Workers and Transnational Unionism in a Latin American Steel Corporation

Abstract

In this paper, I draw on those debates to grasp the role played by Union practices and strategies in the making of the working-class(es). I assume that historically Unions have been key actors in the political, social, and cultural processes through which working-classes deal with unevenness – and inequalities. I aim to grasp the ongoing tensions between “unevenness” and “homogeneity” as a methodological approach to union practices and their constraints. Based on extensive fieldwork with steelworkers of a Latin American steel company in Argentina and the multi-scalar Union organization, I aim to discuss three analytical engagements of unevenness through the emic notions of managers, union leaders, workers, and representatives:1 – the unevenness of workers’ identities as political subjects vs. the unevenness of “global teams” as international market actors performed by corporate policies.2 – The uneven constraints of national and local Union dynamics vs the (re) making of identities promoted by Global Federations through the organization of global spaces.3 – The particular constraints to unions raising from uneven development vs the “homogeneizing” mandates of the Global Organizing Program.The analysis may allow for an assessment of current processes of working-class (re) organization, in the light of the crisis of neoliberal productive and reproductive arrangements.