WORK CONDITIONS IN AGROINDUSTRY. INDIGENOUS FEMALE FARMWORKERS IN NORTHWEST MEXICO
WORK CONDITIONS IN AGROINDUSTRY. INDIGENOUS FEMALE FARMWORKERS IN NORTHWEST MEXICO

Summary/Abstract: This article presents results from research conducted among migrant indigenous female farmworkers. We analyse social inequality by focusing on the work conditions imposed by agroindustries. Seen as a process, labour conditions articulate several factors, such as hiring practices and forms of payment linked to the restructuring of horticultural production, and fluctuations in demand from the North American market for these export products. Structural determinants regarding employment, precarious labour conditions and increased poverty, linked to the little value given to the labour of farmworkers, have resulted in the violation of labour rights on the basis of class, gender and ethnicity. The place of study was an agricultural valley in the state of Baja California, located 300 kilometres south of the Mexico-United States border. For over forty years this region experienced considerable growth and the establishment of export agroindustries becoming consequently a pole of attraction for migrant farmworkers from southern Mexico. A qualitative methodology was utilized. Group interviews were conducted with sixty women. Our findings allow us to make evident the unequal social relations and practices that intensify the vulnerability of these women, placing them in marked disadvantage with respect to other social groups.

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