Mexico plants unable to tap migrant flood heading north

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Chris Hawley

Republic Mexico City Bureau

MEXICO CITY - Factories on the Mexican side of the border are battling a labor shortage and say they have failed miserably in their attempts to hire some of the thousands of migrants flowing toward the United States.

Companies in Nogales, Juarez, Reynosa and other border cities are sending recruiters hundreds of miles to hunt for workers in southern Mexico. Many are offering signing bonuses, housing and even free lunches to lure employees.

"There just aren't enough workers here," said Abel Anaya, manager of the Weiser Lock plant in Nogales, Sonora, on the Arizona border.

Weiser Lock has sent recruiters to Chiapas, a Mexican state 1,400 miles away, and to Veracruz state, on the Atlantic Ocean. About 150 of the plant's 600 employees are from out of state, he said.

Most migrants turn up their noses at Mexican factory jobs, which typically pay unskilled workers less than 120 pesos ($11.30) a day. Migrants know that they can earn five or six times as much just across the border in the United States. Mexican companies say they can't afford to raise their wages because they are competing with assembly plants in China and India, where the pay is even lower.

In June, Mexican President Vicente Fox estimated the labor shortage on the border at 100,000 workers. John Christman, an expert on Mexican manufacturing with the Global Insight consulting firm, said the crunch has eased somewhat since then, as assembly plants known as maquiladoras enter their slowest time of the year. But the shortage is still about 60,000 workers, he said.

Juarez alone needs 10,000 factory workers, said Jorge Pedrosa, director of the local maquiladora association. Tijuana needs 4,000 to 5,000, according to Luis Alberto Pelayo, his counterpart in that city.

Some factories have had to turn down contracts because they cannot keep up with the workload, they said.

In many places, Mexican companies have launched programs to recruit some of the hundreds of migrants deported daily by U.S. authorities.

Nogales is a prime example. The city lies in the middle of the most popular corridor for Mexicans headed illegally to the United States. The U.S. Border Patrol's Tucson Sector made more than 380,000 arrests from Oct. 1, 2005 to Sept. 15.

Most of the detainees are put onto buses and released just across the border, in downtown Nogales.

During the peak summer season, when factories in Nogales were struggling to fill 2,000 openings, company recruiters and state employment officials greeted the buses.

Migrants were offered a month of free room and board if they would take jobs on the Mexican side, said Jesus Montoya, executive director of the Sonora Maquiladora Association.

Only about 300 migrants accepted. Most of the others planned to cross the border again, Montoya said.

"We talked with them, we offered them work, we offered them dormitories, and the response was absolutely minimal," said Mario Echeverría, human resources manager for Sonitronies, a staffing company in Nogales, Sonora.

But part of the problem is that Mexican maquiladoras increasingly need skilled workers, which are harder to find, company officials say.

During the 2000-01 economic slump, many U.S. companies moved manual factory work, such as clothing manufacturing, from Mexico to China to cut costs.

Mexican factories became more automated, creating a demand for machinery operators, computer technicians and engineers.

"The people who are repatriated don't fall within the profile we are looking for," said Arnulfo Castro, personnel manager for Columbus Industries, a maker of air filters in Juarez.

Because factories are having to do more training, many are offering bonuses to new hires who stay for three months, and another bonus if they stay for a year, Castro said.

At the same time, they are turning away people who don't have high school diplomas or who cannot pass basic math and reading tests.

"Mexico's problem is not creating jobs, it's having trained people to occupy those jobs," President Fox told The Republic during an interview in June. "Education, teaching and training will become vital to fill those jobs."

Edited November 4, 2006 by Steven_and_Jinky

[Marc and Olga 0]

Chris Hawley

Republic Mexico City Bureau

Nogales is a prime example. The city lies in the middle of the most popular corridor for Mexicans headed illegally to the United States. The U.S. Border Patrol's Tucson Sector made more than 380,000 arrests from Oct. 1, 2005 to Sept. 15.

Most of the detainees are put onto buses and released just across the border, in downtown Nogales.

"Mexico's problem is not creating jobs, it's having trained people to occupy those jobs," President Fox told The Republic during an interview in June. "Education, teaching and training will become vital to fill those jobs."

And what is Mexico doing to improve their education system "to fill those jobs"?

[peejay 327]

Nogales is a prime example. The city lies in the middle of the most popular corridor for Mexicans headed illegally to the United States. The U.S. Border Patrol's Tucson Sector made more than 380,000 arrests from Oct. 1, 2005 to Sept. 15.

Most of the detainees are put onto buses and released just across the border, in downtown Nogales.

