The coal miners' perception of the working conditions in the wells in Minas de Barroterán-Coahuila, Mexico

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of working conditions among coal miners in Minas de Barroterán-Coahuila, in northern Mexico. The text has as its base and foundation the ethnographic material obtained during the fieldwork that was carried out between January 2013 and July 2014. The text describes and interprets the perception of the miners about the working life in the wells; Although this sector belongs to the small mining sector in the analysis of the interviews, the work history of the miners led us to the historical interrelation between the large, medium and small mining. The wells represent the crudest expression of the deterioration of the prevailing working conditions in the three sectors. The labor experience of the miners sheds light on the singularities that the long-range processes acquire: the rhythms of capitalist accumulation are amassed with the voracity of local politicians and businessmen grooming the soil of significations; there the values ​​that give meaning to the concrete life of the miners shape the perceptions. Immersed in a labor dynamic crossed by the risks, the miners are torn between life and death in the dilemma of obtaining income and the latent possibility of running out of work.