McAllen is more like an American city, with a Mexican city nearby. In 1989, TRW made King an offer he ultimately refused. But King liked McAllen and so did his family. So, he struck out on his own, founding Am-Mex Products, a shelter operation that sets up maquila assembly operations for companies that lack the expertise or the risk initiative to do the job themselves. Despite the closeness of the two countries, managing Mexican workers is a challenging task, King concedes.
Mexican workers are great.
They are like sponges - they want to learn everything. But crossing the border is like visiting a different world. And many times, particularly with workers from the interior, after working for a while, they want to go back home. King estimates a monthly turnover rate of about 4 percent to 5 percent among his employees. It's the never-ending poverty, said a grandmother, who arrived in Reynosa from Veracruz more than 30 years ago.