Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Dev]

Before you buy anything made by Samsung, find out where it's been manufactured or YOU'RE HELPING TO CREATE A PROBLEM.

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/special/2007/07/177_5875.html

Workers in Mexico�s maquiladoras (factories), including Samsung and Hyundai, are forced to work long hours under hazardous conditions for little pay. Placida Lopez, a maquiladora worker, looks after her newborn in her one room shack.
/ Courtesy of C. McCarthy

By Simon Phillips

TIJUANA, Mexico _ A family of six migrant workers huddle together in a makeshift shack; one of thousands which cling to the harsh desert and existence itself, within a stone�s throw of their employers _ Korean factories.

Samsung Corp. and Hyundai Corp. each employ over a thousand Mexican workers in their ``maquiladoras�� _ foreign-owned factories which line the U.S.-Mexico border.

In these factories, people work a six-day week of gruelling 10-hour shifts for a wage less than $2 an hour. It is these workers who produce Samsung�s new K3MP3 players and plasma-screen TVs, which people in richer parts of the world enjoy in relative comfort.

Whilst we can afford these consumer luxuries, workers in maquiladoras cannot afford to feed and clothe their families. The low wages earned in the factories do not go far and as the companies do not provide a welfare service for their employees or pay any local taxes, overwhelming housing and health problems exist here.

The view across the slums where the workers live is apocalyptic. Thick pollution from factories fills the air above small semi-permanent dwellings made from scraps of wood.

There are none of the facilities that we take for granted here: no running water or sewerage, let alone a safe place for children to play. People empty human waste and rubbish directly on to the land. Existence here is a matter of survival.

``Of all the places I�ve been in the world, Tijuana is among the poorest,�� said Mother Theresa of Mexico�s notorious north-westernmost city, which borders the seventh richest economy in the world: California.

The Border Industrialisation Program allows foreign companies such as Hyundai and Samsung to import parts to Mexico tariff free, where they are assembled by a low-wage workforce, before being shipped to consumers in countries including the U.S. and Korea.

Effectively, these companies have cut costs by transferring high paying jobs in Korea to low paying jobs in Mexico. The term ``maquiladora,�� refers to the practice of millers charging a ``maquila�� or ``miller�s portion�� for processing other people�s grain. The Mexican people are not the one�s earning the maquila and they are suffering for it.

``Rats, mice, tarantulas and scorpions invade shacks built directly on top of the dirt and make-shift homes collapse in high winds. Respiratory and bronchial ailments abound every winter; babies have frozen to death and fire claims lives every year,�� according to Paula Clauson of Project Mercy, a charity working in the Colonias.

As underemployed Mexicans continue to stream north in search of work in the maquiladoras, the situation in the Colonias continues to deteriorate.

``The health and environmental hazards here are enormous and multiply every month as more people come to the region,�� explains Clauson who went on to say, �The area is ripe for disease and disaster from flooding. There are no homeless or temporary shelters and no soup kitchens for the hungry.��

Various international processes can be pointed to for the situation here: the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (FTA), which effectively forced 1.5 million Mexicans to give up farming, as they were unable to meet the price of corn produced by massively subsidised U.S. agribusinesses; the foreign companies who take advantage of vulnerable people looking for work; and the Mexican government who holds the status quo. But what is important to you, the reader?

It is necessary for the public to know that people living in these terrible conditions made some of the products they buy. When you become aware of how your actions indirectly affect others, buying trends can change.

Perhaps then companies will see fit to provide better salaries and welfare for their workers. It is from the level of the individual consumer that change can occur.

South Koreans are known for their stance on political issues, especially regarding bilateral trade. This same attitude and awareness is a powerful tool that can change the lives of people suffering around the world, including the people who work in Tijuana�s maquiladoras.

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[itaewonguy]

koreans are notorious for treating 3D workers bad..
they even treat Koreans bad..