Sixty percent of Tehuacan s factories produce jeans for the North American market, bearing labels like Guess, Levi s, Gap and VF Corporation. While employment opportunities have increased, Techuacan s garment and textile boom and the maquila labour practices that come with it are having an enormous cultural and economic impact on the young indigenous workforce and their communities. Many young workers and their families move from small villages in the valley and nearby mountains to live in the colonias on the outskirts of the city or in dormitories run by the large apparel groups. A surprising number of young workers travel up to four hours a day between their communities in the surrounding mountains to the maquila factories in the Tehuacan Valley. Despite almost full employment, wages remain extremely low.
Child labour is common, as is the use of unregistered sewing workshops and home-based facilities.
The environmental consequences of the concentration of large apparel factories in small communities, the excessive use of water, and disposal of factory waste have yet to be calculated. Yucatan Further south, the state of Yucatan is also experiencing a major expansion in its garment export industry. Large US and Canadian lingerie manufacturers, such as Vogue, Maidenform, Sara Lee Corp and Victoria s Secret, have established plants or are contracting out production to factories north of the state capital, Merida. The state government website makes a strong case for relocating production to the Yucatan, including its pollutant-free air, production costs 50 percent lower than in the US, wages that are the most competitive in Mexico, and unions that are business friendly and limited. Right now, the Americans are coming to Mexico in order to produce and we have to do the same thing.