La vulnerabilità “socialmente costruita” dei lavoratori agricoli in Messico: paternalismo e lavoro non libero/The "socially constructed" vulnerability of agricultural workers in an enclave of Mexico: paternalism and non-free work

Abstract

Changes and innovations in the production of table grapes in an agro-export enclave in Mexico have brought with them forms of labor management that ensure a more intensive system of work and, at the same time, neutralize confrontations between capital and labor. To achieve this, it has been essential to build a labor market in which several mechanisms are unfold and reveal what has been called “non-free work” and paternalistic systems of labor intermediation. In this article the authors analyze the game of values that legitimize the infringement of vulnerable workers to demand their maximum performance, availability and docility. The systems of labor intermediation are the privileged actors to stage a complicated exchange of loyalties and mutual obligations, in which the final balance benefits the agribusinesses.

Keywords: Agroindustry; Agricultural Labor Markets; Labor Intermediation Systems; Non-Free Labor; Social Vulnerability.