De sol a sol : the limits to union organizing in the nontraditional export plantations of northern Peru

Abstract

The liberalizing economic reforms that began under Fujimori in the 1990s have had a profound impact on primary production processes throughout the country of Peru. In the northern coastal region of La Libertad, such reforms have rearranged the physical landscape for the cultivation of nontraditional exports and have as a result altered internal migration mechanisms that provide abundant and cheap labor to domestic and multinational corporations operating on the coast. The downward pressures on labor have been acute as Peru competes for investment on a global scale with other developing countries. Organized resistance in response to poor working conditions and an inadequate regulatory framework has made few tangible gains over the years despite widespread discontent among agribusiness workers. Looking at the macro-level economic framework and national legislation, ethnic divisions of labor and task specification, as well as internal corporate practices that dissuade union affiliation, this study will examine the factors that have limited union organizing in northern Peruvian agribusiness the role of corporations, specifically that of Camposol, in community and regional development.