Ynoub 2012

• subcontracting workers from a telehone company
• at first they are demanding better working conditions, salaries, etc, but then they seem to have a foundational moment where they become workers of a certain trade, not just subcontractors. They form their own union, join social movements, etc, but include milestones of institutionalizaiton in their self-histry
• this seems to suggest that workers can construct a profession in their own right
• earlier images of this group didn't show workers as protagonists, just "protests", later we see workers show themselves as protagonists
• workers begin to show pride in their work, and themselves as workers, not just antagonists who need the help of other social movements
• befor eth eimages seemed to reinforce their place in inequality, later the images deamnded more respect, soaw themselves as repectable people and resisting the power

Collado 2010

• Introduction
• unions were weakened in the 1990s, and they seemed even worse off since the social movements that grew in the 2000s did so thanks to the same deindustrialization that weakened the unions! (171)
• the study focuses a on the new significance/importance/change in union practices (172)
• El sindicalismo en Argentina
• the crisis of political representation in the 1990s was also one that hurt uniosn a great deal, since they were supposed to be a political representation group for workers (172-173)
• peronist and corporatist unions became hegemonic (173-174)
• early on unions lost their autonomy, thanks to interventions (174)
• the union movement in Argentina has demonstrated an impressive ability to mobilize even when the military was trying to crush them (175)
• La refundacion de las parcticas sindicales y su resignificacion
• CTA and MTA were new arrivals, efforts to get back to the combativeness of unions int eh 1960s (178)
• CTA states that is is necessary to have autonomy from the state, business owners, political parties, and to value union unity and ethics (178-179)
• with the founding of the CTA, the unions withi teh new confederation needed to do some internal restructuring to improve internal democracy, which faced some obstacles (179)
• this article looks a the ATE in Medoza
• the tension between old bureaucratic leaders and new democracy, and the disruptive potential of these changes
• La Provicnia de Mendoza en el context nacional\
• state workers have very diverse jobs (180)
• lots of restructuring of the state employment during the 1990s, most of it mkaing owrk harder
• there were lots of protests against this restructuring (181)
• but the ATE lost most of these fights, and saw a lot of disaffiliation of union members (182)
• after 2001-2, workers became the main protagonists of social movmenets, no the unemp[loyed (184)
• El sindicalismo en renovacion
• important challenges to the union: (184)
• old delegtimization they have to overcome
• newly atomized workers
• to fight delegitimization, the union refounded itself on democratic and autonomous principles
• started electiosn and things that explicitly trie dot reonnect to the base
• new group of leaders elected in this process (185)
• joined a multisectoral movement in 2008, which had unions, social movements, student groups, etc., which held marches against tightening of protest laws and against increase in prices of public services (186)
• the unions repertoire of action has come ot included piquetes, territorialization, and attempts to be visible, int eh streets (186)
• as part of its dynamic amplification of particiaption, unions have taken to being groups of political formation for their members 9187)
• delegates at the groudn level play an important part in this revitalization (188)
• barriers:
• the meritocratic competition between member 
• public helath owrkers are told their are "responsible" for the health of their patients, and that striking would be a bad thing for the patients (188-189)
• fear that their jobs are vulnerable (189)
•  this fear can lead to inaction, and dlegates face a lot of fear among their constituents
• COnclusions
• this union did a lot of great stuff, is really becoming dynamic
• but internal issues and lack of ties between workers still hinders the union

Palomino and Silvana 2009

Caracterization de las nuevas inscriciones y personiaerias gremiales aen la argentina (2003-208)

