Managing a labor strike at a maquiladora industry ‐ A case study

ABC Consumer Electronics is headquartered in the USA, with major operations in Mexico. During the Mexican peso devaluation and economic crisis of late 1994, the company faced the greatest labor problem of its long history. The workers’ purchasing power was reduced to nearly one‐half of its value before the crisis. Other underlying and un‐addressed problems at ABC were brought to surface by workers who found themselves incapable of providing the basic necessities of life for themselves and their families. This paper explores the manner in which ABC handled the strike, how the strike affected ABC’s operations and strategies; and the impact of ABC’s decisions on other maquiladoras in Juarez, Mexico is fully explained and delineated. The case’s arguments are supported by the collection of field‐based data, the company’s archival records, numerous interviews, and the US and Mexican statistical abstracts.