Hopefully the first of the 700 miles of double layer border fence gets put up there. Sounds like it needs it.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Nogales is a prime example. The city lies in the middle of the most popular corridor for Mexicans headed illegally to the United States. The U.S. Border Patrol's Tucson Sector made more than 380,000 arrests from Oct. 1, 2005 to Sept. 15.

Most of the detainees are put onto buses and released just across the border, in downtown Nogales.

Hopefully the first of the 700 miles of double layer border fence gets put up there. Sounds like it needs it.

How about we stop this unfair trading with China and India? It's stupid to ignore that as one of the major factors. You can't have competitive factory jobs with Chinese prisoners. Why do we keep trading with China???

[dalegg 143]

How about we stop this unfair trading with China and India? It's stupid to ignore that as one of the major factors. You can't have competitive factory jobs with Chinese prisoners. Why do we keep trading with China???

That's right. We should refuse to buy anything made in China until they raise their prices!

[one...two...tree 2,762]

How about we stop this unfair trading with China and India? It's stupid to ignore that as one of the major factors. You can't have competitive factory jobs with Chinese prisoners. Why do we keep trading with China???

That's right. We should refuse to buy anything made in China until they raise their prices!

No... read below...

NEEDED: FAIR TRADE WITH CHINA

America has lost 2.6 million manufacturing jobs since March 2000. Any unemployed, laid-off or worried worker in central Wisconsin can tell you all about it, since our many large and small factories are key to our region's prosperity.

Who or what is to blame?

A lot of people think the problem is low-wage foreign competition, and there's no doubt that this has an effect. But it's less than most people think.

Consider an example cited by Stuart Taylor, Jr., in the October 11th issue of National Journal. Taylor has a friend whose company manufactures computer servers and pays his employees $21 an hour while his Chinese competitors pay 20 cents an hour.

That sounds like a recipe for disaster for the American business, but in fact, according to this manufacturer, "It costs more to ship a server from China to the U.S. by air - which they have to do for reasons of time - than the labor savings, because assembly labor is only about two percent of the finished product. And we can be quicker because we're closer to the market."

Why, then, do the Chinese products cost 20 to 30 percent less than the American company's? The answer isn't low wages - it's currency manipulation. Instead of letting the free market determine the value of the Chinese yuan relative to the U.S. dollar, the Beijing government has pegged the yuan at a level which economists believe is 15 percent to 40 percent below what it ought to be.

As a result, U.S. products cost 15 to 40 percent more than they should in China, and Chinese products cost 15 to 40 percent less than they should in the U.S. It's a situation the Chinese can't sustain in the long run - selling goods for less than they are worth while paying more for things ultimately results in inefficient investment and reduced growth.

In the short run, however, the results can be attractive to a government under pressure. So, with considerable unemployment and social unrest in China, the government there has decided to make a devil's bargain in order to boost employment today while hoping that facing the long run damage can be put off as long as possible.

For us, it's all very nice that we're able to buy so many goods dirt cheap, but not at the expense of American industries which are efficient and which would be prospering except that the Chinese are violating the spirit - and arguably the letter - of its international trade obligations.

In response, I've cosponsored H.R. 3058, a bill which would require the Treasury Secretary to determine whether China is manipulating its currency to gain a trade advantage. If manipulation is found, the bill requires tariffs equal to the degree of manipulation.

We need to be cautious about raising tariffs since nearly 200,000 jobs in Wisconsin depend on the export of manufactured products. A trade war would hurt everybody. But we need to pressure the Chinese government to move away from its unfair currency manipulation as quickly as possible.

http://www.house.gov/petri/weekly/oct10_03.htm

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

Nogales is a prime example. The city lies in the middle of the most popular corridor for Mexicans headed illegally to the United States. The U.S. Border Patrol's Tucson Sector made more than 380,000 arrests from Oct. 1, 2005 to Sept. 15.

Most of the detainees are put onto buses and released just across the border, in downtown Nogales.

Hopefully the first of the 700 miles of double layer border fence gets put up there. Sounds like it needs it.

How about we stop this unfair trading with China and India? It's stupid to ignore that as one of the major factors. You can't have competitive factory jobs with Chinese prisoners. Why do we keep trading with China???

So we buy cheap sh!t at the Wal-Mart. Oooh, gotta go. Something I don't need is 50% off at WalMart.

[dalegg 143]

That's right. We should refuse to buy anything made in China until they raise their prices!

No... read below...