• Introduction
• literature points to a revitalization of the labor movement (149)
• after a decade of other social conflicts predominating, industrial conflict (against private sector )seems to be regaining its central importance for unions
• thsi article focuses on the new unions that have ben registered, what they look like, how they act (150)
• looks at:
• the extent to which unions are centralizing
• what industries are being newly organized
• difference between public and private in demanding union recognition
• OVERALL: suggests a possilbe change in teh role of the state in granting personaria gremial, and that the institutions are beomcing more fluid, not as politically-focused as the used to be
• are we seeing a new generation question the old unions, and demand changes in the old unions, or perhaps whole new unions?!
• list of rights of personiaria gremiale (151)
• Some numbers
• applications:
• entre 2005 and 2008, 348 new unions (151), of which 95.4% were local level unions (151)
• 34% were for state-employer places (teachers, etc)
• Service industry 4%
• breakdown of industry, numbr of unions, etc (153-155)
• personarias gremiales
• approved 133 applications (155)
• Historical perspective
• historical numbers 158-170
• conclusions
• since 1983 much of the growth has been state-level unions, esepcailly among minucipal workers (171)
• education workers are the most powerful, most often strikers ()172)
• 
  

Senen Gonzalez 2011

• Introduction
• after 2003, unions became a much stronger player
• government began being more involved in economy
•  collective contracts grew a great deal, from and average or 197 per year in the 1990s, to 406 in 2003, 568 in 2005, 930 in 2006, 1654 in 2009
• question of the article: are unions revitalizing themselves, or are they just reacting to the changing context? (42)
• comparing the years 1990-2001 and 2002-2008
• articles suggests that there aren't only more collective contracts, but that the content of these contractsis also better
• there is a transformation of of the interior structures of unions, too, thanks to the presence of delegados in the workplace
• Nuevas Reglas del juego: politicas publicas
• Nestor Kirchner importantly tried to boost internal consumption among Argentines, and of course the debt default and the end of the convertibility plan (43)
• the state is aiming to take an active role in promoting ethical employment and social inclusion of workers (44)
• suggests that the old (and new) state-labor colatiion is based on the negotiation of salaries (46)
• state promotes salary increases, while unions make demands within inflation targets of the government
• mostly with CGT, since CTA does not have personaria gremial
• creates pattern bargaining (47)
• Consejo de Salario Minimo, Vital, y Movil includes CGT, CTA and business leaders (47)
• 2004 labor law change tries to consolidate some of the post-2001 changes in labor, including giving a stronger right to strike (though the right to strik eof "essential services" is still limited)
• also, some limitation of manager discretion, esepcailly around firing without just cause and arbitrary layoffs (49)
• El actor sindical: tradiciones y nuevas percepciones
• CTA was acting more like a social movement union, while CGT is bureaucratic thanks to strong labor institutions (50)
• seems like the revitalization in collective bargaining is less about getting more members, and more about improving union (leaders) position in poliitcs (51)
• BUT that's not the whole story, adn there are some challengers to this story
• Los indicadores de la revitalizaction
• workplaces with delegados have a much higher unionization rate (53)
• Collective contracts
• in teh 1990s, most common demand was about flexibilit yo employment
• in 2000s, wage levels became the most common thing in bargaining, and included social dialogue to figure out correct level (55)
• fighting back against "individualization" of salary
• coverage went from 3 million to 5 million between 2003 and 2008 (no citation)
• labor conflict
• more of them, peaking in 2007/2008 (56-57)
• state is still the most important target, but private sector is growing as a target (and state is shrinking, slightly (58)
• Conclusion
• most of this revitalization is coming from opportunities in a new context (59)
• CGT is doing top-down revitalization 
• 
  

delfini, erbes, and roitter 2011

• study about participation of workers in a union, and what determines this participation
• one of the biggest debates is the mobhilization coapcity of unions (375)
• some suggests relation between leadership and rank and file isn't the whole story
• some say partiicpation in union elections is iportant
• some say identification with the union is important
• what determines union affiliation? (the literature, split into 4 types)
• structuralists: employment rate, legal framework, economic cycle
• individual factors: motivation and/or personal characteristics
• socio-laboral: business size/type, labor relations
• interventionist: the link between high leaders and local leaders, the amount that a union actually comes and is invovled in a workplace, helps explain unionization rate
• there is a general hypothesis is that, in the context of reduced participation within unions, there are lots of different factors that help determine the distinct forms of union particiaption (378)
• quick descripiton of labro relations system in Argentina, page 379
• four indicators that a union member is involved in the union:
• if they know their union, and identify themselves as a member
• participate in union activites
• help negotiate a contract
• know what's in a contract (383)
• three types of involvment:
• desvinculado, 43%-- don't do any of the 4
• partial participation, 38% -- very much luck the desvinculados, but get involved in negotiations and know the contract
• integrated participation, 19% -- do all of the 4
• checking other theories
• business size does not affect probablity of union participation style
• desvinculados:
• higher educated, older workers less likely to be desvinculados
• women more likely to be desvinculados
• if the workplace has a long day, or the presence of a delegado, less likely workers will be desvinculados
• integrados
• very much dependent on the presence of a delegado
• the existence of a delegado is important to see idfference between integrados and disvinculados
• but so do some demographic variables (age, gender, education level)

