Producing Power: Ethnicity, Gender, and Class in a Caribbean Workplace

305 Pages·1995·20.146 MB·English

by  Kevin Yelvington

Producing Power

Kevin A. Yelvington
PRODUCING
POWER
Ethnicity, Gender, and Class
in a Caribbean Workplace
U
I
TEMPLE UNIVERSITY PRESS Philadelphia
para Barbara, con arnor
Temple University Press, Philadelphia 19122
Copyright © 1995 by Temple University. All rights reserved
Published 1995
Printed in the United States of America
@ The paper used in this book meets the requirements
of the American National Standard for Information Sciences
Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984
Text design by Arlene Putterman
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Yelvington, Kevin A., 1960-
Producing power: ethnicity, gender, and class in a Caribbean
workplace / Kevin A. Yelvington.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1-56639-285-3.-ISBN 1-56639-286-1 (pbk.)
I. Power (Social sciences}-Trinidad and Tobago. 2. Women
Employment-Trinidad and Tobago. 3. Ethnicity-Trinidad and
Tobago. 4. Working class-Trinidad and Tobago. I. Title.
HN246.Z9P69 1995
305.8\00972983-dc20 94-34679
Contents
List of Tables and Illustrations
Vll
Acknowledgments
IX
Foreword by M. Patricia Fernandez-Kelly
Xlll
INTRODUCTION
1
ETHNICITY, GENDER, CLASS, AND THE
POLITICS OF POWER 9
2
LOCATING THE ETHNOGRAPHY IN HISTORY,
ECONOMY, AND SOCIETY 41
3
THE SITE OF PRODUCTION: A TRINIDADIAN
FACTORY 99
4
ETHNICITY AT WORK 130
5
GENDER AT WORK 156
6
CLASS AT WORK 186
CONCLUSION 231
Appendix: The EUL Supervisors and Line Workers 243
Notes 246
References 257
Index 278
v

Tables and Illustrations
TABLES
1 Labor-Force Participation, 1891-1958 55
2 Monthly Income, Public and Private Sectors, 1971 57
3 Working Population, by Industry Group, 1946-1960, Showing
the Proportion Earning More than TT$600 in 1957 57
4 Trinidad and Tobago Population, by Ethnic Group, 1980 67
5 Income Distribution, by Ethnic Group, 1971-1976 67
6 Disparity Ratios for Trinidad and Tobago, 1971-1982 67
7 Gini Ratios for Trinidad and Tobago, 1957/58-1981/82 68
8 Working Population, by Occupational Group, 1980 82
9 Median Monthly Income of All Paid Employees, by
Occupation, 1977 83
10 Working Population, by Income Group, 1980 83
11 Educational Attainment of Persons 15 Years Old and Older,
1980 84
12 Working Population, by Educational Attainment, 1980 84
13 Population, Labor Force, and Employment Estimates, 1986 85
14 Mean Age at Entry into Initial Union for Women 25 Years Old
and Older, Whose Initial Union Was Before Age 25, 1977 92
15 Percentage of All Women Ever in a Union, According to Union
History, by Ethnic Origin, Current Age, and Level of
Education, 1977 93
16 Percentage of All Women Ever in a Union, According to Union
Status, by Ethnic Origin, Level of Education, Place of
Residence, and Religion, 1977 94
17 Mean Number of Children Born to All Women Ever in a
Union, by Number of Years Since First Union and by Work
History, 1977 97
18 Houses in Diego Martin, by Material of Outer Walls, 1980 105
19 Ethnic Breakdown for Diego Martin and Trinidad and Tobago,
1980 106
VII
viii List of Tables and Illustrations
20 Religious Composition of Diego Martin and Trinidad and
Tobago, 1980 107
21 Age, Sex, and Ethnicity of the Factory Line Workers 108
22 Examples of Wages for EUL Line Workers, 1986-1987 114
23 Wage Agreements for Selected Weekly Paid Employees at
National Canners Ltd. 115
24 Workers' Preferences Regarding Supervisor's Ethnicity, 1979 137
25 Workers' Attitudes About Ethnic Intermarriage, 1979 181
26 Workers' Attitudes About the Political Capacity of Union
Leaders 203
27 Workers' Attitudes About Government Ownership 204
28 Workers' Views on Participation, by Level of Occupation, 1979 204
29 Cost Components of Gross Domestic Product, Percentage
Distribution, Trinidad and Tobago, 1966-1985 209
30 Cost of Living in Selected Cities, 1988 219
MAPS
1 The Caribbean Area 43
2 Trinidad and Tobago 44
3 The Northwest Peninsula 103
FIGURE
1 Layout of the EUL Factory 118
Acknowledgments
THE FIELDWORK on which this book is based (1986-87) was not funded by a
grant or fellowship. Like the women workers I write about, I pieced together
a little funding here and a little there to help support my work during the
long writing stage. I am grateful to the Royal Anthropological Institute for a
Radcliffe-Brown award that helped in the writing of an earlier version. In
addition, I used part of a grant from the Mellon Foundation and the Latin
American and Caribbean Center at Florida International University, which
also helped to support another research project of mine, to collect further
archival data for this book.
At Florida International University, where I taught from 1990 until
1994, I was assisted by my colleagues in the Department of Sociology and
Anthropology and those affiliated with the Latin American and Caribbean
Center. I would especially like to thank Stephen M. Fjellman, Maria Cristina
Finlay, Guillermo J. Grenier, Michelle Lamarre, Kathleen Logan, Anthony
P. Maingot, Walter Gillis Peacock, Rene Ramos, John F. Stack, Jr.,
Richard Tardanico, Mark B. Rosenberg, and John French, who is now at
Duke University.
At the University of Sussex, where I was a postgraduate student from 1985
until 1991, I received invaluable assistance and instruction from Richard
D. E. Burton, A. L. Epstein, Ralph Grillo, David Harrison, Ann White
head, and Donald Wood.
I would also like to acknowledge the assistance given to me by the officials
at the Institute for Development Studies library at the University of Sussex.
A thank you as well to Calum Turner for all of his encouragement and
assistance over the years.
At Temple University Press I have been fortunate to work with Senior
Acquisitions Editor Doris B. Braendel, who, besides providing patience and
professionalism, has provided good humor and good advice. Un fuerte abrazo
to Doris. Lots of thanks are also due to Debby Stuart and Henna Remstein
for all of their help, and to Jeff Beneke, who copyedited the manuscript with
IX