Uniting What Capital Divides: Ethnographic Study of Union Strategies towards Informality in Three Argentinean Factories

RODOLFO ELBERT

Madison, Wisconsin

Workshop; Socio Economic Change and Development Brownbag; 2012

Sociology Department, University of Wisconsin

The conventional wisdom in scholarly discussions of Latin American labor movements is that labor fragmentation makes it increasingly difficult for workers employed in the formal economy to engage in collective action. This fragmentation explains why social conflict in the region in the past decades has occurred mainly within the growing informal sectors, as in the movements of unemployed workers (Collier & Handlin, 2005; Roberts, 2002). However, recent Argentine history points to the increasing relevance of protests by workers employed in firms of the formal economy (Palomino, 2007). Contrary to the expectations of the literature, labor revitalization occurs in spite of a fragmented workforce. How can we explain the rise in organized labor militancy among formal sector workers given the persistence of the division between formal and informal workers? This paper answers this questions comparing union strategies towards labor informality in three factories located in the city of Pacheco (Argentina). The study includes in-depth interviews with workers and union activists as well as participant and non-participant observations in union demonstrations.