Labor market segmentation and the cultural division of labor in the copper mining industry, 1880–1920

Abstract

In a little-studied historical case, we find that ethnic and racial stratification in the workplace overlaps with labor market segmentation based on skill, authority, and seniority, muddling the historic discrimination involved in generating inequality. To explain the historic origins of ethnic inequality in the workplace, we examine the interaction of ethnicity and skill in the development of the Arizona copper mining industry from small-scale craft production to the biggest copper producer in the world, employing thousands of low-skilled industrial workers. The mechanization of mining deskilled traditional craft workers, leaving only the need for a small number of workers with new skills. Conflict between capital and labor over autonomy of work and control of hiring resulted in a segmented labor market. Most of the lower skilled workers were recent immigrants and their skill levels, turnover rates, and mobility chains differed significantly by ethnicity. As a result, immigration interacted with segmentation to create an ethnic segmentation of labor that was racist and discriminatory in character.

Citation

Boswell, T. and Brueggemann, J. (2000), "Labor market segmentation and the cultural division of labor in the copper mining industry, 1880–1920", Coy, P.G. (Ed.) Research in Social Movements, Conflicts and Change (Research in Social Movements, Conflicts and Change, Vol. 22), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 193-217. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0163-786X(00)80040-3