Fish and Flexibility: Working in the New Chile
Schurman, Rachel
As in all countries in which labor is fully exposed to the market and cannot depend on the state for protection against "natural" industry swings, Chile's workers have borne the brunt of all...
...1 As processing plants sprung up from Arica in the north to Punta Arenas in the south, tens of thousands of people became clam shuckers, sorters fish headers and gutters and, most of all, fishermen...
...In the processing plants, managers have sought to increase productivity by relying more heavily on piece rate systems, which tie worker productivity directly to earnings...
...By paying a worker for each salmon fillet processed, the piece rate system encourages workers to exert themselves more...
...Personal interview in the seafood processing sector, Puerto Montt, 1991...
...4. This discussion is based on my own interviews, as well as upon Priscilla D6lano's unpublished doctoral dissertation, Women and Work in Chile: A Case Study of the Fish Processing Industry on the Island of Chilo6, University of Cambridge, 1993...
...As late as 1987, workers had only managed to organize themselves in two plants in the region...
...The Pinochet government reversed the land reform, however, and dismantled the agricultural support systems that had accompanied it on the grounds that these policies were inefficient...
...Sector-wide collec- home," one seafood tive bargaining was expressly prohibited, and the law are completely sm excluded certain groups-most importantly, temporary that their backs staid workers-from collective bargaining altogether...
...This does not mean that their situations did not improve with this occupational shift, for in some cases they did, and quite substantially...
...In this second major upheaval, the withdrawal of government support relegated small-scale farmers to subsistence farming or other economic activities such as fishing...
...The plants-pesqueras-offered higher pay and more respect than their main alternative, domestic service, and increased women's sense of autonomy from husbands, fathers and boyfriends...
...The greater sensitivity to production costs is one of the reasons why wages in the seafood processing sector have leveled off...
...dent workers and unions of construction workers...
...by 1991, however, workers had organized unions in 14 plants, and were in the process of organizing several more...
...Many firm owners in the processing sector earned huge profits, but they shared little with workers in the factories...
...Laborers in the processing plants received miserably low wages, toiled under conditions reminiscent of the industrial revolution, and were hired and fired at will, depending on their employers' needs and the availability of raw material...
...5, No...
...The majority came from the urban working class and from agriculture, and a large fraction were women...
...4 For this group, the processing plants offered a relatively attractive new source of employment...
...and services, 380,000 workers...
...A different version of the article will appear in Peter Winn, ed., Victims of the Chilean Miracle: Workers and Neoliberalism in the Pinochet Era, Duke University Press, 2004...
...In the mid 1980s, hardly any Chileans had and then quadrupled their production, their exports heard of salmon farming...
...8. Jaime Ruiz-Tagle, El Sindicalismo Chileno Despu6s del Plan Laboral, (Santiago: Programa de Economla del Trabajo, 1985...
...Children of the urban proletariat represented the second major source of new seafood sector workers...
...see Rulz-Tagle, El Sindicalismo Chileno Despubs del Plan Laboral, p. 64...
...Under the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet, the model of "import-substitution industrialization" that had characterized Chilean economic life for nearly half a century gave way to a radical experiment that would be emulated throughout the region during the 1990s and beyond...
...Up until the late 1980s, most of the salmon came from the Lakes region, where a propi- world's salmon supply came from wild salmon fishtious combination of geographical features-deep eries, located in Alaska, the Pacific Northwest, Canada glacial lakes, clean and protected inland seas, and per- and Japan...
...I but significant tinue to experience--these new local/global relations...
...There used to be a union here, but the plant owner threw the union organizer out and the union disappeared," confided one worker from a plant on the island of Chilod...
...In industries such as this one, which rely on assembly line production, increasing the work pace invariably has a negative impact on worker health and safety...
...See also Priscilla D6lano and David Lehmann, "Women Workers in Labor Intensive Factories: The Case of Chile's Fishing Industry," The European Journal of Development Research, Vol...
...The most obvious was the fact that workers had no bargaining power: State repression of labor unions following the 1973 coup was severe, and workers were afraid to organize in such a hostile climate...
...Nationwide, Salmon farm pens at sea near Puerto Montt...
...Those who did not receive land moved into nearby villages and towns to become part of the agricultural proletariat that eventually found its way into the fishing sector...
...Indeed, as late as 1997, union organizers in the seafood processing sector complained that it was hard to get workers to fight for their rights...
...The people are afraid and they don't want to say anything about their conditions...
...But buyers...
