This dissertation examines two overlapping phenomena, the expansion of an international commodity sector and workers’ resistance to the terms and conditions of their employment in it. First, it draws on commodity circuit and employment relations studies of power to develop international commodity network analysis of employment relations observed in strawberry production and retail sales. The analysis finds that network organization of the commodity circuit intensifies production managers’ interests in low labor costs. National state interventions contribute to lead firm control over exchanges in the network, and support employers to sustain low-cost labor through the creation of surplus labor markets, selective regulatory enforcement, and suppression of worker collective action. The mobilization of racialized and gendered hierarchies mediates the employer, labor, and national state interactions, supporting externalization of labor reproduction costs to workers while creating divisions among them. Second, the study draws on power resources and human development theories to explain why certain workers in the strawberry sector achieved more of their demands than others. It applies a processual model of power building to five cases of labor efforts to improve their employment. The finding that workers create solidarity through the process of human dignity extends the power resources theory with an explanation of the actions that produce this necessary component of associational power.