Labor Relations and Conflict in the Automobile Sector

Trade Union Solidarity in Crisis: The Generative Tensions of Worker Solidarities in Argentina

“…Santella (2016) situates mobilisation of this living encounter in the cracks of ‘political opportunities’ of management failures, competing trade union representations, or other ‘cris[e]s of capitalist management’ (Santella, 2016: 155–156). Tensions within institutions that constrain worker solidarities, therefore, offer avenues for workers to organise around.…”

“…The implications for worker vulnerability were significant. The previous 15 years had seen a series of agreements between SMATA, automobile manufacturers and the state that had consolidated employment and wage growth, but with major concessions on the labour process (D’Urso, 2016; Guevara, 2012; Santella, 2016). As noted by interview participants, reducing available hours became one of the main trends in the sector between 2015 and 2019.…”

“…First, alongside the complementarities of these levels, there are also structural tensions. This is emphasised, for example, by Atzeni (2010) and Santella (2016) in relation to the specific institutional configurations of Argentina’s trade unions. Organisational structures of trade unions, and particularly bureaucratic leaderships, can act to disengage and fragment the organic forms of solidarity that emerge in and beyond the workplace (Atzeni, 2010: 19–20).…”