It seems to me your quoted opinion is making my point:

Why, then, do the Chinese products cost 20 to 30 percent less than the American company's? The answer isn't low wages - it's currency manipulation. Instead of letting the free market determine the value of the Chinese yuan relative to the U.S. dollar, the Beijing government has pegged the yuan at a level which economists believe is 15 percent to 40 percent below what it ought to be.

As a result, U.S. products cost 15 to 40 percent more than they should in China, and Chinese products cost 15 to 40 percent less than they should in the U.S. It's a situation the Chinese can't sustain in the long run - selling goods for less than they are worth while paying more for things ultimately results in inefficient investment and reduced growth.

The way I read it, he's basically saying they are underpricing their goods by understanding the value of their currency, and in reality they should be charging more for their goods, which means we should be paying more.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

That's right. We should refuse to buy anything made in China until they raise their prices!

No... read below...

It seems to me your quoted opinion is making my point:

Why, then, do the Chinese products cost 20 to 30 percent less than the American company's? The answer isn't low wages - it's currency manipulation. Instead of letting the free market determine the value of the Chinese yuan relative to the U.S. dollar, the Beijing government has pegged the yuan at a level which economists believe is 15 percent to 40 percent below what it ought to be.

As a result, U.S. products cost 15 to 40 percent more than they should in China, and Chinese products cost 15 to 40 percent less than they should in the U.S. It's a situation the Chinese can't sustain in the long run - selling goods for less than they are worth while paying more for things ultimately results in inefficient investment and reduced growth.

The way I read it, he's basically saying they are underpricing their goods by understanding the value of their currency, and in reality they should be charging more for their goods, which means we should be paying more.

So then you understand that it's not as simple as Uncle Sam rigging the price you pay for things...it's about fair trade - which is what I am talking about. Do you agree we need fair trade with China?

Edited November 5, 2006 by Steven_and_Jinky

[Heracles 417]

And what is Mexico doing to improve their education system "to fill those jobs"?

Promoting they go to the US and burden their tax payers..

So then you understand that it's not as simple as Uncle Sam rigging the price you pay for things...it's about fair trade - which is what I am talking about. Do you agree we need fair trade with China?

Will China participate? They are still communist after all..

Edited November 5, 2006 by Infidel

[peejay 327]

Nogales is a prime example. The city lies in the middle of the most popular corridor for Mexicans headed illegally to the United States. The U.S. Border Patrol's Tucson Sector made more than 380,000 arrests from Oct. 1, 2005 to Sept. 15.

Most of the detainees are put onto buses and released just across the border, in downtown Nogales.

Hopefully the first of the 700 miles of double layer border fence gets put up there. Sounds like it needs it.

How about we stop this unfair trading with China and India? It's stupid to ignore that as one of the major factors. You can't have competitive factory jobs with Chinese prisoners. Why do we keep trading with China???

As long as corporate America and the globalists have a bigger voice in government than the People...I don't see it happening. It is the major reason illegal immigration from Mexico has been allowed to flourish.

Ship jobs overseas and import cheaper labor for stuff that can't be outsourced. It doesn't bode well for most Americans. It is short term profits that will eventually cause long term grief when it finally crashes.

[dalegg 143]

So then you understand that it's not as simple as Uncle Sam rigging the price you pay for things...it's about fair trade - which is what I am talking about. Do you agree we need fair trade with China?

Whenever you use the word "fair" in any term, it's hard to argue against it, but I'm worried about what that means exactly.

Let's say what the author of your speech wants to happen gets to happen. So prices of U.S goods go down in China, and prices of Chinese goods go up in the U.S. and presumadly the rest of the world.

If the world ends up paying more for Chinese goods, we're probably going to end up buying less off them. And if we buy less, China will make less, and therefore they will need less workers. So now you've got a couple million more unemployed Chinese poeple, and while this seems to be a sort of humanitarian crisis to me, it also means there is that many less people in China buying foreign goods (assuming they are anyway). I wonder on their salaries if they are really even going to buy American made goods even if they are 15 to 40% cheaper.

Ultimately we will still be able to buy cheap goods because there are plenty of poor countries out there who aren't undervaluing their currency that would be more than happy to take over. Is an unemployed China really what we want?

[Marc and Olga 0]

Funny how the original article says Mexico cannot fill the jobs it has but someone (not mentioning any names) makes that out to be China's fault?!

I still don't understand how China's pricing effects Mexico's inability to fill thousands of jobs it already has that no one is willing to work...because they can walk across the border and earn more!

About the fence and Nogales....Nogales HAS a wall cutting through it, I have not seen either end of it but I have seen the wall there...(It's the closet Mexican city to Tucson)

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Funny how the original article says Mexico cannot fill the jobs it has but someone (not mentioning any names) makes that out to be China's fault?!