...1 9 In 1992, national unemployment hit its lowest rate since the early 1970s, a remarkable 4.4...
...Personal interviews with seafood processing workers, 1991...
...Compared to a period of small improvements at the beginning of th are again afraid to fight for their right Only skilled workers, for whom remains fairly tight, seem to have es the industry's restructuring, and received a boost as the sector has international stature...
...See "Salmonideos Generaron el 30.3% de los Ingresos de las Exportaciones Pesqueras," in Salmonoticias, official publication of the salmon industry of Chile, Asociaci6n de Productores de Salm6n y Trucha de Chile (January 1997), p. 13...
...As give salmon its luxury status and its correspondingly more and more firms began raising and processing high price...
...Chile is a quintessential example of a natural resource-based economy: Copper remains central, as before, but the leading edge of the national economy consists of the production for export of such goods as fresh fruits and vegetables, wines, forestry products and seafood...
...See the discussion in Estrella Dlaz A., "Mejoramiento de Estandares Laborales, especially pp...
...In the event that be "too slow," they are publicly Lctice many find humiliating...
...7. Interview with a member of the Women's Department of the Federaci6n de Sindicatos de Trabajadores de Industrias Pesqueras, Puerto Montt, April 4, 1997...
...Yet at this very moment, two unanticipated problems appeared, ushering in the third phase of the seafood sector's development...
...salmon and trout...
...9 1980s, however, m All too frequently, when the time came that the firm was work, either b1 was legally obliged to classify a worker as permanent, ends meet, or beca the worker would be fired, only to be rehired by the they didn't...
...13 (Organizaci6n Internacional del Trabajo, December 2000), p. 29...
...Efforts to increase the productivity of labor by paying piece rates and/or simply increasing the pace of work have had mixed effects on workers...
...Perhaps even more importantly, just as the significant change neoliberal architects of this legislation envisioned, neit-oriented seafood ther the state nor labor unions are in a position to protect vement into the workers from changes in global industry conditions...
...43 NOimero Especial (Sept...
...The maximum length of a tem- they are found to porary contract was extended from six months to two admonished-a pra years, and employers were allowed to dismiss workers The official sche in some cases without statement of cause or appeal- hour workweek...
...2. Employment in the fish processing industry rose from 6,400 workers in 1975 to 17,400 in 1990, to 24,700 in 1995...
...This leads to physical discomforts and weather or a bad catch onto workers by calling on them when they needed them, and sending them home without pay when they did not...
...The radical changes the Pinochet government made in Chile's labor market regime powerfully influenced the way industry workers experienced-and will con*s have paid dearly with their bodies...
...The bulk of the ment is in fish processing, where outnumber their skilled counterparts The last 25 years have brought s for the workers in Chile's new expor industry...
...In such circumstances, almost no one in the sector dared organize...
...15-48...
...n the latter part of the 1980s, labor's fortunes in the seafood processing plants started to change for the better, and the second phase of the fisheries boom began to unfold...
...As a result, between the mid 1970s and the mid 1990s, the number of fish processing plants in the country grew from about 75 to well over 400, with seafood exports rising from negligible levels to account for 12% of Chilean export earnings...
...As in all countries in which labor is fully exposed to the market and cannot depend on the state for protection against "natural" industry swings, Chile's workers have borne the brunt of all risks and vulnerabilities...
...I only went back to work to th the bosses, not for the money...
...industry, another 373,600 workers...
...Servicio Nacional de Pesca (hereafter known as SERNAPESCA), Anuario Estadistico de Pesca 1995 (Santiago: Republica de Chile, 1996), p. 4. According to SERNAPESCA, there were 433 processing plants in Chile in 1995...
...One recent investigation found that the Chilean fishing sector directly provides about 200,000 jobs...
...Initially, when wild fishery stocks remained abundant and competition for raw material among processing plants was fierce, these harvesters were able to capture a substantial portion of the profits and thus bolster their incomes...
...I not want to stay were often presder threat of losing their jobs...
...Chile's economy has been transformed over the three decades that have elapsed since the 1973 coup that imposed a bloody end to the country's experiment in democratic socialism...
...and certain unjust employment practices-like intimidating workers into working overtime-became less common.16 Tight labor markets gave workers more bargaining power vis-A-vis their employers...
...Who were the workers that filled the seafood processing and exporting enterprises in the 1970s and 1980s...
...The result of the preference in peak seasons mo for temporary contracts was that an extreme level of job all the raw materia instability and insecurity prevailed throughout the went home, since f, Pinochet years...
