Despite holding jobs producing high-tech electronic devices, appliances and automobiles, many Mexican workers can barely provide for their families. The Mexican maquiladora industry, which consists of factories close to border that produce for foreign companies, began forty years ago. In that time, few workers have earned enough to become middle class, and many wages have not risen in years. Wages are kept low by finding workers from poorer parts of Mexico, as well as keeping workers from organizing labor unions. Those workers who are represented by unions say that they often appease management or are company-controlled.
See "Mexico's 'maquiladora' labor system keeps workers in poverty", Tim Johnson, Kansas City Star, June 17, 2012