I still don't understand how China's pricing effects Mexico's inability to fill thousands of jobs it already has that no one is willing to work...because they can walk across the border and earn more!

About the fence and Nogales....Nogales HAS a wall cutting through it, I have not seen either end of it but I have seen the wall there...(It's the closet Mexican city to Tucson)

Marc, I'm actually surprised that you fail to see the cause and effects of unfair global trading - and China being the largest player. You can talk about stopping illegals from crossing over until you're blue in the face, but until we are willing to address the issue of fair trade, any attempt to curtail illegal immigration will be futile.

(from Economist's View)

Mexico has shed nearly 30% of its farm jobs since the trade pact went into effect, according to government statistics. That translates into 2.8 million farmers and millions more of their dependents fleeing their fields. Some have taken subsistence jobs in Mexico's cities, but many have relocated to the U.S. ....

NAFTA experts say negotiators from Mexico and the U.S. knew that rural families ... would be hard hit by the trade deal. The bet was that many of them would find work in Mexico's burgeoning maquiladora export factories. But ... Mexico has lost more than four times as many farm jobs over the last 12 years as it gained in export manufacturing positions, in part because of relentless competition from China...

http://economistsview.typepad.com/economis..._and_illeg.html

NAFTA was sold to the American public as the magic formula that would improve the American economy at the same time it would raise up the impoverished Mexican economy. The time has come to look at the failures of this type of trade agreement before we engage in more and lower the economic prospects of all workers affected.

While there has been some media coverage of NAFTA's ruinous impact on US industrial communities, there has been even less media attention paid to its catastrophic effects in Mexico:

* NAFTA, by permitting heavily-subsidized US corn and other agri-business products to compete with small Mexican farmers, has driven the Mexican farmer off the land due to low-priced imports of US corn and other agricultural products. Some 2 million Mexicans have been forced out of agriculture, and many of those that remain are living in desperate poverty. These people are among those that cross the border to feed their families. (Meanwhile, corn-based tortilla prices climbed by 50%. No wonder many so Mexican peasants have called NAFTA their 'death warrant.'

* NAFTA's service-sector rules allowed big firms like Wal-Mart to enter the Mexican market and, selling low-priced goods made by ultra-cheap labor in China, to displace locally-based shoe, toy, and candy firms. An estimated 28,000 small and medium-sized Mexican businesses have been eliminated.

* Wages along the Mexican border have actually been driven down by about 25% since NAFTA, reported a Carnegie Endowment study. An over-supply of workers, combined with the crushing of union organizing drives as government policy, has resulted in sweatshop pay running sweatshops along the border where wages typically run 60 cents to $1 an hour.

So rather than improving living standards, Mexican wages have actually fallen since NAFTA. The initial growth in the number of jobs has leveled off, with China's even more repressive labor system luring US firms to locate there instead.

http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0425-30.htm

So then you understand that it's not as simple as Uncle Sam rigging the price you pay for things...it's about fair trade - which is what I am talking about. Do you agree we need fair trade with China?

Whenever you use the word "fair" in any term, it's hard to argue against it, but I'm worried about what that means exactly.

Let's say what the author of your speech wants to happen gets to happen. So prices of U.S goods go down in China, and prices of Chinese goods go up in the U.S. and presumadly the rest of the world.

If the world ends up paying more for Chinese goods, we're probably going to end up buying less off them. And if we buy less, China will make less, and therefore they will need less workers. So now you've got a couple million more unemployed Chinese poeple, and while this seems to be a sort of humanitarian crisis to me, it also means there is that many less people in China buying foreign goods (assuming they are anyway). I wonder on their salaries if they are really even going to buy American made goods even if they are 15 to 40% cheaper.

Ultimately we will still be able to buy cheap goods because there are plenty of poor countries out there who aren't undervaluing their currency that would be more than happy to take over. Is an unemployed China really what we want?

We can't have a robust economy unless we protect our economic interests which includes jobs. So far, the only ones truly benefitting from a global economy are the Big Corporations who's profits are at an all time high. While the costs of products will go up, our economy will be stronger with more higher paying jobs thereby increasing the overall standard of living for Americans. It will also reduce or greatly diminish the influx of illegal immigrants coming from Mexico because we would be doing more importing from our neighbors as they are able to compete with China and India.

Edited November 5, 2006 by Steven_and_Jinky

[Saddle Bronc 124]

This basically belies the infamous promises about NAFTA "creating 1 crore jobs" (maybe that many migraines for Canadians working on it, including myself prior to 1999).