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Maquila expansion creates new jobs
Matamoros - The recent expansion of an automotive-switches manufacturer will create 500 new jobs and is a sign that the maquiladora construction is picking up in the area, during the  re-opening of Condura, a factory operated by Eaton Co. of Ohio.
"The growth of Condura has paralleled the grow of the city. We are witnessing how this company has been growing and creating jobs," Mayor Homar Zamorano said, adding that the multimillion-dollar expansion was a vote of confidence for Matamoros on the part of foreign investors.
Condura is the latest in a string of maquilas that have expanded operations at Ciudad Industrial, an industrial park housing 40 plants and employing 12,000 people.
"The new plant comes from the seeds we planted a while back," said Rick Schwemer, general manager for the three plants Eaton operates in Matamoros. "It isn't that easy to be in this type of business for the past 25 years and and expanding as the world market keeps getting more and more competitive."
Eaton currently employs 1,800 people in Matamoros, according to Terrence Boudreau, their human resources manager.
Jorge Guerra, director of the Matamoros Committee for Economic Development, said both Brownsville and Matamoros are experiencing commercial and industrial growth.
"Last year we saw the construction of 650,000 square feet of industrial space. We are optimistic that this  year will be good for both cities," he said.
Guerra admitted that Reynosa has lured most of the new maquilas that have come to the area in recent years, but he said that trend is changing.
According to the January-September 1998 economic report from the El Paso branch of the Federal Reserve Bank in Dallas, maquiladora jobs increased in both Matamoros and the Reynosa-Rio Bravo areas.
A total of 55,378 people worked at Matamoros maquiladoras at the end of that reporting period - a nine percent increase over the previous year. That compares to the 55,659 people employed at maquiladoras in Reynosa and Rio Bravo, which represented a 15.45 percent increase over the previous year.