New times are still coming, old times are still leaving: Notes about young people?s participation and union traditions in contemporary Argentina

SOUL JULIA

Young Workers and Trade Unions: A Global View

Palgrave Macmillan

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2015; p. 37 - 53

?New times are still coming, old times are still leaving?. Notes about young people?s participation and union traditions in contemporary Argentina Young people?s political commitment is one of main topics in official political discourse in Argentina. Young militants and leaders have been promoted to central charges in ministries and in parliament and play a central role in grassroot militancy. The same process takes place in trade union scope, where young workers have organized in new unions, rooted in sectors characterized by precarious jobs, at the same time that young leaders stand on stage unions ? although traditional leaders prevail at national scope. Argentinian labor movement has been historically expressed by peronist tradition, classically oriented by premises of class conciliation and state subordination; although there has been a minor but important presence of left wing traditions, both inside and out of peronism. So, this ?generational renewal? occurs in a context of different union traditions, each of which has distinctive ideological, political and organizational premises. Those premises are expressed by different practices and senses in daily militancy, and support the top levels union dynamic. In this sense, we focus on features that assume young people?s participation in unions and the ruptures and continuities that they pose to older leaders and militants. We explore this issue through two cases that express main union traditions at different organizational levels: 1-The south section of public workers association (ATE): This section is led by a left oriented group identified with classist tradition. They have systematically recruited young activists for executive committees since 2001. 2-The company committee of the main steel mill plant. They express a singular union tradition proper of transnational companies, linked to ?results unionism? although inside peronist identity. In this company committee meet young and older shop stewards, dealing with workers? daily problems and demands.