Trade Union renewal in post-industrial times? An analysis based on the case of computer workers

Abstract

It is an academic consensus that from the crisis of the fordist productive model, and as part of the neoliberal offensive, new forms of labor organization expanded characterized by globalization, the productive centrality of new technologies and labor flexibility, among other aspects. However, there is no such agreement to signal a transformation in the forms of the collective organization of workers. On the contrary, many authors point out the persistence in our country of a traditional trade union system. Without denying its centrality, our hypothesis is that the very expansion of precarious work and the mutation in the productive organization lead to a process of union renewal. This article seeks to investigate transformations in the forms of organization of workers, based on a case study based on computer workers, who represent an emblematic sector of this new historical period crossed by post-industrial productive and labor features. From a qualitative methodological perspective, our study focuses on the four trade unions of computers workers in force in our country during the last decade (UTSA, SUTIRA, UI and AGC), from interviews with union leaders and documentary analysis of Collective Labor Agreements, newsletters and union virtual publications. As a result, we find the persistence of the trade union form in the collective organization of the SSI sector, with resignifications of their repertoires of action and demands in light of the particularities of the post-industrial society in which computer workers carry out their jobs.