Autor/es
Descripción
ver mas
Colaborador
Senén González, Cecilia
Marticorena, Clara
Temporal Coverage
2003-2014
Idioma
spa
Extent
278 p.
Derechos
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
Atribución-NoComercial-SinDerivadas 2.0 Genérica (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Formato
application/pdf
Identificador
Cobertura
ARG
BRA
2003-2014
Abstract
This dissertation explores the unions strategies of Sindicato de Mecánicos y Afines del Transporte Automotor (SMATA) in Argentina and Sindicato dos Metalúrgicos de ABC (SM ABC) in Brazil in the context of the economical, social and political processes that marked the region in the period 2003-2014. Our research is in line with the studies on labor relations and recovers the debates on the union renewal that took place in Argentina and Brazil during the first decade of the XXI century. To address our study problem, we considered two emblematic unions which represent the majority of the workers in the automotive sector at the national level in Argentina and at the ABC Paulista regional level in Brazil.
To conduct our investigation we proposed: (1) to reconstruct the union strategies taken by SMATA and SM ABC historically, focusing on the period 2003-2014, from the analysis of collective bargaining and its relation with labor conflict; (2) to analyze the role played by the State in the dynamics of labor relations in the automotive sector in the period 2003-2014, in connection with the characteristics of the legal regulations mediating the capital-work relation and to identify in which way its actions affect the correlation of forces at the sectorial level; (3) to identify the characteristics and changes in the organization of the productive process and the “management” of the labor force in the Ford automotive terminal in Argentina and Brazil and the union’s actions in response to the strategies deployed by the company.
The concept of union renewal arose in England and the US at the end of the 90th decade to refer to the strategies developed by the unions in a context of capitalist restructuring and neoliberal offensive (Beherens, Hamann and Hurd, 2004; Frege and Kelly, 2003). The best known studies resorted to the comparison between countries to explain the actions taken by the unions, establishing a causal relation between the union strategies and the restrictions imposed by the economical and institutional contexts. Our thesis, in turn, takes a perspective derived from the marxism, highlighting the importance of analyzing the unions actions in relation to the contradictions of the capitalist processes of production and accumulation (Hyman, 1981) and thinking about the unions not only as economic agents, but also, and mainly, as political agents (Hyman and Grumbell-McCormick, 2010; Hyman, 2004). In this direction, we move forward to an analysis which takes into account the way in which both factors and relations external to the union organization (the political and economical context, the companies strategies and the sectors strategic position) and internal (union structure, role of the leaders and delegates, forms of struggle) influence their strategies.
We define union renewal as a process which implies the renovation of strategies, not by the accomodation of the union to a certain political-economical context, but by the construction of a political-ideological position which given its forms of struggle, the role played by the union delegates and leaders, and the bonding with the represented workers, expresses a breakdown with respect to their organizational traditions. In this line, we depart from the main studies that focused on the evolution of quantitative indicators of union power (collective bargaining, labour conflict and union membership) relegating in the analysis the bargaining’s contents, the characteristics of the conflicts and the internal functioning of the unions and their political orientation.
Our main hypothesis poses that even when the changes in the economical context and the forms assumed by the labor institutions after the year 2003 in Argentina and Brazil settled the bases for the quantitative growth of collective bargaining, labor conflict and union membership, these elements do not express the presence of a renewal process. Instead, it is necessary to probe into the meaning that the union practices acquire in terms of the construction of a political-trade strategy.
To develop our research goals and evaluate our work hypothesis we build on a qualitative study that combines primary sources of information such as interviews and secondary sources such as companies and unions documents, data bases and collective labor agreements. The investigation distinguishes three levels of analysis to give an account of the different forms adopted by the union strategies. At the first level we consider the specificities that mark the political and economical contexts of Brazil and Argentina in the period under study, with the aim of analyzing how the juncture influences the union dynamics at a general level; at the second level we present an analysis of the characteristics of the automotive sector, highlighting its economical relevance in each country and the specificities that define the labor relations by studying the collective bargaining and labor conflict, paying particular attention to the role played by the State and its influence on the correlation of forces at the sectorial level; finally, at the third level, we focus on the practices of the unions under study at Ford, an American-owned automotive terminal with subsidiaries in both countries. In this way we include a third level of central analysis –often missing- in the union studies, the workplace, where we observe the way in which the companies’ strategies influence the union practices and vice versa.
