Economic integration and labor relations in Latin America: the case of Central America

Abstract

This article analyzes some aspects of Latin America's economic integration process to the global economy. It highlights the integration impact on the working structures and the inclination for repressing labor. The central theme associates the latest global transformations with the productive restructuration process and the working relation transformation. It argues that unemployment and the increasing labor "precariousness" in Latin America responds to the region's tendency to reinsert and adjoin into the global market. In this sense, it shows the contradictions within the world’s productive transformation. Following this perspective, this paper considers the latest maquiladora expansion into Central America is due to, among other factors, the easy way to legislate labor laws in that region. These laws are flexible, complacent, and friendly to transnational investors. Besides, in Central America there is plenty of cheap labor. This paper includes Panama as part Central America.