Are offshore assembly workers being exploited or emancipated? The answer depends largely on what factors are being considered and with whom the workers are being compared. This paper presents data on 12 indicators, including both economic and social factors, which together provide an overview of the situation of maquiladora workers in Honduras. Second, it uses an alternative control group, first time applicants to the maquiladoras. Finally, this paper presents data collected in Honduras in 1998—providing insights into the industry as it is operating post-NAFTA and in a non-Mexican setting.
The question addressed in this paper is not a new one, but it is one that is receiving ever-increasing attention. The question usually posed is this: What is the situation of offshore assembly industry workers? Are they being exploited and mistreated or are they relatively well off? The question has received a fair share of popular press attention, including accusations of child labor, “slave” wages, sexual harassment and very occasionally, “success” stories. Cultural icons as diverse as Ross Perot, Kathy Lee Gifford, Michael Jordan and Michael Eisner have been pulled into the fray. Worker welfare has been the focus of ever-increasing scholarly attention. Since Fernández-Kelly (1983) carried out her study in Mexico in 1978–79, many others have sought to gauge the overall situation of workers, including Tiano, 1994, Young and Fort, 1994, Kopinak, 1996 and Cravey, 1998.
Despite the attention the question has received, however, the debate continues, often characterized more by heat than light. The two titles at the beginning of this paper reflect the polarization of opinion. Rather than engaging their critics, the parties involved often speak past each other by citing those factors that support their arguments or by comparing workers to control groups which best support their theses. The maquiladora literature is also almost exclusively focused on Mexico, which hosts only a small percentage of the global industry, thus failing to explore the diversity of contexts where maquiladoras are functioning. Some of these studies have also been questioned methodologically, which compromises the validity of their findings (Lim, 1990 and Seligson, 1994). Finally, there is a dearth of recent (post-NAFTA1) rigorous research on the situation of maquiladora workers and as a result, much of the debate relies on data collected in the 1980s and early 1990s.2
This paper seeks to shed light on the debate in several new ways. First, it will propose 12 indicators, including both economic and social factors, which together provide an overview of the situation of maquiladora workers. While further in-depth analysis of single factors is also necessary, the purpose here are to give a summary of overall conditions. Second, this paper will propose an alternative control group, first-time applicants, with which workers can be compared. Methodologically, because we were able to negotiate access to the factories, the data presented here are the result of a random sample of workers, including men (who comprise 37% of workers). Finally, this paper presents data collected in Honduras in 1998—providing insights into the industry as it is operating post-NAFTA and in a non-Mexican setting.
