A Voice of the 'Outsourced'

(03/31/04) Widespread concern over the outsourcing of jobs to other countries has put free trade agreements like NAFTA at the center of the political debate in America. One product of NAFTA has been a vast corporate industrial zone along the U.S.-Mexico border, where low wages, intense pollution, birth defects and other health problems are well-documented. The factories there are called 'maquiladoras'. David Sommerstein spoke with Martha Ojeda, a second generation maquiladora worker, who directs Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras. She is giving talks this week as a part of SUNY Potsdam's Crossing Borders festival. She describes conditions at a SONY factory she worked at in 1994, when the NAFTA agreement was signed.