Inequality of rights: Rural industrial workers' access to the law in Guatemala

Liliana Goldín and Courtney Dowdall

Economic Anthropology, 2015, vol. 2, issue 2, 278-294

Abstract: type="main" xml:id="sea212031-abs-0001"> We examine unequal access to the law among industrial workers in the export processing plants of the central highlands of Guatemala. Through qualitative interviews with 40 workers and a three-wave panel survey in four communities, we elicited perspectives on labor conditions and legal protections as perceived by workers. The workers, mostly young, indigenous women, are caught in the apparent fragmentation of transnational circuits of production through outsourcing, flexibilization strategies, and layers of removed accountability. Workers are subjected to discrimination and inequality before the law. This is facilitated by global regimes that allow corporations to create separate realms of responsibility by relying on contractors and subcontractors that renegotiate national and international laws with states. The nature of global regimes is such that new forms of activism and participation, including transnational networks of workers and consumers, are needed to provide protections and equal access to rights to a vulnerable, young, and mostly indigenous workforce.

Date: 2015
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