The local impact of globalization: worker health and safety in Mexico's sugar industry.

Abstract

With the opening of its economy to international trade, the government of Mexico privatized many of its productive holdings, including the state-owned sugar industry. Sugar cane and mill workers had played an important role in the armed struggles of the revolutionary period (1910-1917). Organized into a militant labor union, they had become staunch supporters of the new government in the following decades. Furthermore, in the early years of industrialization, the sugar industry was very important for the Mexican economy, and the union played an active role in the political arena. Since the privatization of the sugar mills, the sugar workers have experienced a dramatic reorganization of the work process, and industry-union relationships are being reshaped. This paper offers an analysis of the impact of the privatization on workers' health and safety. Since the economic and social changes in the work process have a direct impact on the community as a whole, the study also explores these effects.