The Applications of Internation Law to Mexico - CAFTA/NAFTA and the Textile Industy

unedited -

Today, January 5th, we visited a local industrial park specifically to get an incite into the world of the Mexican working class. Our trip consisted of visiting Gonso Azul, a privately owned corporation who serves as a facility for producing uniforms. They produce everything from State uniforms (DNR, Police), work clothing and jackets to custom made products. Most of their contracts are sourced from the United States where companies use their production facility for the actual clothing production. American companies send them plans for an article of clothing, they make a sample, send it back to the US and then make changes. After all is good with the client Gonso Azul then begins full fledged production for whatever the product: a pair of trousers, etc. Guss Gordon, one of the co-owners of the biz gave us a full tour of the sewing machines, holding areas and computer aided machines for cutting fabric. Also, Guss talked politics and policy with us about dealing with the Mexican government (import, export, customs, taxes, law), employees and simply keeping a buisness running in Merida. NAFTA and CAFTA have really affected the way Mexican buisnesses operate with CAFTA having the most negative impact on the corporate buisness level (for campanies like Gonso Azul who import/export constantly). Since Mexico is not part of CAFTA and with the growing competition of the Chinese machine, the maquilladora industry has taken large hits over the last 5 years. NAFTA essentially lifted a lot of tarriffs the Mexican goverment had in place but with CAFTA a lot of buisness is being taken away from Mexico and being relocated to the Central American countries. Gonso Azul through the custom work that they can produce has managed to stay afloat but overall the maquilladora system is not ass strong as it once was.

We also got a flavor of domestic policy especially with the Mexican laborer. As owners of the company, Guss and ??? have to constantly fight law suits and jump through hoops just to keep the buisness running. In Mexico, a worker can be fired but the owner/ employer of the buisness must pay 3 months pay after the initial date of firing. Laws like these seem ancient but were put into place to protect the Mexican people after the hacienda boss's used the people from slaves on the plantations. In the USA, if you are fired that is it! Mexico has not ammended these laws in some time and presents many problems for owners. Groso Azul has 550 employee's and keeping them content takes a lot of work.

Overall, I was surprised witht eh working conditions in the shop area. These type of institutions are not sweat shops and the owners have gone to many lengths to keep and maintain employees well being like A/C, bus routes to go out and pick up workers becasue out of the 550 wokers there are only about 18 car owners! Also, there is a incentive system where employess can get more pesos by showing up to work on time andhaving high effeciency rates of production. So, the minimum wage rate in Mexico which is about 5 US dollars a day is what the workers in Groso Azul make but they have many oppertunities to make much more. On average, every worker at Groso Azul is responsible for about 4 mouths at home so essntially Guss looks after 2000+ people and those extra pesos go a long way! This trip was a great way to put into the effects of world policy into the cultural and doemstic policies where buisnesses in Mexico are consantly dealing with and working towards figuring out a practical solituon so operations in the USA and elsewhere can continue to bring buisness to Mexico.