Self-Organization Against Trade Unions and the State: A Case Study from Argentina

ZORZOLI, LUCIANA

Journal of Labor and Society

Wiley

Lugar: Nueva York; Año: 2018 vol. 21 p. 19 - 35

This article explores some current issues related to workers? association in Latin America. It focuses on aparticular conflict that took place between precarious workers and a large trade union in Buenos Aires,Argentina, which resulted in the murder of a young leftist militant, Mariano Ferreyra. Against the abstractand sometimes naive views regarding trade union activities, as well as the general assumption of unions?importance, this article argues that an in-depth study of the mechanisms that some trade unions have forworkers representation and workers control will reveal how the constraints imposed on collective workersassociation, effective internal democracy, and workplace actions are more complex than the immediateevidence would show. A close examination of the aforementioned confrontation and murder, even thoughthese are exceptional situations, will provide us with a glimpse of the internal activity of one trade union,which will in turn reveal a great deal about the trade union?s core dynamics in Argentina, managementobjectives, and modus operandi. In so doing, this article will revisit questions about trade union operationsthat will prove illuminating for worker self-organization and for the academic debate concerning the powerof unions or the powerlessness of states, particularly in the Global South.