“The union is like a family father, the chief”: Working-class making and (re) making and union membership experiences in two generations of Argentinian metalworkers

Abstract

The article writes into broad discussions of the relationship between unions and workers as a key problem for understandings of working-classes dynamics. Inspired by a set of recent research findings, the paper highlights membership as a changing experience, crossed not only by administrative or bureaucratic bonds, but also by political, ideological, and cultural ones. It therefore casts a relational approach to membership as an active relationship, linking individual, and collective dimensions of workforce-seller social configuration. Through comparing the membership experiences of two generations of Argentinian steelworkers – the generation that experienced the restructuring process and the generation that accessed a “global” workplace – the article assess the daily practices that reproduce membership and shape workers’ collectives as political subjects, dealing with austerity measures and management politics.