STRESS RELIEF TRAINING FOR MAQUILADORA WORKERS
If we know anything from the voices of maquiladora workers it is that they’re under a lot of stress. They work on the average 6 days per week, about 10-12 hours. They have quotas. They get yelled at by supervisors to Hurry Up! in order to meet a production schedule. Their bodies come home tired because they’ve worked sometimes a 12 hour day, for a non-living wage and if they had a supervisor who is in a bad mood they might have been told No, you can’t go to the restroom, wait until its break time. The breaks are short. They go back to Repetitive tasks that over time cause chronic pain, and lets face it — the treatment translates into them being treated not like a person but more like a cog in the wheel of production. 
It is no surprise then that they come out of the factories in a daze, their bodies eventually showing the signs of stress – carpal tunnel syndrome, chronic back and headaches, stiffness and an exhaustion that does not stop for the woman who gets home to begin the second job of taking care of her family. Constant stress is a factor in the ability of the body to fend off more serious illnesses. Unattended, the stress can be a problem for all the loved ones of the maquiladora worker, who may turn to alcohol or other forms of substance abuse (alcohol, sedatives, sugary foods) to cope. In the worse scenario the stress contributes to very serious illnesses and family violence.
One year WOB decided to introduce a big of yoga to the friends at the border who volunteer for the Comite Fronterizo de Oberas. We raised money to buy a few yoga mats and pillows and took them with a bit of basic principles for using yoga to relieve stress.