By studying two politically and economically emblematic unions, our research offers a new perspective on the phenomenon of union renewal in Argentina and Brazil. The critical analysis of the concept of renewal allowed us to recognise the absence of the union strategies problem in previous works and to propose an analytical conceptual scheme where we link the union’s internal and external relations for its study. We conclude that the favorable politicaleconomical juncture, the impulse that the automotive sector had and the institutional linkages materializing in agreements and occasional bargainings with the State and the employers, did not imply a renovation of the strategies taken by SMATA and SM ABC, but instead these were the elements by which these unions strengthened their strategies of class conciliation and the prevalence of institutional action over direct action.
To conduct our investigation we proposed: (1) to reconstruct the union strategies taken by SMATA and SM ABC historically, focusing on the period 2003-2014, from the analysis of collective bargaining and its relation with labor conflict; (2) to analyze the role played by the State in the dynamics of labor relations in the automotive sector in the period 2003-2014, in connection with the characteristics of the legal regulations mediating the capital-work relation and to identify in which way its actions affect the correlation of forces at the sectorial level; (3) to identify the characteristics and changes in the organization of the productive process and the “management” of the labor force in the Ford automotive terminal in Argentina and Brazil and the union’s actions in response to the strategies deployed by the company.
The concept of union renewal arose in England and the US at the end of the 90th decade to refer to the strategies developed by the unions in a context of capitalist restructuring and neoliberal offensive (Beherens, Hamann and Hurd, 2004; Frege and Kelly, 2003). The best known studies resorted to the comparison between countries to explain the actions taken by the unions, establishing a causal relation between the union strategies and the restrictions imposed by the economical and institutional contexts. Our thesis, in turn, takes a perspective derived from the marxism, highlighting the importance of analyzing the unions actions in relation to the contradictions of the capitalist processes of production and accumulation (Hyman, 1981) and thinking about the unions not only as economic agents, but also, and mainly, as political agents (Hyman and Grumbell-McCormick, 2010; Hyman, 2004). In this direction, we move forward to an analysis which takes into account the way in which both factors and relations external to the union organization (the political and economical context, the companies strategies and the sectors strategic position) and internal (union structure, role of the leaders and delegates, forms of struggle) influence their strategies.
We define union renewal as a process which implies the renovation of strategies, not by the accomodation of the union to a certain political-economical context, but by the construction of a political-ideological position which given its forms of struggle, the role played by the union delegates and leaders, and the bonding with the represented workers, expresses a breakdown with respect to their organizational traditions. In this line, we depart from the main studies that focused on the evolution of quantitative indicators of union power (collective bargaining, labour conflict and union membership) relegating in the analysis the bargaining’s contents, the characteristics of the conflicts and the internal functioning of the unions and their political orientation.
Our main hypothesis poses that even when the changes in the economical context and the forms assumed by the labor institutions after the year 2003 in Argentina and Brazil settled the bases for the quantitative growth of collective bargaining, labor conflict and union membership, these elements do not express the presence of a renewal process. Instead, it is necessary to probe into the meaning that the union practices acquire in terms of the construction of a political-trade strategy.
To develop our research goals and evaluate our work hypothesis we build on a qualitative study that combines primary sources of information such as interviews and secondary sources such as companies and unions documents, data bases and collective labor agreements. The investigation distinguishes three levels of analysis to give an account of the different forms adopted by the union strategies. At the first level we consider the specificities that mark the political and economical contexts of Brazil and Argentina in the period under study, with the aim of analyzing how the juncture influences the union dynamics at a general level; at the second level we present an analysis of the characteristics of the automotive sector, highlighting its economical relevance in each country and the specificities that define the labor relations by studying the collective bargaining and labor conflict, paying particular attention to the role played by the State and its influence on the correlation of forces at the sectorial level; finally, at the third level, we focus on the practices of the unions under study at Ford, an American-owned automotive terminal with subsidiaries in both countries. In this way we include a third level of central analysis –often missing- in the union studies, the workplace, where we observe the way in which the companies’ strategies influence the union practices and vice versa.
By studying two politically and economically emblematic unions, our research offers a new perspective on the phenomenon of union renewal in Argentina and Brazil. The critical analysis of the concept of renewal allowed us to recognise the absence of the union strategies problem in previous works and to propose an analytical conceptual scheme where we link the union’s internal and external relations for its study. We conclude that the favorable politicaleconomical juncture, the impulse that the automotive sector had and the institutional linkages materializing in agreements and occasional bargainings with the State and the employers, did not imply a renovation of the strategies taken by SMATA and SM ABC, but instead these were the elements by which these unions strengthened their strategies of class conciliation and the prevalence of institutional action over direct action.
Título obtenido
Doctora de la Universidad de Buenos Aires en Ciencias Sociales
Institución otorgante
Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Sociales