Trajtemberg, Senen Gonzalez, Borroni, Pontoni 2012

• What is the scope of union representation at the level of the workplace? (4)
• the strong legal framework conditions but does not determine union representation on the shopfloor, other factors come into play
• debates about representation in Argentina: juridical and historical-sociological
• juridical
• representation versus representativeness (7)
• idea that unions should be democratic is representation
• BUT they also tacitly represent non-afilliated workers, so they have to keep them in mind while bargaining, is representividad (8)
• all from Ermida 993
• union can be representatives, but it also has to have the power to demand persnoaria gremial, which may cause destruction of some representativenss (9)
• sociologia hisotirica
• looks more at bureaucratization
• wokrplace delegate can try to minimize distance between the macro level union and the micro level workers through his actions (11)
• issues of representation and representitiveness challenge how to correctly unite differnet levels of uniosn to work for workers! (13)
• data from 2008 survey---seems like a survey of managers
• overall unionization rate was 37% (of population?)
• half of these people were in unions where less that 25% of workers in the plant were unionized
• When a delegado is present, the unioni rate is 49.4%, when there is no delegado, 30.3%
• most unionized workers are in large enterprises
• 3 types of union representation (workers charactersitics)
• Union rep mediated by institutions (18)
• 36% of workers
• 60% are in small shops (less than 50 employees)
• most are covered by a collective contract, probably not a lot of hierarchical positions
•  no local union representatives and no collective conflicts
• no strogn union presence, but are still covered by a contract and are affiliated with a union
• Consolidated Unionism (19)
• 36%
• large establishments
• most of these workers are in a place covered by a collective bargaining contract
• 93% have delegados
• most likely to have collective conflict
• strong union presence, fight out contracts
• Weak union representation
• 28%
• service industry, often subcontractors
• these people are on the margins of collective contracts
• 34% of businesses in the survey negotiated a clause about local union reps between 2007 and 2011...presumably ot make sure they are there, in the plan,t being stewards
• 
  

Benclowicz 2011

Benclowicz, José. 2011. "Continuities, Scope, and Limitations of the Argentine Piquetero Movement". Latin American Perspectives. 38 (1): 74-87.

• Introduction
• looking at Tartagal and Mosconi in Salta province (74)
• piquetero movement became the reference point for the area's working class, even displacing official unions
• Piquetes, workers, and the unemployed
• despite the fact that piqeuteros came fro many different classes, the term became closely identified with the unemployed movements (76)
• Three types of groups
• autonomous groups such as the UTD
• those connected with left-wing parties, such as the CTD, and MTL
• those linked to unions, like the FTV
• but also interlocking groups
• CCC is a workers and unemployed group with ties to communist party
• Leaders and Followers
• UTD (Mosconi)
• started in 1996 by an ex-YPF union militant (77)
• started presenting its own initiatives to the municipal government, and took controla of social assistance programs after a big roadblock in 1999
• questioned for allowing one of its memebrs to be part of governmet (78)
• CTD (Tartagal) created and led by a Polo Obrero leader (77)
• gained control of planes trabajar in 2000 (78)
•  this created distance between leaders and rank and file
• Simliarities
• leaders were usually ex state employees with union experience
• grassroots components were usually unemployed without much union experience
• "government wouldn't listen, so we block the roads"
• Piquetero Associations as union-social organizations
• these groups took over militant functions, like demanding wage increase on public works,  not taken up by the official unions (81)
• eventually some of the piquetero groups gained control of hiring on public projects, which is a big change from normal capitalist relations
• employers had to start negotiating with piqutero organizations to get labor (82)
• the official unions were subordinated to political power, so by gaining power on their own piquetero organizations usually forced unions out of the way, took the place they should have had
• Coordination
• UTD and CTD convened congress in 2000, set seven demands (including control of hiring, wage levels, set level of plaes funds, etc) (82-83)
• activists and leaders suffered harsh repression in June 2001 (83)
• The Coordination became a nucleus for the regrouping of unemployed and the labor movement allowed for joint actions, before it was crushed in summer of 2001
• meaning this movement seemed to present a real threat to the social and poltiical order...
• but failed to transcend in regional definition, and thus unable to survive state repression (84)

