Juarez, Mexico

A 2009 study from the Mexican non-profit Citizen Council for Public Security and Justice found that Juarez, Mexico was the most dangerous city in the world. A grisly drug war has claimed at least 7,800 lives in the city since 2008.

Despite beheadings, public shoot-outs and widespread police corruption, Juarez is a great place to invest. There are some 330 factories, or maquiladoras, in Juarez directly employing about 187,000 workers. While the industry was hit by the global recession of 2008 and forced to lay off workers, growth rebounded to around five per cent in 2010, despite violence. Some 24,000 jobs were created in Juarez between June 2009 and July 2010, according to statistcs from the Mexican Social Security Institute. Factories in Juarez produce cars, electronics, chemicals and other labour intensive manufactured goods for the US market. Much of the city’s success as a manufacturing hub is linked to its proximity to the US, the world’s largest market, and low wages paid in the city.

"Most companies who invest here are attracted by [the North American Free Trade Agreement" which allows most goods manufactured in Mexico to enter the US without tariffs, says Ruiz, the business lobbyist. About 80 per cent of Mexico's exports are destined for the US. "China has been investing here, because we are closer to the US,"

Today, average monthly wages in Mexico are lower than China. Workers in the factories usually earn less than $100 per week in a city where prices for basic goods are not much lower than the US. While wages are low, a decent hotel in Juarez actually cost me more than in El Paso, on the US side of the border. Gasoline is also more expensive in Juarez than in the US, although food is somewhat cheaper on the Mexican side. Still, low wages in Juarez are not balanced with lower prices. Juarez-El Paso Now, a trade magazine says the average monthly salary in Mexico was $372 in 2009, compared with $379 in China, $961 in Turkey and $2,955 in the US.

Gustavo Calderon Rodriguez, a professor of economics at the Autonomous University of Chihuahua in Juarez, thinks there is a link between low wages and violence in the city. "People making low wages look to the informal economy and illicit activity like drug distribution," he says. "Free trade has led to a major concentration of wealth in the hands of a small group. I wouldn''t question the neoliberal model if it created high salary jobs, but in real terms, these are jobs with very low salaries."

The vast majority of manufacturing plants in Juarez are not unionised. Plants are often subcontractors for other manufacturers, so if workers were to organise, production contracts would simply be changed to a non-union firm.
"Right now labour rights are not a priority," says Elizabeth Avalos of the Centro de Estudios y Taller Laboral , a workers rights centre in Juarez. "Workers fear that if they complain about anything they will lose their jobs or be thrown to the assassins."

Taken from here