Fairwashing and Union Busting: The Privatization of Labor Standards in Mexico’s Agro-export Industry

Abstract

While Mexico’s agricultural exports have rapidly expanded over the past two decades, a strike by farmworkers in San Quintín, Baja California, in 2015 drew attention to the labor problems and workers’ demands in the industry. In response, foreign agribusiness corporations implemented private labor standards through fair-trade labels to address these problems in their global produce supply chains. Based on ethnographic research, I argue that these private standards fail to improve farmworkers’ labor conditions and instead serve to “fairwash” fresh produce and to prevent union organizing even when rights under Mexican law are violated. While fair-trade programs provide little empowerment to agricultural workers, I document how farmworkers have developed alternative visions of food justice through independent labor organizing.