...Another has to do with the loosening of the labor market since 1998, which has reduced the bargaining power of workers...
...Encouraged by the new export-oriented model and by specific policy inducements, scores of savvy capitalists entered the fresh and frozen seafood sector and began shipping fish and shellfish to consumers in East Asia, Western Europe and North America...
...Fish and Flexibility 1. Ministerio de Agricultura, Servicio Agricola y Ganadero, Anuario Estadistico de Pesca 1976 (Santiago: Ministerio de Agricultura, 1976...
...Data for 1997 are reported in Celina Carrasco, et al...
...Yet these workers have paid dearly with their bodies...
...1 7 Meanwhile, emboldened by the new political space that opened up as the country neared its national plebiscite on whether General Pinochet should continue as head of state, seafood processing workers waged-and won-critical battles to form labor unions...
...1 1 badly...
...Although the central orientation of the labor market regime established by Pinochet was left intact-includemployment rose almost 50% between 1985 and 1996, from 3.5 million workers to 5.3 million workers...
...Although the industry has yet to be devastated by ecosystemic changes, it has suffered acute losses due to diseases and algae blooms...
...Virtually uncontrolled exploitation of the natural resource base for over a decade had seriously reduced the stocks of the region's key commercial species...
...As one processing plant worker told me, "You're earning money against your body, but after a while, your body collapses...
...Firms also made promising...
...The distinct experiences of different groups of workers were conditioned by their particular location in the industry, the ecological health of the fisheries, and conditions in the wild seafood and salmon aquaculture industries...
...But during the 1980s and 1990s, firms in salmon, the demand for labor rose...
...Although the situation of organized labor 'es do not employ has improved since the transition to formal democracy, sector's employ- Chile's successive civilian governments have not unskilled workers reversed the laws that gave employers a high degree of by seven-to-one...
...rienced globally over the last ten years-a trend to If the growth of the wild fisheries sector had been which the Chilean salmon industry has contributed impressive, the growth of the salmon industry was heavily...
...5. Unfortunately, it is difficult to get historical data on wages in the seafood processing industry, since firm owners are unwilling to share financial information in this highly competitive industry...
...But the size small, and promises to remain s Moreover, even as many salmon toward staffing their operations skilled workers, the farms themselv that many people...
...Pilar Romaguera, Cristian EchevarrIa, and Pablo Gonzalez, "Chile," Chapter 3 in Gustavo Marquez, ed., Reforming the Labor Market in a Liberalized Economy, (Washington, D.C.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995...
...The 1979 Labor Law allowed four different types of unions: firm-level unions, inter-firm unions, unions of indepenEmployers could shift the risk of bad v keeping the fish and shellfish from decaying too fast, and most phases of the production process must be done in what feels like a giant refrigerator...
...She thanks Eric Hershberg for his help in the preparation of this article...
...The best early history of the salmon industry in Chile is Ricardo M6ndez and Clara Munita 0., La Salmonicultura en Chile (Santiago: Fundaci6n Chile, 1989...
...As researcher Priscilla D61ano notes, in those seafood processing plants that have semiautomated production lines, "women [have] to perform differh] great speed...they can hardly i't even feel our feet until we get d worker lamented, "and then they pollen...
...1996) pp...
...Throughout the early years of the boom, the biggest winners were the owners of the seafood processing plants...
...It has caped the costs of allowed employers to impose the rhythms, and shift the may even have risk of nature-based production on to processing plant grown in size and workers...
...One source of threat to the industry is environmental...
...A large group came from the traditional agriculture sector, which had experienced two major upheavals over the preceding 20 years...
...Whereas production had long been geared toward satisfying local demand, from the mid 1970s onward the focus shifted to export markets...
...During an initial "boom" period (circa 1975-1987), draconian labor market policies, a weak economy and a repressive state combined to create a situation in which processing plant owners could take extreme advantage of their workers...
...Alejandra Mizala and Pilar Romaguera, "Flexibilidad del Mercado de Trabajo: El Impacto del Ajuste y Los Requisitos del Crecimiento Econ6mico," Colecci6n Estudios CIEPLAN No...
...The industry also tried to stimulate demand as we look to the 21st century, the future of even within Chile, by increasing salmon shipments to these workers has begun to look less secure and Santiago and other national markets...
...The much vaunted "Chilean miracle"-a reference to Chile's having maintained rates of economic growth that surpass those of virtually all of the region since the late 1980s-thus centers on successful exploitation of resources that the country possesses in abundance and for which there is demand abroad...
