Worker Power, Trade Union Strategy, and International Connections: Dockworker Unionism in Colombia and Chile

Abstract

This article analyzes the constitution of dockworkers’ power and its impact on trade union strategy in recent labor disputes in Chile and Colombia. Dockworkers’ strategic location in the economies of both countries would predict a high degree of shop-floor power among both groups. In practice, however, Colombian dock-workers had far less shop-floor power than their Chilean counterparts, as a result of mitigating social and political factors. Consequently, they developed a strategy this study terms human rights unionism, relying on external allies and lawsuits for leverage, rather than shop-floor action. Dockworkers in Chile, by contrast, adopted a strategy termed class struggle unionism, relying on nationally and internationally coordinated shop-floor action. This article therefore proposes an expanded model of workers’ structural power, incorporating the roles of state and society to better account for power differentials and divergent strategic pathways among workers who share a common position in the economic system.

Building Labour Internationalism ‘from Below’: Lessons from the International Dockworkers Council’s European Working Group

“…Trade unionists in less internationally oriented sectors of the economy, in sectors with less industrial power, and in parts of the world in which trade unionism is poorly institutionalised, no doubt face far greater challenges which innovative organisational form alone will certainly not resolve. In fact, research suggests that in countries like Colombia, in which trade unionists struggle for basic recognition, the superior resources and bureaucratic capacities of the ITF may provide significant advantages as compared with the IDC (Fox-Hodess, 2019). Nevertheless, the finding that a poorly resourced but well-networked organisation (the IDC) was able to provide significant advantages to European trade union affiliates as compared with a far better resourced but more bureaucratically organised body (the ITF/ETF) suggests that, at the very least, the role of organisational form in international trade unionism merits further research.…”

Defending workers' rights on social media: Chinese seafarers during the COVID‐19 pandemic

“…One such case is dock workers who have the potential to block the country's maritime trade. Fox‐Hodess ( 2019 ), however, argues that workplace bargaining power is not determined by economic factors alone but is also affected by sociopolitical factors. In her study of dockworker unionism in Colombia and Chile, Fox‐Hodess noted that due to state‐sanctioned repression, Columbian dock workers had less workplace power than their Chilean counterparts, and instead, they leveraged international allies to put pressure on local employers.…”

Disrupting the Rhythms of Violence: Anti‐port Protests in the City of Buenaventura

“…Changes in labour relations were radical. The majority of workers were laid off, and some re‐employed on precarious contracts (Fox‐Hodess, 2019). While the Work Ministry later imposed sanctions on 30 port operators that had ignored labour laws for years, automation made port workers partly superfluous, decoupling the port from urban space, local political authority, and the hinterland (Findeter, 2015, p. 90).…”

“…‘We all got together, women’s and youth organizations, traders, transporters, unions’ (Riascos, 2017). The strike gave dockworkers the potential to call on the effects of their own precarious conditions (Fox‐Hodess, 2019), and those dockworkers that are dwellers also suffered the violent urban rhythm. The strike is a deliberate intervention into rhythmic regularity.…”