Roberts 2012

• Introduction
• one the one hand, democratic regimes from the 1980s have proven remarkably durable adn resilient to crises (2)
• On the other hand, party systems have been far less stable
• Paradoxically, democratic consolidation has coincided with a crisis of representation and general disillusionment with the political establishment
• but this crisis affects different countries differently
• Critical junctures:
• neoliberal turn (3)
• reactive sequences against neoliberalism!
• Modes of political representation based in ISI were undermined by its collapse, specficially among the popular classes
• and party systems varied widely in their ability to channel these issues
• Broadly, these critical junctures dealigned parties, made their programmatic promises seem less sincere (especially thanks to bait and switch)
• Argument:
• when a populist/mass-based party undertook economic reform
• it often made the transition more politically viable
• but also dealigned the party from its constituents (4)
• when a right party undertook economic reform
• left party was able to channel dissent through the insittuions
• party alignment was "reinforced"
• in both cases, parties that undertook reforms were vulnerable to leftist challenges
• The Puzzle of Party System Stability in Latin America
• Presidentialized party systems may result in parties with unaccountable elites, ambiguous programmatic stands, but it doesn't help explain the wide variation in strength and durability of party systems (5)
• electoral competition has not stabilized party systems or crystallized partisan identities
• During neoliberal transition programmatic differentiation was tough, since there were such acute constraints on policy options available (7)
• by contrast, the left turn helped realign some of these party systems
• "neoliberal critical junctures and teh reactive sequences they spawned dislodged and reconfigured historic party systems, altering their programmatic alignments in was that heavily conditioned the stability ot partisan competition in the aftermath period" (8)
• Market Liberalization and Part system alignments during neoliberal critical junctures
• Critical junctures are designed to explain why similar types of political or economic challenges produce different, path dependent patterns of institutional change across a range of cases
• suggest neoliberal critical juncture from 1973-1998 (Chavez ended it) (9)
• it altered:
• the character and purpose of state power
• the patterns of association in civil society
• the ways in which societal interests and claims were articulated and represented in the political arena (Collier and Handlin 2009, Yashar 2005)
• Party systems before market adjustment: (10)
• labor mobilizing
• elitist (with clientelistic relations to popular sectors)
• these preconditions weighed heavily on results of critic juncture, but did not define them entirely
• three basic requirements of programmatic structuring of party systems
• parties must adopt relatively coherent stands on salient issues that divide teh body politic (11)
• policies adopted in office must bear resemblance to election platform
• bait and switch severs relationship between electoral verdicts and the content of public policy (12)
• there must be meaningful differences/policy alternatives between the competing parties
• often not true during ISI crisis
• The regionwide transition undermined all three of these basic conditions (13)
• lots of policy switching, left/populist parties went along with reforms, or did bait and switch (13)
• created internal party dissension among leftish parties
• often meant that popular sector connections to parties were severd, replaced with clientelistic relations (14)
• BUT if a conservative party initiated transition, and left remained in opposition, no dealignment
• Three possible outcomes: table on page 16
• parties aligned (contested liberalism), outcome was a durable party system (15)
• Brazil, Chile, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Uruguay
• Mexico, thanks to creation of PRD which replaced PRI as left
• ambiguously Nicaragua (17)
• dealigned (bait and witch), or neutral (no real left to contest) results on part system (neoliberal convergence), outcome was not a durable part system
• dealigned: Argentina, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela
• Neutral: Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay
• contested liberalism allowed for dissent to be challenged through stable forms of electoral competition (17)
• neoliberal convergence resulted in systems susceptible to destabilizing reactive sequences
• 17-25 goes through cases and uses electoral data, etc to prove this story
• 
  

Wolff 2007

Jonas Wolff. 2007. "(De-)Mobilising the Marginalised: A Comparison of the Argentine Piqueteros and Ecuador's Indigenous Movement". Journal of Latin American Studies. 39 (1): 1-29.