...Low temperatures are vital for sector...
...e decade, workers Labor market flexibility, the central organizing princiits and organize.23 ple of this new regulatory framework, has been highly the labor market detrimental to seafood processing workers...
...The development of aquaculture effectively loosened one environmental constraint on the fisheries sector (that of limited resource supply), but it simultaneously exposed the industry to another, namely, the problem of infectious diseases, organic "pollution" and other environmental risks associated with large scale industrial monoculture...
...1993...
...Fishermen a 38 NACI.A REPORT ON THE AMERICAS in some cases, serious health problems, such as eye trouble or kidney disease.12 In most seafood processing plants, workers stand on their feet all day carrying out repetitive motions, usually at breakneck speed...
...this meant that their incomes and working conditions were determined largely by the availability of resources and the market for raw material supplies rather than by work contracts at the processing plants...
...2 (1993), pp...
...7 Vol XXXVII, No 1 JuLY/AUGusT 2003 37CHILE: THIRTY YEARS LATER Even if more workers had been willing to run the risk of organizing, there were institutional obstacles to doing so...
...The first upheaval was the radical land reform program implemented by the Frei and Allende governments in the 1960s and early 1970s...
...Personal interviews with workers in the seafood processing industry 11...
...he seafood industry in the Lakes region developed in three phases...
...3 NACIA REPORT ON THE AMERICAS Rachel Schurman teaches sociology at the University of Illinois at Urbana...
...The second was resource degradation...
...dule in the industry is a six-day, 48 )uring the 1970s and most of the ost people worked more when there ecause they had to in order to make Luse they feared losing their jobs if -hour days were not uncommon, and st production managers insisted that 1 be processed before their workers failure to quickly process these highly would lead to economic losses...
...number of kilos, c In an effort to support those who owned businesses, they process...
...have made it far more difficult for workers to organize companies move labor unions than in the past, and thus to advance their ,ith more highly own interests...
...eries, at least for processing plant workers and those In response to these pressures, Chilean salmon farmhired to work in the region's new salmon farms...
...7, Centro de Estudios de Desarrollo, October 1983, and SERNAPESCA, Anuario Estadistico de Pesca 1995, p. 2. I use the gendered term "fishermen" throughout this article because the vast majority of the people who work at sea are male...
...By 1997, according to the Encuesta Nacional de la Industria Manufacturera, seafood processing employment increased to 32,000 workers...
...Plant owners frequently told me that "manual labor doesn't cost a thing in Chile...
...I focus on fisheries, particularly in the Lakes region along the south-central coast, where salmon farming has assumed increasing prominence in recent years, and where the possibilities and contradictions of the prevailing development model emerge in particularly stark relief...
...Wor the Pinochet government had eliminated most of the around large table financial disincentives previously associated with hir- standing by and wa ing temporary workers...
...1 3 "We don legally on their members' behalf...
...if renewed a second time, they were automatically converted into indefinite contracts, meaning that the worker would become a "permanent" rather than "temporary" employee...
...The former figures include fishmeal and fish oil processing plants, and come from the Anuarios de Industrias Manufactureras, Instituto Nacional de EstadIsticas (hereafter referred to as INE): Santiago, 1975, 1990, 1995...
...These figures come from a very large plant in the region, with over 600 workers...
...This massive increase in farmed salmon production To a large degree, the salmon industry has provided created a significant glut in world salmon markets, a more stable employment alternative to the wild fish- with negative implications for everyone involved...
...Thus, if average hours per worker have grown, the figures will be biased upward...
...These observations are based on interviews in the seafood processing industry, April 1994...
...This over...
...Chile's fishing industry experienced a dramatic boom during the Pinochet period...
...As the earnings of both groups fell, many fishermen abandoned the sector, and numerous processing plants went out of business...
...flexibility...
...Part c ers represented a large proportion of the seafood pro- the piece rate syst cessing workforce...
...Of ent tasks at [suc these, however, only firm-level unions could negotiate blink...
...6 Wages were low for a number of reasons...
...Workers who had Norway and Scotland, and later Chile and the United been employed in plants dedicated to processing wild States, achieved enormous success with salmon farmfish and shellfish easily made the switch to processing ing and managed to raise their output dramatically...
...As Chilean salmon producers doubled, tripled dizzying...
...1 4 Some workers complain t hurting before the week is halfway ally true for men whose jobs require f the monitoring takes place through em, which rewards workers for the ,ans, or fillets of fish and shellfish kers typically stand in long lines or s, with an overseer-a capataztching them closely...
