Picking and Packing for the North: Agricultural workers at Empaque Santa Rosa

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Picking and Packing for the North Agricultural
workers at Empaque Santa Rosa

• Presented by Erin Roder

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Globalization from Above

• U.S. takes a majority of tomatoes produced in
  Mexico and directs Mexican Agro export production
  from primarily U.S.-based multinationals
• U.S. also draws in migrant workers as cheap labor
• Whether on the Mexican side or the U.S. side of
  the border they are picking tomatoes for the
  North.
• U.S. better wages and working conditions.
• Everything and Everybody goes North
• Why?
• People cannot afford living from their own land,
  they need to work.

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Empaque Santa Rosa Primed For Export

• 1of 3 largest tomato producers in Mexico
• 1 of 5 largest in North America
• Ran by 4 sons of the founder. While the 2 sisters
  dont get involved in the business
• Started small scale. Now very large corporation,
  300 million sales in 1996.
• Employs 12,000 temp workers and 850 full timers
  90 field-workers
• Plants and harvests more than 6 thousand hectares
  of field tomatoes, and 80 hectares of green house
  production.
• One of few companies that has control over fruits
  and vegetable production in Mexico.
• Supplies northern markets with 85 of its
  produce.
• 90 going to the U.S. and 5 going to Canada.
• Own trade center in Southern U.S.
• Manages exports and imports of fresh produce as
  well as canned produce.
• Deals with U.S., Canada, and other countries such
  as Ecuador and Korea.
• Cultivates 2,550 Hectares of tomatoes, annual
  rate 165,000 tons.

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Following the Sun

• Agribusinesses take advantage of the diverse
  growing seasons within Mexico.
• Known as Girasol (Sunflowers) because they follow
  the sun.
• Recent years Santa Rosa has expanded its
  production capacity in three states Baja
  California, Sinaloa, and Jalisco-maintaining
  tomato production all year round.
• 70of total production takes place in Sinaloa
  (richest tomato-producing state)

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Globalizing from BelowFamily wages

• Family unit is central agricultural production.
• Migrating families often offer several family
  members as salaried workers to agribusiness.
• Survival depends on combining income of several
  family members.
• 1981- 2 minimum wage salaries covered basic needs
• 1993- estimated that more than 5 family members
  salaries were needed to pay for basic needs.
• Desperation has pushed them to move from harvest
  to harvest, country side to sties, and informal
  sector work to economic activities.
• Become flexible. Ready to move day to day, place
  to place, whenever wherever if any kind of work
  is available.
• Women at Santa Rosa reflect this constant
  movement for survival in their work and home lives

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Sexual Division of Labor

• Santa Rosa reproduces traditional notions of
  appropriate mens work and womens work

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• Division said to be economic, political, and
  cultural.
• Men better at the heavier jobs (requiring
  physical strength), managerial jobs (requiring
  experience), access to technical info, and the
  initiative and ability to exert authority
• Women Are the majority of jobs such as planting,
  pruning, sorting, and packing. Make up majority
  of pickers. Claimed that women are more skilled
  at intricate tasks. Are more efficient,
  productive, and responsible than men. Seemed they
  are preferred because they are paid lower wages
  and seem to be more compliant.
• 80-90 of labor force in packing plants are
  females.
• Definitions do not recognize the social
  construction of these gendered tasks.
• Women arent being offered the more highly
  skilled jobs because of their lack of technical
  competence in operating machinery

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• Job categories and division of tasks with in
  tomato production have evolved over the decades
  to reflect and reinforce institutionalized
  claims, sexism, racism and ageism.
• 6 categories for womens work with in 3 different
  work contexts. Each one is represented by a woman
  whose profile reveals both the commonalities and
  the differences among women and tomato workers.
• Packing is important because gender ideology
  clearly reign. Here appearance is so critical to
  tomato exporters that there is at least some
  recognition of this work.

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• Sort and packers are drawn from two sources
• local girls living in the town
• young girls hired permanently by the company to
  move from site to site, harvest to harvest.
• Young see job as temp work. Good way to make ,
  travel, and perhaps find a husband.
• Older women, who do not marry, have become
  virtually wedded to the company. No space or time
  for creating their own lives.
• Packers and sorters make about 3-4 times as much
  as field workers, as well as enjoy better working
  and living conditions. They are required to work
  more hours. May work 12 hours or more a day, 6 or
  7 days a week.
• Companies flexible with rest days.
• Some sick pay.

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Packing VS Sorting
Sorters Packers
Have to sign in (paid by the hour) Dont sign in (paid by the box)
Stand Sit (on wooden boxes)
Start work at 9am Start at 10 am
Earns 5 pesos an hour Average 35 to 60 pesos (7 to 12) a day. Paid .33 cents a box Average 200 to 500 boxes a day 66 to 150 pesos (13 to 30) a day.

• Note Field workers make 28 pesos (5) a day.
• Male workers make on average 1200 pesos a week.
  (packers make 600 to 900)

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Benefits

• Benefits are limited.
• No paid vacation. (only fulltime employeesmainly
  men)
• Worker claim no union (even though outside the
  plant mentions the CTM as the official union).
• Get sick passes to social security clinic with
  doctors signature. Get paid for half a days work
  at a sorters wage.
• No formal training offered.
• Women learn by watching others or by being showed
  how by a friend of family member.
• No orientation on equipment or chemicals.
• People were getting sick from the wax thats put
  on tomatoes. It made their hands peel.
• In the end the appearance of the tomato is in
  some ways more important than the health of the
  workers.

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Factories in the Fields High-Tech Greenhouse
Production

• Future of tomatoes in Mexico seems to be in
  greenhouses.
• Allows year-production
• Total control of key factors. (climate,
  technology, Labor)
• Greenhouses are expensive.
• Initial investment of infrastructure 30,000
• Santa Rosa only leases the land and brings in all
  the inputs from the U.S. Some equipment is from
  Holland. The only thing from Mexico are the table
  and carts made by local contractors.
• Greenhouse production can be seen as the epitome
  of maquila model. (NAFTA moved from North to be
  applied to businesses in Mexico).
• Maquila industries are characterized by 4
  dimensions feminizing the labor force, highly
  segmenting skill categories (majority unskilled),
  Lowering real wages, and introducing a nonunion
  orientation.
• Only Mexican inputs are the land, the sun, and
  the workers.
• 100 of produce is for export. (10 to Canada
  most for the U.S.)

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• Most young people are taking the jobs.
• Nothing else if available and their income is
  needed for their family wage.
• New form of employment
• Involves both planting and packing, falls
  somewhere between the field-workers and the
  packers at the larger plants.
• Total of 650 employees from 14 different towns.
• Less than 40 of workers are men.
• Women have two roles
• Planting and picking tomatoes.
• Working in the packing house.

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Conclusion

• There is an amazing load of discrimination going
  on Santa Rosa.
• Racism is going on the indigenous migrant workers
  who are brought in packed trucks by contractors,
  without certainty of getting work, living and
  working conditions, electricity, stores, or
  transport.
• Women bare the brunt of this lack of
  infrastructure- cooking, washing, taking care of
  the kids (even while working) and dealing with
  their exhaust and poor health.
• Because their own regions offer even less
  opportunity, they are forced to endure these
  jobs and the racist treatment built into them.