Women on the Border

Who We Are

Women on the Border, Inc., is a 501c3 nonprofit educational organization whose mission is to advance awareness about the conditions for workers and families in the maquiladoras at the Mexican border and to support the empowerment of working women.

All of the materials on this website are aimed at helping researchers, activists and allies of workers in the struggle for fair and just treatment in the global factories of the world. We do not identify some workers by last name in places where reprisal may ensue from publicizing their concerns about injustice in the maquiladoras.

What is a maquiladora and where are they located?

     The term “maquiladora” has been equated with “sweatshop.” It is a place where workers get no respect, where they are treated like machines not humans, where they often have to  use toxic chemicals without proper safety gear.  The chemicals or machinery sometimes makes them sick or causes grave injury or even death.   Sick workers are often told they are crazy, the chemicals “aren’t making you sick.”  Some working women get sexually harassed or lose benefits or get suspended without pay for taking time off to care for a sick child or family member.   Maquiladora workers usually cannot organize collectively in order to seek better wages or working conditions.  Typically the worker who complains is labelled “buscapleitos” (troublemaker).   She is fired, and then she is blacklisted by all the maquiladoras in town.
                                                                    

The wages of a maquiladora worker forces her to raise a family in poor, unsafe housing.

Announcement: This is a new website produced by CleverWaif.com.  We appreciate your patience as we transfer materials from  the old website.  Thank you, the Editor.