...Their working conditions were comparatively good because supplies of fish and shellfish remained abundant...
...Over this same period, agriculture and fishing absorbed some 230,000 new workers...
...Priscilla D6lano A., "Women and Work in Chile...
...As late as 1987, the wage for a non-skilled worker was still only about $85 dollars a month including overtime...
...employers became more reluctant to flagrantly violate labor laws...
...1993...
...Some compared the experience to "ganando la Polla Gol," or winning the lottery-and undoubtedly owners enjoyed the lion's share of the income generated by the industry...
...Data came from the INE, and represent the third trimester of each year...
...33-39...
...If it is in these areas that wealth has been produced-though frequently not well distributed-it is no surprise that it is also here that most jobs have been created for the generation of Chileans born since the onset of military rule...
...Paying workers by the piece has enabled some workers to significantly raise their take-home pay by working harder...
...See Eduardo Bitran, "Desarrollo y Perspectivas del Sector Pesquero en Chile," Documento de Trabajo No...
...This meant falling catches for fishermen and rising costs for harvesters and processors alike...
...The salmon industry turns out to have a major effort to increase the value they added to their vulnerabilities of its own due to a multifaceted set of products by selling processed salmon fillets, sushi cuts 40 NACTA REPORT ON THE AMERICASCHILE: THIRTY YEARS LATER and hand-processed smoked salmon to high end, niche markets...
...This is especi was crucial, since until the mid 1980s, temporary work- heavy lifting...
...As one processing plant worker told me, "You're earning money against your body, but after a while, your body collapses...
...Alongside a certain degree of freedom, autonomy and respect afforded by their jobs, adding a "second shift" of paid labor brought new pressures, stresses, and physical and emotional exhaustion into their lives...
...See Lefva and Agacino, Mercado de Trabajo Flexible, Pobreza y Desintegraci6n Social en Chile...
...12...
...This article explores the fortunes of workers in a typical example of such an industry...
...9. In 1981, this law was modified so that temporary contracts could only be renewed once...
...I another aspect of the prized "labor market flexibility...
...For a description and critique of labor market flexibility, see Fernando Ignacio Lelva and Rafael Agacino, Mercado de Trabajo Flexible, Pobreza y Desintegraci6n Social en Chile, 1990-1994 (Santiago: Universidad Arcis, 1994...
...perishable goods c In fact, for a short period, the new labor laws permit- Workers who di ted employers to pay their workers only for the hours sured to do so, un they worked, which also served to hold down workers' night they would c wages...
...Labor market flexibility is also discussed by Rufz-Tagle, El Sindicalismo Chileno Despubs del Plan Laboral, and Romaguera et al., "Chile...
...Independent fishermen fared better...
...36CHILE: THIRTY YEARS LATER q9 Freshly harvested farm salmon on their way to be processed...
...43-67...
...Between 1988 and 1992, real wages for ing its emphasis on "flexibility"-the Aylwin government did reinsert a modicum of worker protection against arbitrary dismissals into the law.18 Moreover, Aylwin increased the real minimum wage by nearly 10% within a few weeks of assuming office...
...These estimates are based on wages per worker...
...The labor law put in place by the Pinochet government effectively discouraged unionization...
...plant workers rose 55%.15 Other working conditions also improved as workers gained additional legal rights...
...Part of the work involves frequent contact with cold running water, used to wash off blood and waste, and to clean the raw material...
...commerce, 279,500 workers...
...Reflecting the success of this strategy, these "value added" products rose from a mere 5% of salmon exports in 1990 to 39% in 1996 and have grown steadily since...
...Others invested in the fishmeal industry, renovating existing production units or building new plants...
...try-that is, fisher The first thing one notices when one walks into a siderably better tha seafood processing plant-other than the smell-is the of the relations of temperature of the air...
...At ome looking for me to come back to I already worked for ten hours," said worker...
...2 2 et these industrial restructuring processes have not brought many positive changes for salmonsector workers...
...As one lamented, "We've got 17 years of dictatorship weighing on us...
...Aside from the low pay and job insecurity, working Those who harve conditions in the seafood processing plants were harsh...
...6. Personal interviews in the seafood processing industry, 1990 and 1991...
...N]obody complains now because we would be fired...
...Cultivando el Mar: Para La Calidad de las Condiciones de Trabajo," Cuaderno de Investigaci6n No...
