CEIL   02670
CENTRO DE ESTUDIOS E INVESTIGACIONES LABORALES
Unidad Ejecutora - UE
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
The organization of precarious workers in Argentina: between marketplace, workplace and associational powel
Autor/es:
ATZENI, M.
Lugar:
Yokohama
Reunión:
Conferencia; International Sociological Association World Conference; 2014
Institución organizadora:
International Sociological Association
Resumen:
In the global context, previously accepted
divisions between formal and informal employment are losing ground. The last
three decades of neoliberalism, rather than reducing the gap between protected
and unprotected workers, have made work more precarious. Not just workers
traditionally employed within the so called informal sector of the economies have
increased in number. Precarious conditions of employment are becoming the
standard in formally regulated systems of employment and this across the Global
North/Global South divide. Despite common tendencies, the possibility for
collective organising among precarious workers however differs consistently, between
countries but also between different economic sectors of activity within the
same country.
Drawing on fieldwork research currently conducted
in Argentina, the paper aims to give a country overview of the factors that can
explain the forms and strategies adopted by different groups of precarious
workers in their attempts at collective organizing. Argentina in the last two
decades has passed through deep crises and economic recoveries, processes of de-industrialisation
and partial reconversion to industrial production and has moved, in a
relatively short time span, from a formalized and extended system of work
protection and workers?representation, close to the one existing in postwar
Europe, to a system of employment that remains based, despite recent economic
growth and government?s policy changes, on the precariousness and informality of
the majority of the working population. In this sense and for its history,
Argentina might be considered as a good example of the way in which structural
processes continuously shift the borders within which precarious workers?action
takes place. Socio-political context, institutional framework and history of
workers mobilizations are the general factors that can be outlined. However,
the level of precariousness, skills, strategic location and technological
development of the sector in which workers develop their activities also profoundly
affects possibilities for action.