Juárez maquilas need workers

By Louie Gilot / El Paso Times
El Paso Times

JUAREZ -- There was a time in Juárez when recruiting at maquiladoras meant placing a "vacantes," or vacancies, banner on the plant itself and candidates would appear. This is not that time.

Human resource administrators at maquilas these days scour neighborhoods with loudspeakers, hire older workers and bus workers from as far as the state of Chiapas, at the southernmost tip of Mexico.

AMAC, the Juárez maquiladora association, reported a shortage of 8,000 to 10,000 operadores, or line workers, in Juárez due to the arrival of large new plants in the past two years and the aggressive expansion of these plants and others. Recently, for example, Electrolux AB, maker of refrigerators in South Juárez, needed to add 850 employees to its 2,000-person staff in less than two months.

As Juárez continues to attract maquilas, the staffing problem is bound to become more prominent, experts said

Plants are making the best of a saturated work force by hiring older workers -- in the maquila world, it means workers older than 30 or 35 -- and doing away with most education requirements.

In general, workers see Juárez as a place of opportunity, but are also apprehensive because of the city's reputation for violence.