...If n the 'favor,' they would treat you :sted the raw material for the indusnen and shellfishermen-fared conn processing plant workers, because production that existed in this subnd shellfishermen were independent 38 NACIA REPORT ON THE AMERICASCHILE: THIRTY YEARS LATER laborers who merely sold their catch to the processing plants...
...This discussion and the quotations that follow are based on interviews conducted with approximately a dozen salmon farm managers in Puerto Montt during 1994 and 1997...
...To this day, in Chile as elsewhere in Latin America, "comparative advantage" trumps social objectives in determining the relative weight of different sectors of the economy...
...However, even with this more labor-friendly reform, in practice a worker could be hired under temporary contract for up to two years...
...Inevitably the future will bring new challenges and threats of this sort, calling into question the Frozen salmon in cold storage at the Antarfrio Invertec processing and packaging plant this sort, calling into question the's long-term security of Chile's aquaculture sector workers sector happened to be located precisely where another A second, and more obvious, threat derives from the new industry-salmon aquaculture-was just getting remarkable growth that salmon aquaculture has expeunderway...
...Working with sharp knives at increasingly fast speeds has only made an already angerous jo even m n- gerous...
...Finally, the Aylwin government in 1991 effected small changes in the country's labor laws that contributed to better wages and working conditions...
...ers began to change key aspects of their operations in 21 Because they grow their own fish, salmon farms are an effort to restore profits.21 Out of necessity, they not subject to the sort of resource limitations that wild transformed themselves into aggressive global marfisheries are, and thus have the potential to be more keters, traveling far and wide to seek out potential sustainable, at least in terms of resource supply...
...The number of artisanal fishermen, which is the largest group of fishermen, increased from about 17,000 in 1975 to just under 39,000 in 1995...
...Yet by 2001, Chile's farmed helped to create a serious glut on world markets-a salmon and trout exports accounted for over 5% of the glut that has driven down prices and increased compecountry's export earnings.20 The vast majority of tition worldwide...
...These figures were calculated on the basis of data provided in INE's Anuario de Industrias Manufactureras (various years), and were price deflated using the Central Bank's consumer price index...
...By contrast, wages of workers in the processing plants did not reflect overall industry prosperity...
...Salmon supplies were limited by what fect water temperatures-created some of the best could be caught during fishing season, which helped salmon farming conditions anywhere in the world...
...But above all, the growth of the economy and the development of natural resource-based production powerfully affected the demand for labor...
...One was a crisis in international markets, which exerted downward pressure on seafood prices...
...A firm that wanted to attract and retain good workers had to offer better wages and working conditions...
...Their fortunes in the industry rose or fell depending on the political economy and ecology of fishing, seafood processing, and later, salmon farming...
...For most workers, mo These worker seafood sector was made not by choice, but by necessity...
...of this group is Other elements of the dictatorship's labor legislation so in the future...
...Chile's "successful" integration into the new global economy on the basis of its natural resources has certainly had advantages for many entrepreneurs and workers, but it has also generated important new sources of vulnerability, deriving from exposure to world market competition, rapid price and market changes, and uncontrollable and unpredictable environmental threats...
...Twelve I0 same plant a month later...
...5 Even employers readily admitted the insufficiency of their workers' wages...
...In the region around Chilo6, where I conducted field work during the 1990s, thousands of workers would have become unemployed if not for the fact that the wild fisheries Vol XXXVII, No 1 JuLY/AUGUST 2003 39CHILE: THIRTY YEARS LATER biological, structural and conjunctural pressures...
...But while women clearly enjoyed some benefits from going to work in a seafood plant, they also paid a high price for increased economic independence and "freedom...
...As in all countries in which labor is fully exposed to the market and cannot depend on the state for protection against such "natural" industry swings, we can expect workers to bear the brunt of these risks and vulnerabilities...
...Priscilla Delano A., "Women and Work in Chile...
...During land reform, most of the country's big agricultural estates were expropriated, which "freed" a large number of landless agricultural laborers from the land...
...3. Beatriz Corbo, "Cuotas Pesqueras," El Mercurio, July 12, 1999, p. A-2...
...Under the new regime, which prioritized "labor the plant, after I hac market flexibility," employers could shift the risk of one 22-year-old w bad weather or a bad catch onto workers by calling on avoid problems wi' them when they needed them, and sending them home you didn't do then without pay when they did not...
...Reprinted in PET, Informe Anual, 1997-1998, Cuadro 7, (Santiago: PET, 1998...
Vol. 37 • July 2003 • No. 1
