Fields in the Factory: Unpacking the Vertical Integration of Labor

• In Event: 593 - Section on Latino/a Sociology Paper Session. The Latino/a Middle Class

Abstract

Bagged salad is the second best-selling item in U.S. supermarkets. However, little is known about the industry’s labor practices and labor process. In this paper, I investigate the bagged salad industry and how it operates in the Salinas Valley of Monterey County, California. I argue that within the vertical integration of bagged salad production, labor also becomes vertically integrated. The vertical integration of labor demonstrates that the bagged salad labor process is an extension of the agricultural labor process, and thus, a reproduction of agricultural relations. People with farmworker backgrounds enter bagged salad manufacturing as employees due to the industry’s hiring preferences, and, with that entrance, the social relations of agriculture come attached. As such, farmworker backgrounds contextualize the experiences of employees in bagged salad manufacturing. Miracle Vegetables, also having a background in agriculture, is able to manipulate that shared agricultural experience to its advantage. This enables the company to use labor control mechanisms that are similar to those found in agriculture.

Author

• Ruben Espinoza, University of California-Santa Cruz