What does structural reforms mean to workers organizations? The impact of neoliberalism on the trade union model in Argentina

ZORZOLI, MARÍA LUCIANA

Londres

Congreso; 11th Annual Historical Materialism Conference; 2014

Historical Materialism Editorial Board and School of Oriental & African Studies University of London

Despite a longstanding tradition in the marxist study of neoliberalism and the impact of structural reforms on trade union structure, there are still a wealth of important aspects to be studied in Latin America since neoliberalism has succeeded in promoting massive changes in most of the relevant areas that frame trade union structure: industrial relations including the labour market and workforce composition (unemployment, precarization, outsourcing), labour/state relations, and the form of the state. This paper aims them to bring light, along the roots of actual trade union structures in Argentina. We will critically review academic production and challenge their understanding of the trade unions model through a case where all this tensions have been revealed: the murder of Mariano Ferreyra, a young grass root activist by members of "Unión Ferroviaria" the Railways trade union. The judicial case (that lead its general secretary among others to conviction in 2012) will show how this "business unionism" was formed and will allow us to discuss structural changes in workers organizations stemming from neoliberal reforms and the last dictatorship.