Serdar 2012

Serdar A. 2012. "Strategies for revitalizing labour movements: Union organizing and building alliances with community in Argentina". Economic and Industrial Democracy. 33 (3): 403-420.

• Article examines labor revitalization strategies in Argentina, which embraces both organizing efforts and alliances with community based groups (404)
• focus on CTA
• example of labor losing structural power (ie workplace collective bargaining) and compensating by going for associational power (mobilization, large societal group)
• The CTAs failure to organize workers in strategies sectors limited its structural power, constructed alliances with social movements to gain associational power (405)
• Legal Restrictions to Right to Unionize
• CTA founded by dissident CGT unions: public sector workers and teachers
• CTA mainly does not have personaria gremial (given to majority union in a workplace), meaning: (406)
• jobs of union reps are not protected
• Cta cannot rep workers in conflict
• CTA cannot collectively bargain
• CTA cannot collect dues
• only 1/4 of CTA member unions have personaria gremial
• The CTA’s efforts to organize
• labor law allows CB contracts to be extended to all workers in a given firm, so historically Argentine unions have had passive organizing strategies (Marshall and Perelman 2008) (406)
• The CTA’s emphasis on union democracy and autonomy from the government attracted small-scale independent unions, many of which opposed Menemismo (407)
• CTA also attempted to set up new unions in CGT dominated sectors
• but these often fail to gain full recognition, since they don’t become majority unions
• CTA, overall, is weak in private sector due in large part to CGT’s dominance in private sector (408)
• CTA has been able to attract small scale unions, but hasn’t been able to break into large, important sectors
• Building Alliances with Community Groups
• CTA’s weakness in strategic sectors has perpetuated its weak labor power (409)
• but this weakness opened up possibility of creating an SMU
• CTA incorporated community alliances with gave it growing credibility in the political realm
• CTA organized and recruited marginalized groups, like sex workers, garbage collectors, the unemployed, indigenous and peasants
• did so rather successfully
• Leadership of CTA is active at the grassroots level, which helps recruit community groups (410)
• connections between CTA rank and file, leadership, and community groups all began at grassroots level
• Groups that joined CTA had low expectations at the outside, as they were generally powerless, but found the CTA was able to protect, nurture them without controlling them, which then led to stronger alliance (410-411)
• CTA also made alliances with groups that were looking to create a new social front (411)
• this allowed CTA not only to join a growing movement, but become nexus for that movement, introduce groups to one another
• this really improved the CTAs political credibility (412)
• BUT the availability of autonomous resources complicated this picture
• under the CTA umbrella, the FTV organized piqueteros and unemployed, was strong mobilization force for the CTA (412-413)
• BUT FTV could not sustain itself, eventually got close to the government in exchange for monetary support, and further from the CTA (413-414)
• Conclusion
• Argument: The characteristics of labor power (whether or not a union has it) largely determines the revitalization strategies adopted by a union (414)
• My take: does agency fit in? Can a solid, stable union revitalize?
• Mutual  benefits must accrue if a union-community group alliance is going to survive (415)
• BUT both still need autonomous resource base, or one could get coopted
• In 2008 internal conflict began, came to a head in 2010 with contested election, issue was how to relate to Cristina
• lack of structural power means CTA could very likely split, driven by lack of structural power (416)
• “Labour power that can be built up through alliances is no substitute for labour’s structural power...” (416)