• Compares the indigenous movement in Ecuador and the piqueteros in Argentina
• on the one hand, these movements have mobilized the marginalzied, which is unexpected
• but the state (in each case) has been able to subsequently demobilize and tame these movements without really giving into their lager demands (2)
• These movements were tamed because they coupled a NEGATIVE broad demand (anti-neoliberalism) with PRAGMATIC goals toward local and regional community needs (2-3) -- this allowed them to be coopted, essentially
• indigenous movement was coming from a historical exclusion, whereas the piqueteros emerged with the memory of inclusion that was lost during privatization (3)
• History of CONAIE in Ecuador (4-6), Piquteros (6-9)
• Movements commonalities (9-18)
• 1) both movements combined a negative macropolitical focus and a pragmatic stance toward local demands (work, food)
• but these same problems made groups fragmented (see Kurtz) 11-12)
• "Formally functioning but publicly delegtimised democracy presented a decisive opportunity structure to both movements" (12)
• the macro-political claims of both these movements were of a global rejection, a ardical negative stance, which was combine with a pragmatist desire to secure conrete micro-political gains (13)
• concrete, pragmatic claims were very much based on local level needs/desires
• the double transformation made people feel like political and social inclusion crpmises were largely unfulfilled (10-11)
• 2) specific territoriality
• indigenous have their villages, campo, and the piqueteros have the barrios
• 3) organization strategy that responded to the crisis of representation both in politics and in traditional representatives
•  relied on participatory and consensus decision making (16-17)
• but as groups become nationalized, the old distance returns and participation becomes less-popular-based (17)
• 4) repertoire of contention: the roadblock (17-18)
• its effectiveness depends on public resonance: is it a legitimiate protest or just illegitimate troublemakers (18)
• The evolution of the movement
• these movements represent new (and enduring) facets of each country's social and political life, but at the moment they are limited to seeking/gaining regimes to make adjustments (19)
• how were these groups "tamed", why didn't they threaten the old political and economic elites to a greater extent?
• the state and state actors have acted to integrate teh voices f these movements into the political system, and these movements have accepted that offer (20)
• the movements enjoy some form(s) of veto power on questions concerning their vital interests
•  concrete demands are being served (20-21)
• but at the macro-level, demands of these groups have not been met (21-22)
• the restabilization of these countries came from a combo of cooptation and marginalization, partial disarticulation and demobilization of the contentious protest alliances (22)
• the internal features that initially enabled mobilization also proved to be vulnerable to manipulation
• the negative stance was fine, but when it stalled groups fractured over figuring out a more positive stance (because they were so heterogeneous)
• absence of a program outside of an identity was a problem
• internal division grew
• leaders also drawn into political dialogues, away from their constituents (23)
• tension of quasi-corporatist demands from the state and participatory democracy from the rank and file
• piqueteros lost social support for their roadblocks once teh government was trying to integrate them (24)
• these intrinsic weaknesses in the movements reveals a remarkable capacity for democratic regimes to regain stable and pacific relations with civil society (26)
• combination of cooptation via ad hoc dialogues, quasi-corporatist negotiations, and clientelist and populist practices proved able to demobilize these groups by fixing their concrete needs while still ignoring their larger demands (26-27)
• Conclusion
• Ecuador's indigenous have gained political voice through social and political organizations
• piquteros mostly relying on singluar leaders who have gotten government office
•  "What is new, however, is that such movements of marginalised people are the prime forces of contentious collective action in democratic politics. This directly follows the weakening of 'traditional' social and political organizations which represent the popular sectors that is associated with the double transformation in teh region" (28)