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U.S.-Mexico Economic Integration: Labor Relations and the Organization of Work in California and Baja California Agriculture

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  • Carol Zabin

Abstract

Through a case study of tomato production in Baja California and California, this paper examines the impact of U.S.-Mexico economic integration on the organization of work and on wage trends and labor costs. In contrast to most previous scholarship, which is based on aggregate economic modeling, this paper provides an institutional approach to the study of NAFTA and longer-term U.S.-Mexico economic integration. I explore the impact of cross-border links in capital, product, and especially labor markets on labor costs, worker income, regional competitiveness, and the location of production. The paper demonstrates that in response to differing economic conditions and institutions in California and northwest Mexico, employers choose different labor management strategies, even though they use similar production technologies. In California, growers extract much higher productivity from workers by paying piece rates and are able to externalize the costs of recruiting, transporting, housing, and retaining their seasonal labor force. As a consequence, the binational differential in wages is much greater than the differential in per unit labor costs, Baja’s competitiveness is constrained by low productivity, and downward convergence in workers’ net income is occurring.

Suggested Citation

  • Carol Zabin, 1997. "U.S.-Mexico Economic Integration: Labor Relations and the Organization of Work in California and Baja California Agriculture," Economic Geography, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 73(3), pages 337-355, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:recgxx:v:73:y:1997:i:3:p:337-355
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1944-8287.1997.tb00093.x
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    Cited by:

    1. Midmore, Peter & Whittaker, Julie, 2000. "Economics for sustainable rural systems," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 173-189, November.
    2. Rachel Ann Mulhall & John R. Bryson, 2013. "The Energy Hot Potato and Governance of Value Chains: Power, Risk, and Organizational Adjustment in Intermediate Manufacturing Firms," Economic Geography, Clark University, vol. 89(4), pages 395-419, October.
    3. Fox, Jonathan A, 2006. "Reframing Mexican Migration as a Multi-Ethnic Process," Center for Global, International and Regional Studies, Working Paper Series qt4nn6v8sk, Center for Global, International and Regional Studies, UC Santa Cruz.
    4. Andrews, Abigail L., 2016. "Legacies of Inequity: How Hometown Political Participation and Land Distribution Shape Migrants’ Paths into Wage Labor," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 318-332.
    5. Malaga, Jaime E. & Williams, Gary W. & Fuller, Stephen W., 2001. "US-Mexico fresh vegetable trade: the effects of trade liberalization and economic growth," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 26(1), pages 45-55, October.

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