Maquila Female Workers in Their Own Words: Fighting COVID and Labor Abuse

To Enrique González Rojo (1928-2021), friend, comrade in many struggles, admirable poet, and Marxist thinkerBy Saul Escobar ToledoMEXICO CITY, Mar 26 2021 (IPS) A compilation of testimonies collected by Blanca Velázquez Díaz and published by the Ebert Foundation (available at: http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/bueros/mexiko/17328.pdf) offers an account of the harsh reality by which some workers of the maquila industry in the Mexican state of Morelos have gone through over these last twelve months. Their words reflect, undoubtedly, similar experiences of millions of workers in different parts of the country. Saul Escobar ToledoThe author explains the interviews were conducted by phone in mid-2020; the workers´ ages range from 20 to 40 years; their level of education is elementary and middle school; they come from the countryside or small urban communities where there are few chances to get a job, so they move to the larger cities of the State of Morelos, where the maquiladoras are set to produce for major brands belonging to international consortia. Their working conditions were already very unfavorable: in the textile sector and specifically in the branch of clothing and footwear, working days exceed eight hours a day, time in which they are permanently seated in non-designed chairs ergonomically, supporting extremely high temperatures in closed places with little ventilation. The spread of COVID-19 made matters worse. Mainly, the bosses of the maquilas in Morelos did not ...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Tags: Aid Economy & Trade Education Headlines Health Humanitarian Emergencies Labour Latin America & the Caribbean TerraViva United Nations Source Type: news