Romney stated clearly that he wanted to have more NAFTA style trade agreements and to have more manufacturing south of the US border. People like him and his Bain colleagues stand to make fortunes by pocketing money that should go to working people.
This apparently flies right past everyone.
Little about what it means to move manufacturing out of American communities, and out from under the protections for workers in American law ever reaches us. Certainly this is true of our own US/Mexico border.
Please take a minute to check out this website that I put together with Austin, Tx photographer Alan Pogue, about one particular woman who made flat screen TVs and computer monitors in a factory owned by LG/Zenith in Reynosa. Check this out, and please share it. We need to get this out.
Why do multinational investors put manufacturing plants in places like this? Because they pocket the difference between adequate wages and really low wages, and between adequate benefits and no benefits. What does that mean in real terms?
Check out this one story:
http://www.documentaryphotographs.com/...
Rosa's husband also worked in the maquiladoras, and like many others, was exposed to toxic chemicals. In his case, he lost intellectual function and became disabled. There is no Social Security disability support under NAFTA as there is in the US.
The conditions many of these people live in are pretty horrendous.
If you Google this subject area, you realize that most of the concern is about evaluating consumer products, not the conditions under which these products are manufactured.
Labor organizing under NAFTA is nearly impossible.
Isn't it about time we got more interested in pressing candidates like Romney about this and spreading what awareness we can through the blogosphere?
Please help share the URL around.
People like Romney profit from the margin of difference made possible by exploiting the most vulnerable workers.