Contracts, control and contestation: The harvest of lemons for export

Abstract

This article analyses the labour process of an export industry in Argentina that supplies fresh lemons to an increasingly demanding European market. We examine the structural tensions as well as formal and informal protests to managerial strategies used to circumvent state controls, the power of unions and the cost of harvesters' wages. We identify the technocratic counterstrategies used by producers concerned about product quality and monitoring costs and how these strategies reduce the impact of informal acts of resistance and gain the cooperation of workers. We link these strategies to specific economic and political conditions and to how actors perceive conditions and responses.