This study will examine the effects of labor turnover in the Guatemalan maquila (assembly) industry on individual workers and their families. The research involves a three phase, longitudinal study of 450 households in three neighboring Guatemalan communities, where over half of the population works in Korean-owned assembly plants. One primary research goal is to document the strategies that households use to deal with turnover and identify those strategies that seem to be successful at minimizing adverse effects.
In the 1980s, Guatemala became one of several Latin American and Asian countries who have modified their national labor and import policies to attract maquiladora industries. Maquiladoras are factories that specialize in the finishing stages of the production of diverse merchandise, such as garments and electronic parts. These final stages are often labor intensive and require low level training and skills. They include the assembly of previously designed and cut parts, and the packing of the finished product. The earlier stages requiring higher technologies and skills take place in developed countries such as the United States, Japan, and Korea. The finished products are returned to the originating countries without paying export fees. Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Philippines, Dominican Republic, and Guatemala, among others, offer investors tariff free zones with an abundant labor force willing to work for low wages and sometimes in conditions that would be unacceptable or illegal for the workers of developed countries.
In Guatemala, many factories operate in rural areas where factory owners and managers have access to a large pool of young workers (mostly, but not exclusively, indigenous and Maya speaking) who are eager to take non-agricultural jobs. Workers are ambivalent about the new industrial jobs, which are perceived both as good economic and social opportunities but also as exploitative and difficult with long hours, unsatisfactory working condition, and high turnover. This affects both businesses and workers.
Despite the ubiquity of this situation, almost no research has explored the impact of labor turnover on poor rural workers and their families in peripheral nations. This research will help to fill that gap. By furthering understanding of turnover dynamics and by documenting the specific effects that turnover has on workers and families, the research also will highlight the factors that need to be addressed in designing programs to help families and to improve conditions for workers and businesses in the world's poorest areas.
