Fair skies. Argentinian airport workers and the imagination of an alternative development.

WOLANSKI, SANDRA

Ciudad de Buenos Aires

Congreso; 36th International Labour Process Conference; 2018

CEIL-PIETTE, CONICET

Development is a notion that has long been the subject of anthropological studies, which have lengthily discussed its roots on a linear evolutionary conception and pointed out the relations of power that shape what is globally understood as 'development'. Showing that it is often contested and shaped from below, academics in the Global South have long focused on the actions and initiatives of indigenous peoples, or rural communities. In this paper, I want to examine instead how trade unions in urban areas seek to influence and shape what is considered 'development', by discussing and mobilizing from the standpoint of their workplaces and the labor processes involved. With this goal, this paper presents results from an ongoing post-doctoral research with the union of airport workers in Argentina ? APA, Asociación del Personal Aeronáutico. In the context of a progressive implementation of neoliberal reforms in the country, a politics of 'open skies' is being pushed forward, and new 'low-cost' airlines are pushing to enter the market. The courses of action in this scenario could be multiple, and APA -as well as the other airline workers' unions- are faced to dilemmas concerning the goals of union action. I show how today the union's action revolves around the idea of public (air) transportation as a a public service that reaches 'everyone' and thus constitutes a citizenship right, as opposed to a model centered on private gain. This stand is not only discursive, but concerns everyday negotiations of job positions, companies' investments, priviledged air routes and the introduction of new technologies at work. Furthermore, as opposed to a discourse that strongly insists on the need to ?integrate to the world? in the terms of transnational companies -as an equivalent to development-, APA develops a strong course of action toward generating strong global airline and transportation workers' networks, centered on working conditions and workers' rights, but also in the services and conditions offered to passengers. As a whole, this paper seeks to shed light on the ways workers imagine and defend alternative models of development, linking everyday practices in the workplace to larger issues of equality, justice, public good, citizenship rights and globalization.