Labour Regimes and Rural Classes of Labour in the Automotive Industry in Mexico

ABSTRACT The automotive industry in Mexico is sustained by a labour regime rooted in low‐cost labour, made possible in part by the integration of rural workers and peasants into both the production lines and the broader processes of social reproduction of labour power. To fully grasp this relationship would require analyzing the mechanisms that enforce labour control and discipline, not only within the production process itself but also within the broader realm of social reproduction. This article examines the composition of the labour force in Tlaxcala's automotive region, focusing on the areas surrounding the Puebla‐based VW and Audi assembly plants, to emphasize the essential role of workers from peasant backgrounds in maintaining conditions of super‐exploitation. Displaced by neoliberal policies of dispossession and forced devaluation, these rural workers have become a key source of cheap labour for the industry. Now integrated into the workforce as part of ‘rural classes of labour,’ they rely on multiple economic activities to compensate for the industry's low wages. This dynamic illustrates how the subordinate incorporation of rural communities into the maquiladora sector is essential to maintain the labour regimes characteristic of automotive export enclaves.