Abstract: Union Actors and Socio-environmental Problems: The Trade Union Confederation of the Americas

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Union Actors and Socio-environmental Problems: The Trade Union Confederation of the Americas

by Cecilia Anigstein and Gabriela Wyczykier

The Trade Union Confederation of the Americas is analytically interesting because international trade unions have promoted the framework of a “just transition” to protect workers’ rights during the shift to sustainable energy and the response to climate change and because the confederation has undertaken something of a “Latin-Americanization” of the just-transition notion that is nurtured by the environmental/territorial turn of social struggles on the continent. The current convergence between unions and social movements (peasant, feminist, environmentalist) has contributed to an important renewal of the union movement in Latin American environmental matters.

Abstract, Radical Political Unionism as a Strategy for Revitalization in Argentina

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Radical Political Unionism as a Strategy for Revitalization in Argentina
by Lucila D’Urso and Julieta Longo




 The grassroots union experiment undertaken at the Lear automotive parts factory in Argentina can be seen as a paradigmatic struggle for an understanding of the relationship between unionism and politics. The Lear case reveals that the distinctiveness of radical political unionism lies in the democratic elements of its decision making and its appeal to direct action, its construction of alliances with other social organizations, its linkage of economic demands with broader political objectives, its identification of the management, the state, and the union bureaucracy as adversaries, and its transmission of a leftist political culture. 


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Abstract, Unions Opposing Labor Precarity in Chile: Union Leaders’ Perceptions and Representations of Collective Action

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Unions Opposing Labor Precarity in Chile: Union Leaders’ Perceptions and Representations of Collective Action
by Dasten Julián


The systematic deregulation of labor relations was a cornerstone of the imposition of the neoliberal model in Chile. This process had a significant impact on both the strategies and the structure of unionism. A study of the perceptions and representations of precarious work of union leaders contributes to a discussion of the relationship between precarity and repertoires of collective action in workers’ pursuit of regulation, institutionalization, social improvement, and well-being in employment relations.

Abstract, Unions Opposing Labor Precarity in Chile: Union Leaders’ Perceptions and Representations of Collective Action

:::::: Abstract ::::::

Unions Opposing Labor Precarity in Chile: Union Leaders’ Perceptions and Representations of Collective Action
by Dasten Julián


The systematic deregulation of labor relations was a cornerstone of the imposition of the neoliberal model in Chile. This process had a significant impact on both the strategies and the structure of unionism. A study of the perceptions and representations of precarious work of union leaders contributes to a discussion of the relationship between precarity and repertoires of collective action in workers’ pursuit of regulation, institutionalization, social improvement, and well-being in employment relations.

Political Report # 1259 Honduran Melon Workers Push for Union Rights

By John Wash, LaborNotes

"Those melons are contaminated by exploitation." That's what one melon worker in Choluteca, Honduras, told me she would say to a US consumer thinking about buying the fruit grown, harvested, and distributed under the control of the multinational Sumitomo and marketed under the brands Fyffes and Sol. "They don't use that money to pay us well," she said. "What happens is they wind up with their pockets full, and we wind up with our bellies empty." Seeking to improve their wages and working conditions, melon workers in the politically marginalized southwestern corner of Honduras are fighting to win recognition and a contract for their young union, a local of the Sindicato de Trabajadores de la Agroindustria y Similares (STAS, the Union of Agricultural and Related Workers). The vast majority of the four to five thousand melon workers in Choluteca are women paid less than the country's official monthly minimum for agricultural workers: 6,848 lempiras ($292.15). While the workers do get paid the daily minimum wage, 228 lempiras ($9.73), the boss, by limiting their number of days of work per week to maybe four, can get away with paying only about half the monthly figure. It's another example of how "flexibility" for management can translate into poverty for labor, especially in an area such as southern Honduras where employment opportunities are limited. Melons Are Big Business It's not that the melon sector is small. In 2016 Honduras exported some 268 million kilos (295,419 tons) of cantaloupes, honeydew, watermelons, and other melons with a value of $53.3 million, according to the statistics of the Central Bank of Honduras. Melons are the country's fourth-largest export, after coffee, electronics, and fish.

Political Report # 1111 The Battle to Unionize Starbucks in Chile: an Interview with Andrés Giordano Salazar By Gavin Fridell, Counter Punch

By Gavin Fridell, Counter Punch

After six years of intense battles, two strikes, a hunger strike, and four legal sentences for anti-union activities, Starbucks reluctantly agreed to sign a collective agreement with unionized workers in Chile in May 2015. This was a huge concession for the world's largest coffee shop chain that has long aggressively fought off unionization efforts among its 150,000 employees in 64 countries. "In the end, to humanize capitalism is like humanizing war," says union president Andrés Giordano Salazar, reflecting on the fierce struggles he and others have waged against the company, "no matter how much you disguise it, it is still going to be bloody and cruel." In a global food and retail industry notorious for anti-union activities, and for cutting wages, benefits, and full time positions to keep profits high,[1] Starbucks has long been able to maintain a reputation as a leader in "corporate social responsibility." The company offers relatively better pay and benefits than many low-pay, low-benefit competitors, although it has received significant criticism[2] for its scheduling and sick days policies. As is so often the case with "corporate social responsibility," usually more about branding and marketing than anything else, Starbucks' ethical claims are replete with contradictions and limitations. Well-known for its support of fair trade coffee, for instance, few "ethical consumers" realize that only 8.6% of its coffee beans[3] are independently certified as fair trade. Starbucks has its own program for the remainder of its beans, without genuine independent verification and weaker standards.[4]