Transnational Tortillas: Race, Gender, and Shop-Floor Politics in Mexico and the United States (review)

In this informative book, Carolina Bank Muñoz reveals the polity between governments and a transnational corporation which ultimately affects the common worker. In Mexico, tortillas are not only a staple food but a tradition that is a critical segment of its economy. Political agreements between the United States and Mexico have had a great impact on the making of tortillas. The resulting macro policies that come about by the intimacy of governments and corporations are central to the micro-level processes of the shop floor, and ultimately the social problems created for workers employed by the Tortimundo Company, which uses these policies, along with “racialized and gendered labor markets,” and immigrant status to control labor.

Overall, employers in Mexico and the United States are reaping the benefits of U.S. immigration policy. Mexico is influenced by U.S. policy such as NAFTA, which in turn, influences much of the trade and business policies within Mexico. Other points in her argument involve the interlinking of the U.S. and Mexican border and the countries’ labor markets, along with the issues of race, gender and class, and their use as controllers of labor. Mexico is dependent on supranational institutions like GATT, the World Bank and the IMF, which ultimately has resulted in a loss of workers’ rights there. Thus, the border has become an arbitrary line which marks the difference between those with higher wages versus those with lower ones; those with infrastructure versus those without; and those with legal, social, political and economic capital versus those with little of these.

Enter two tortillas-making factories owned by the Tortimundo Company; one is in Hacienda, CA, the other in Hacienda, Mexico or Baja California. Each plant has a unique managerial style to facilitate production. Workers at Hacienda CA are subjected to a regimented existence on the shop floor where they are under constant surveillance, while workers at Hacienda BC are not. The end result is still the same; workers are controlled and manipulated to the benefit of management. However, the tempering method used to subjugate workers depends on which side of the border they are located.

The shop floor dynamics at these two factories are very different environments. Managers at Hacienda CA, rule with a strict supervisory style based on a U.S. business model, where worker efficiency is the primary goal. Absenteeism and tardiness are not tolerated. Health and safety rules must follow company protocol and are strictly enforced – more to the benefit of the company, than to the worker. Managers use a variety of tactics to divide and control workers, with immigration status as the key, ultimately facilitated by U.S. immigration policies. Here, documented workers are subjugated by hegemonic control, while undocumented ones are subjugated by despotic control. Workers are pitted against each other based on their immigration status, a way management divides the workers. In this “immigration regime” undocumented workers are faced with the inflexibility of managers who hold the fear of their immigration status over them. However, sexual harassment is taken very seriously in the U.S. plant because of concerns with U.S. laws.

On the other hand, at the Hacienda BC plant located in Mexico, women are exploited on the basis of their gender. Managers select from a docile female labor market to inflate their control over workers on the shop floor in what Bank Muñoz calls a “gender regime.” On this shop floor women are not only sexually harassed by managers, they feel that have to compete with other workers in order to keep their jobs. This includes flirting with managers and being subjected to an array of sexual innuendos in exchange for job stability and promotion. Race a relevant issue as well, and used as a tactic by managers to divide the workers.

The workers ultimately try to fight back, with mixed results. Bank Muñoz shows her...