The Unionization of the Maquiladora Industry: the Tamaulipas Case in National Context, by Edward J. Williams and John T. Passé-Smith, San Diego: Institute for regional Studies of the Californias, San Diego State University, 1992. XV + 134 p, Reviews/Reseñas/Rio Bravo, 1992, vol. 2, n. 1. Book review by John Barzman

John Barzman

► To cite this version:

John Barzman. The Unionization of the Maquiladora Industry: the Tamaulipas Case in National Context, by Edward J. Williams and John T. Passé-Smith, San Diego: Institute for regional Studies of the Californias, San Diego State University, 1992. XV + 134 p, Reviews/Reseñas/Rio Bravo, 1992, vol. 2, n. 1. Book review by John Barzman. Rio Bravo, A Journal of Borderlands, 1992, 2 (1), pp.133-135. halshs-01083035

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*The Unionization of the Maquiladora Industry: The Tamaulipan Case in National Context.* By Edward J. Williams and John T. Passé-Smith. San Diego: Institute for Regional Studies of the Californias, San Diego State University, CA 92182-0435, 1992. xv +134 pp.

Shortly after Williams and Passé-Smith finished their book, Mexican federal agents arrested Agapito González Cavazos, the seventy-seven year old head of the Matamoros Union of Journey-men and Industrial Workers, and whisked him off to Mexico City (see James Pinkerton, "Labor Don Under Siege." *Houston Chronicle* 3.29.92, p. 21A). Williams and Passé-Smith explain some of the stakes in the spectacular investigation of the main Matamoros labor union launched in January 1992. The action continues President Salinas de Gortari's clamp down on major unions, a famous episode of which was the arrest of "La Quina," the oil workers' union leader, and is widely seen as an effort to demonstrate to potential investors that the Mexican government is prepared to break with its long-time political allies in order to insure a climate favorable to business in the border industrialization zone.

The question that arises is why the Mexican government was led to take action against the Matamoros union in particular, rather than against any of the other border town unions. The official reason, that a long-standing charge of fiscal fraud finally had to be investigated, is not sufficient: there are obviously many other cases of alleged tax evasion and the federal bureaucracy is not known for the rapidity of its procedures. Passé-Smith and Williams offer some statistics that suggest the Matamoros union was different from its sister unions in other Tamaulipan border cities.

Starting from overall figures of unionization along the Mexican side of the border, the two sociologists are led to distinguish apparently similar union situations by finer criteria describing the varying relations between the unions, their membership, industry and the government. They establish these distinctions through interviews with maquiladora workers and a review of the recent history of city politics.

The state of Tamaulipas first attracted their attention because its three major maquiladora concentrations (Nuevo Laredo,
Reynosa and Matamoros) all displayed very high rates of union
membership (close to 100% organized), compared to states further
west (Coahuila to Baja California Norte). Although their initial
hypothesis was that the three Tamaulipan unions shared the features
of a strong labor movement, their investigation led them to separate
the Matamoros union from the other two. In Matamoros, the union
appeared closer to its membership and more militant in the face of
new demands by the employers. By contrast, the Nuevo Laredo
union was "slavish" and the Reynosa union caving in to the employers.

The authors frame their case study of Tamaulipas with an
extensive overview of recent trends in the Mexican government's
policy towards labor in general and maquiladora unions in particu-
lar. The many types of relations between unions and management
are described and the conclusion examines the somewhat gloomy
prospects for labor in the border area.

The authors surveyed two hundred and twenty-one workers.
The statistics they construct from this sample are successful in
bringing out the general feelings of the workers and establishing the
distinction between Matamoros and the other two Tamaulipan
towns. Some of the questions asked, however, may have been very
sensitive and additional material describing the exact context in
which they were asked could shed more light on their significance:
were the interviewees chosen through firm employee lists, through
the union or through neighborhood networks; how effectively were
they protected from retaliation by union leaders and employers; at
what stage of contract negotiations were they questioned? More-
over, the reader thirsts for a more complete history of the local labor
and neighborhood movements that shaped the social climate in
which the survey was conducted. The situation in Matamoros has
already changed in many ways since this book was finished. For
instance, one wonders, in light of the above-mentioned arrest of
"Agapito," whether the Matamoros interviewees would answer in
the same fashion today the questions asked them last year about
their confidence in the Mexican government.

The book is valuable as an update on industrial relations in
the northern border area. The existence of trade unions with the
avowed mission of defending the wages and working conditions of
maquiladora workers is too often forgotten in discussions of Mexico's
industrialization program and the North American Free Trade
Agreement. Williams and Passé-Smith remind us that these unions
encompass a wide range of situations and are subject to significant
change over time. Their work confirms once again that the real state
of labor relations cannot be deducted from overall unionization
statistics but requires, to be truly understood, both sociological
surveys and a careful study of the historical past and social context.
As a detailed picture of the recent situation in Tamaulipas, it is therefore a
welcome contribution to a broader study of labor along the border.

John Barzman

The University of Texas-Pan American

Entre Yerba, Polvo y Plomo: Lo Fronterizo Visto Por El Cine Mexicano, Volumen I & Volumen II. By Norma Iglesias. Tijuana, Baja California: El Colegio de la Frontera Norte, 1991. 156 pp. (vol. 1), 224 pp. (vol. 2).

As interest in the border increases in both the United States
and Mexico, so does the realization that the region encompasses a
distinct reality that is as much cultural as geographical. Norma
Iglesias' two-volume cinematic history focuses on how the border
has been perceived and interpreted in the history of the Mexican
cinema. Ms. Iglesias, whose previous books have focused on a
range of border issues, shows how the *frontera* or border has played
a part in Mexican cinema practically since the latter's inception.

The title of both volumes is taken from a movie with the
same name (albeit slightly different spelling) and highlights a popu-
lar theme in current border films–drug trafficking, with its attendant
emphasis on marijuana (*yerba*), heroin and/or cocaine (*polvo*) and
melodrama riddled with bullets (*plomo*). This is just one of several
cinematic scenarios of the border, and the author’s first volume
documents the different eras that have attempted to portray–although
at times stereotype seems more accurate–the border experience on
celluloid.

In addition to a historical introduction to the topic, the first
volume aims for a more complex appreciation of the circumstances