Desperate Fortunes: Latina Warehouse Workers in the “Matrix of Domination”

Much recent labor research has highlighted the increasing reliance on contingent employment. We apply intersectionality theory and Collins’s concept of the “matrix of domination” to data from focus groups with immigrant Latina “perma-temp” warehouse workers (n = 40), finding that the structural (dis-)organization of perma-temping serves as an instrument of domination and is crucial to our respondents’ experiences of work. However, the instability of these women’s contingent jobs entwines complexly with, and is compounded by, the subordination and decreased agency attached to their other minority statuses. We conclude by discussing the implications of our findings for theory, future scholarship, and policy