We Are in This Dance Together

NANCY PLANKEY-VIDELA is an assistant professor in the department of sociology at Texas A & M University. She studies inequality in the workplace.

• Contents List of Figures and TablesAcknowledgmentsList of AbbreviationsIntroduction      “We Are in This Dance Together”1          Contextualizing the Case of Moctezuma2          “I Like Piecework More . . . Because I Work for Myself”3          From Piecework to Teamwork: Translating Theory into Practice4          Becoming a Worker: Discovering the Shop Floor and the Contested Nature of Self-Managed Teams5          Lean during Mean Times6          The Strike: From Motherhood to Workers’ Rights7          “We Lost Control of the Shop Floor”: Flexible Taylorism and the Demise of the FirmConclusion       “We Are Workers, Not Beggars”Appendix A      The Workforce at MoctezumaAppendix B      Past Work Employment Classification MethodsAppendix C      Reprimands in Worker Files, 1993–2001NotesGlossaryBibliographyIndexFigures and TablesFigures2.1. Moctezuma woman worker at protest, August 19723.1. Poka-yoke lights, control panels, local supply shelves, and altar to Virgin of Guadalupe, pants department, 20014.1. Picture of bundle preparation (Op-1) and first sewing operation (Op-2), JosÉ and Luisa in the foreground4.2. Production flow and work posts in the pants department, team four6.1. Decisionmaking during the strike: voting through a show of hands, March 16, 20016.2. Blocking traffic to demand a meeting with the governor, April 4, 20016.3. State repression of workers’ sit-in, April 4, 20016.4. Marches after work to demand recognition of independent union, May 20018.1. Sewing workshop, DoÑa Ana in the middle, 20068.2. Sewing workshop, 2006Tables1.1.Grupo Mexicano’s Participation in Textile and Apparel Commodity Chain7.1. Moctezuma’s Proportion of Working Capital to Debts, 1996–2001 (in Millions of Pesos)A.1. Female Workers by Marital Status and Number of Children, 2001(Percentages in Parentheses)A.2. Education Level by Gender, 2001A.3. Percentage of Women Workers Hired by Age Group under Changing Work Organization over TimeA.4. Percentage of Men Workers Hired by Age Group under Changing Work Organization over TimeB.1. Mexican Classification of Occupation (CMO ) Codes and Categories for Moctezuma’s WorkersB.2. Percentage of Women Hired by Mexican Classification of Occupation (CMO) Work Category for Previous Employment, 1970s–2001C.1. Number of Reprimands by Infraction, 1993–2001

"Plankey-Videla's engaging ethnography of a Mexican factory illustrates the ways in which team production, gender, and labor resistance interact.  It should interest readers in sociology, gender studies, and labor studies as well as anyone interested in the political economy of globalization." - Ruth Milkman (professor of sociology, City University of New York Graduate Center)  "Plankey-Videla's cogent ethnography of labor relations and worker resistance at a cutting-edge apparel factory in Mexico reveals some of the most serious contradictions in our contemporary global labor market." - Jane Collins (author of Threads: Gender, Labor & Power in the Global Economy) "A compelling story that joins the ranks of other important feminist scholarship examining the gendered dynamics of work within a context of globalization."(American Journal of Sociology) "On its surface, We Are in This Dance Together effectively portrays the unraveling of a single Mexican garment production company and the challenges faced by the broader Mexican economy during a period of global economic upheaval. Yet by weaving together the narratives of female factory workers, the progressively impotent efforts by management to remain relevant within an increasingly competitive marketplace, and the corrupt state apparatus, Plankey-Videla does much more." (Anthropology of Work Review)