Santa Teresa, denunciaron ante los medios de comunicación que "por lo menos cien trabajadores fuimos sacados de las líneas de producción y sacados para afuera de la planta". Indicaron que guardias de la empresa los despojaron de la bata y el gafete para enseguida conducirlos al exterior de la empresa de origen taiwanes. donde un buen número de patrullas policiacas custodiaban las instalaciones. No se supo de la presencia de autoridades laborales durante el despido que, otra versión indica que llagaría las 300 gentes del tercer turno. En días pasados, la empresa anunció que no tomaría represalias contra los empleados que hubieran participado en las protestas, hechos que fueron minimizados, tanto en daños como en participantes, número que los representantes legales de la empresa contaban apenas en una veintena. Foxconn por su parte, en voz de su representante legal, Jesús Sánchez, ha dado a conocer que esa mediada se ha tomado debido a la cancelación de al menos un contrato; esto como consecuencia directa del conflicto del pasado viernes, asegura la empresa. Fue al anterior viernes 19 cuando un grupo de trabajadores retenidos contra su voluntad para que trabajaran tiempo extra, se revelaron e incendiaron la cafetería de la compañía a la vez que apedreaban casetas de seguridad y dormitorios de personal extranjero.
http://www.arrobajuarez.com/busca.php?palabra=foxconn

Foxconn workers burn down a factory
No one likes to be lied to by an employer, though few ever take that dislike as far as Foxconn workers in Mexico. Apparently a group of Foxconn employees set fire to their factory after management attempted to coerce workers into overtime labor without compensation. Foxconn’s Juarez, Mexico facility uses transportation trucks to ferry workers to and from the plant every day. Yesterday, supervisors at the plant told workers that the trucks had been delayed at a military checkpoint and instructed the employees to continue working until the trucks arrived. As it turns out, the trucks were sitting in the parking lot, presumably parked-in on purpose. It wasn’t the first time the factory had pulled a stunt like this, so the workers decided to get even. They torched the gymnasium, which is where the plant keeps all of its finished cell phones and computers. Don’t be surprised if there’s suddenly a bit of an iPhone shortage in certain parts of the country.
http://www.gadgetteaser.com/2010/02/20/foxconn-workers-burn-down-a-factory/

Foxconn Blasts Worker, Media after Mexico Factory Fire
“Misleading and twisted.” That’s what Taiwanese electronics giant Hon Hai Precision is saying about coverage of a conflict with some workers at a factory in Mexico owned by its Foxconn Technology Group. Hon Hai spokesman Edmund C.A. Ding today released a statement saying that buses that usually transport workers back from the Foxconn Juarez Santa Teresa campus at the end of the night shift didn’t show up on Feb. 19. The statement said 30 people in the waiting area covered their faces with bandanas and started “spreading malicious rumors of how Foxconn would not give overtime pay for late bus to agitate the crowd.” The workers tried to prevent the bus from reaching the campus, the statement continues, and employees started a fire in a community center. The company said the incident had been planned in advance by a former employee with a “personal score to settle.” Foxconn says it will pursue legal action against the former employee only, and not any other workers involved.
http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/blog/eyeonasia/archives/2010/02/foxconn_
blasts.html

Women and the Maquiladoras in Mexico
Following the termination of the Bracero program by the US government, a plan known as the Border Industrialization Program was introduced in 1965 by the Mexico government aimed at creating employment opportunities in the northern Mexican border for those seasonal agricultural workers who were previously allowed to work in the United States but now lost their job due to the cancellation of the Bracero program. At the same year, the maquiladora industry was born in Mexico. According to Kathryn Kopinak, author of the book Desert Capitalism, the meaning of the word maquiladora or maquila in short, have evolved overtime due to changing government policies that ultimately shaped the characteristics of the maquiladora industry (9). However, maquiladoras at their cores “are US subsidiaries or contract affiliates under foreign ownership; are dedicated to the assembly of components, the processing of primary materials, or both, producing either intermediate or final products; import most or all primary materials and components from the united states, and re-export the end products of the manufacturing process to the United States; are labor-intensive” (Prieto, Introduction xxiii).
http://www.madarong.com/Writing/16.Women%20and%20the%20Maquiladoras%20in%20Mexico

Maquiladoras: las reglas del juego
Alejandro Nadal, La Jornada, Nov 14, 2007.  A veces una investigación académica tiene sabor a novela de misterio. Ése es el caso de un estudio reciente sobre la industria maquiladora en México y la estrategia global de las industrias trasnacionales en la rama electrónica. La sólida investigación de Kevin Gallagher y Lyuba Zarsky, investigadores de la Universidad de Boston y del Instituto Monterrey, respectivamente, explica por qué ha fracasado el modelo para transitar de las maquiladoras ensambladoras a un complejo industrial con alto valor agregado nacional en sus exportaciones.
http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2007/11/14/index.php?section=opinion&article=031a1eco

Trabajadores de la maquila protestan ante la Organización Internacional del Trabajo (OIT), Feb 26, 2010
The Telephone Workers’ Union of Mexico, The Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras (CJM,) the Democratic Lawyers Association (ANAD), and the labor organizations, unions, and other allied organizations who are CJM members on February 22nd presented a complaint to the Freedom of Association Committee of the International Labor Organization (ILO) meeting in Mexico City. (Please see the link OIT ). The complaint focuses on violations of Mexican maquiladora workers’ right to freedom of association and collective bargaining. CJM, maquiladora workers, and CJM member organizations compiled the evidence in the complaint from cases in the maquiladora industry located on the northern border of Mexico. The cases date from 1994, the year the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) went into effect.
http://sdmaquila.blogspot.com/2010/03/trabajadoresas-de-la-maquila-protestan.html