Disposability and Resistance in a Male Dominated Industry: Latina Immigrants Organizing in Residential Construction

From Social Capital to Inequality: Migrant Networks in Different Stages of Labor Incorporation

“…Studying the construction industry allows for an examination of how the economic restructuring that affects industries across the United States produces exploitation and inequality among certain groups of workers. In the 1970s, the entire construction industry became unionized and consisted then of a labor force composed mostly of empowered white males (e.g., Morales and Saucedo ). The construction industry has since undergone economic restructuring in which commercial construction remained formal and unionized while residential construction became increasingly informal through the speeding up of production, increased requirements in production, deskilling, subcontracting, the depreciation of wages, and lower levels of union membership and its associated protections (Morales and Saucedo ; Paap ; Saucedo and Morales ).…”

“…In the 1970s, the entire construction industry became unionized and consisted then of a labor force composed mostly of empowered white males (e.g., Morales and Saucedo ). The construction industry has since undergone economic restructuring in which commercial construction remained formal and unionized while residential construction became increasingly informal through the speeding up of production, increased requirements in production, deskilling, subcontracting, the depreciation of wages, and lower levels of union membership and its associated protections (Morales and Saucedo ; Paap ; Saucedo and Morales ). Therefore, after economic restructuring, commercial construction remained a formal sector while the residential sector became increasing informal.…”

“…The objectives of this study are to examine what happens when informality seeps through into what used to be formal employment, how exploitation is created, and whether social capital can overturn exploitative labor structures. Changes in what was formerly an empowered construction workforce arose as economic restructuring spearheaded decentralization and subcontracting in residential construction, which dispensed with a decision‐making processes which was much closer to the worker (Morales and Saucedo ; Paap ; Saucedo and Morales ) . Under such labor structures, employee recruitment takes place directly via supervisors and subcontractors who rely on word‐of‐mouth referrals from their current employees (Granovetter and Tilly ) rather than on traditional human resource services departments (Cranford ).…”

Mutual Aid Networks: Informal Shop Floor Organizing among Mexican Migrant Construction Workers in San Diego

“…Like subcontractors, labor baron work crews are part of the industry's subcontracting arrangement that competes with other subcontractors and labor barons across the industry for job projects. The contracting system of labor is the main structural organization that sustains labor barons (Morales 2016;Morales and Saucedo 2015) and helps firms capitalize on migrant social network resources to reduce labor costs and enhance flexibility (Zlolniski 2006). Considerable research on labor has scrutinized labor barons for exploiting their own kind (Cranford 2005;Milkman 2006;Milkman and Wong 2000) with little consideration of the contracting arrangements that sustain a capitalist system of exploitation that disperses economic and political risks of production.…”

Female taxi drivers in Mexico City: Facing patriarchal structures as a force of oppression

“…Studies on the hiring of women and their workplace interactions in male‐dominated industries in the Global North and Global South have documented similar patriarchal oppression of female workers and their exclusion from certain job assignments based on preconceived gender roles (Kanter, 1977; Morales & Saucedo, 2015; Paap, 2006; Padavic & Reskin, 1990; Wright, 2019; Yount, 1991). Scholars such as Morales and Saucedo (2015) have noted that female workers sometimes employ what is called a “patriarchal bargain” as a behavioral strategy to deal with male‐dominated industries that involve an expectation of certain male and female behaviors (Kanter, 1977; Maina & Caine, 2013; Yount, 1991). Morales and Saucedo (2015) used the concept of “patriarchal bargains”—defined by Kandiyoti (1988) as a trade‐off in which women subordinate themselves and economically depend on men in return for protection—to describe Latina immigrant workers' strategies to attain job opportunities and combat sexual harassment.…”