By Juan Montoya
Why are all the cheerleaders screaming?
A story in the local daily quotes a spokesman for the Brownsville Economic Development Corporation waxing ecstatic over landing a "big fish" like the South Korea-based CS Wind Corporation which will build a $60 million plant in Matamoros for the manufacture of metal towers and generator components for the wind turbine industry.
The BEDC said that once the plant gets going, it will have created some 400 to 700 jobs in Matamoros and perhaps indirectly account for 60 to 70 jobs on the U.S. side.
Did we miss something?
We though the BEDC stood for the Brownsville Economic Development Corporation, not the Matamoros EDC.
In other words, BEDC honchos used our money to develop the economic development of Matamoros.
To be sure, BEDC public affairs director Gilbert Salinas did say Brownsville will receive some collateral fallout in the form of indirect employment moving the finished products out of the area and into the interior of the United States.
The unabashed spokesman said that the elements that sold the Koreans on the Matamoros site were the manufacturing-based "skill set" of area workers, low pay scales and proximity to the Port of Brownsville, Salinas says.
In other words, cheap labor and cheap transportation of their products out of the area were the attractions that BEDC runners used to lure the economic-minded Asians to the border.
Salinas claims that even if the firms have physical addresses on the Mexican side, the entire region benefits.
"We work together: Brownsville, Matamoros and the port," Salinas says. "We know that we all need each other. We’re not three separate regions. We’re just one huge economic engine. This is an exciting project for the whole area."
So there's the formula: Lure the companies with cheap labor, they reap the profits from these and other inducements, and when labor costs become too much for their profit margin to bear, off they go, leaving us high and dry.
Really folks, this is the type of economic development model that we want? The college continues to turn out maquila managers under the guise of technology engineers, and the local folks (students and other workers) who cannot compete with Mexican labor must pack their bags and seek employment elsewhere.
Why are all the cheerleaders screaming?
A story in the local daily quotes a spokesman for the Brownsville Economic Development Corporation waxing ecstatic over landing a "big fish" like the South Korea-based CS Wind Corporation which will build a $60 million plant in Matamoros for the manufacture of metal towers and generator components for the wind turbine industry.
The BEDC said that once the plant gets going, it will have created some 400 to 700 jobs in Matamoros and perhaps indirectly account for 60 to 70 jobs on the U.S. side.
Did we miss something?
We though the BEDC stood for the Brownsville Economic Development Corporation, not the Matamoros EDC.
In other words, BEDC honchos used our money to develop the economic development of Matamoros.
To be sure, BEDC public affairs director Gilbert Salinas did say Brownsville will receive some collateral fallout in the form of indirect employment moving the finished products out of the area and into the interior of the United States.
The unabashed spokesman said that the elements that sold the Koreans on the Matamoros site were the manufacturing-based "skill set" of area workers, low pay scales and proximity to the Port of Brownsville, Salinas says.
In other words, cheap labor and cheap transportation of their products out of the area were the attractions that BEDC runners used to lure the economic-minded Asians to the border.
Salinas claims that even if the firms have physical addresses on the Mexican side, the entire region benefits.
"We work together: Brownsville, Matamoros and the port," Salinas says. "We know that we all need each other. We’re not three separate regions. We’re just one huge economic engine. This is an exciting project for the whole area."
So there's the formula: Lure the companies with cheap labor, they reap the profits from these and other inducements, and when labor costs become too much for their profit margin to bear, off they go, leaving us high and dry.
Really folks, this is the type of economic development model that we want? The college continues to turn out maquila managers under the guise of technology engineers, and the local folks (students and other workers) who cannot compete with Mexican labor must pack their bags and seek employment elsewhere.
1 comment:
We must stop this abuse.
We must vote
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