Radical Political Unionism as a Strategy for Revitalization in Argentina

• DOI: 10.1177/0094582X17736042
• Author: Julieta Longo,Lucila D’Urso
• Date: 01 November 2018
• Published date: 01 November 2018
• Subject Matter: ArticlesWorkers’ Struggles

LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES, Issue 223, Vol. 45 No. 6, November 2018, 97–113

DOI: 10.1177/0094582X17736042

© 2017 Latin American Perspectives

97

Radical Political Unionism as a Strategy for Revitalization

in Argentina

by

Lucila D’Urso and Julieta Longo

Translated by

Carlos Pérez

The grassroots union experiment undertaken at the Lear automotive parts factory in

Argentina can be seen as a paradigmatic struggle for an understanding of the relationship

between unionism and politics. The Lear case reveals that the distinctiveness of radical

political unionism lies in the democratic elements of its decision making and its appeal to

direct action, its construction of alliances with other social organizations, its linkage of

economic demands with broader political objectives, its identification of the management,

the state, and the union bureaucracy as adversaries, and its transmission of a leftist polit-

ical culture.

La experiencia sindical de la fábrica de autopartes Lear en Argentina puede ser anali-

zada como un conflicto paradigmático para comprender la relación entre sindicalismo y

política. El caso de Lear revela que el carácter distintivo del sindicalismo político radical

se encuentra en los mecanismos democráticos de toma de decisiones y en la apelación a

medidas de acción directa, la construcción de alianzas con otras organizaciones sociales,

la vinculación de las demandas económicas con objetivos políticos más amplios, la identi-

ficación de la empresa, el Estado y la burocracia sindical como adversarios y la transmisión

de una cultura política de izquierda.

Keywords: Radical political unionism, Revitalization, Union strategies, Automotive

parts industry, Argentina

Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, discussion has arisen around

the so-called crisis of the labor movement (Silver, 2005). Along with theories

questioning the capacity of unionism to represent an increasingly heteroge-

neous working class, more relevant approaches have focused on strategy for

strengthening union organization in a context marked by neoliberalism and

globalization. Thus, in the English-speaking nations the concept of “union

renewal” has emerged (Beherens, Hamann, and Hurd, 2004; Frege and Kelly,

2003). In Argentina these approaches have been adopted in the context of a

strengthening of union organizations since 2004 (Etchemendy and Collier,

2008; Senén Gonzalez and del Bono, 2013). The discussions have centered on

Lucila D’Urso teaches labor sociology at the Universidad de Buenos Aires, and Julieta Longo is

postdoctoral fellow of the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas at the Centro

de Estudios e Investigaciones Laborales. Carlos Pérez teaches Chicano and Latin American stud-

ies at California State University, Fresno.

736042LAPXXX10.1177/0094582X17736042Latin American PerspectivesD’Urso and Longo / Radical Political Unionism and Revitalization in Argentina

research-article2017

98 LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES

arriving at an understanding of whether this strengthening reflects a qualita-

tive change in union actions or is only a resurgence of traditional practices

(Atzeni and Ghigliani, 2007). These debates have enriched the study of grass-

roots unionism. Some writers question the existence of a transformation in the

activities of the leadership, asserting that elements of revitalization lie in the

grassroots (Atzeni and Ghigliani, 2013; Lenguita and Montes Cató, 2010; Longo,

2014; Varela, 2015) and raising new questions regarding what distinguishes this

unionism from that of workplaces dominated by traditional unions. These

questions are also present in international debates. In the past few years,

English-speaking intellectuals have demonstrated the importance of the debate

over union strategies. Questioning in particular the idea of social movement

unionism, they have proposed the designation of radical political unionism as

one of the strategies by which unions might confront the crisis. This strategy is

characterized by its appeal to direct action and its politicization of workers’

struggles.

The objective of this study is to contribute to this rich debate with a critical

rethinking of this literature through the study of an important conflict initiated

by the automotive parts manufacturer Lear of Argentina. This conflict had its

epicenter around mid-2014, when the management laid off more than 100

workers and blocked the representatives of the workers’ internal committee

from entry to the factory. Its methods and the relation between unionism and

the political permit the designation of this conflict as an expression of radical

political unionism, but they took place in the context of the strengthening of

traditional unions and labor institutions. Therefore the following questions

motivated our analysis: Is it possible to consider the experience of the Lear

workers as an expression of radical political unionism? How does the political

operate in the configuration of union strategies? And, finally, what are the lim-

its and possibilities of this union strategy?

In order to answer these questions, we will analyze five interrelated ele-

ments of the conflict that will permit us to characterize the orientation of the

workers’ actions: the mechanisms of decision making and direct action, the

structure of alliances that they establish with other organizations and actors,

the politicization of their demands, their identification of adversaries, and their

linkages with political organizations. Analysis in these terms will contribute to

a deeper understanding not only of the Lear case but also of grassroots labor

struggles in general. We conducted a quantitative analysis of the conflicts in the

automotive industry and at Lear between 2006 and 2014, utilizing the data base

supplied by the undersecretary for technical programming and labor studies of

the Ministry of Labor, Employment, and Social Security, and a qualitative anal-

ysis of news stories and union documents that permitted us to identify the

features of the union strategy.

RADICAL POLITICAL UNIONISM IN THE DEBATES

ON REVITALIZATION

Radical political unionism is presented in the scholarly literature as one of

the alternatives by which unions can confront their decline as representative