The Labour Market in the Spanish Fish-canning Industry, 1880-1977: Labour Contracts and Work Organization

This article explains the evolution of the labour market in fish-canning communities in Spain, showing the nature of the labour contracts and how the sexual division of labour and work organization contributed to the development of the industry as well as to family and local economies. Labour contracts in the fish-canning sector have been mainly temporary for females and permanent for males throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Spanish fish-canning, a sector mainly directed toward the international market, has based its competitive advantage on inexpensive female labour with temporary contracts, among other other factors, such as a good quality product and low fish prices. Canning entrepreneurs predominantly hired women, who comprised the majority of the labour force. Women worked seasonally, and their contractual conditions were generally poorer than those for men.