The politics of labor quiescence and confrontation in the Mexican automobile industry, 1980-1992
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| Publicado en: | ProQuest Dissertations and Theses (1994) |
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| Acceso en línea: | Citation/Abstract Full Text - PDF |
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| Resumen: | Since 1982, the Mexican automobile industry has been restructured in significant ways. Nevertheless, union responses to restructuring have been far from uniform. In some cases, union leaders have acquiesced to company restructuring initiatives, thus facilitating the introduction of layoffs and flexible production methods. In other unions, workers have resisted restructuring programs through the use of strikes, protests, and militant political action. In this dissertation, I attempt to explain the variation of trade union responses to restructuring in the older segments of the Mexican automobile industry. The focus of the study was on six older plants in the sector. To explain why unions adopted militant or accommodative bargaining positions, I develop a framework that combines elements from modern political economy and a state-corporatist theory of labor institutions. In the first part of the argument, I claim that the impact of restructuring generated strong grievances among the majority of workers, regardless of their level of seniority or skill. At the same time, however, I suggest that not all workers were able to act on their grievances. In the second part, I focus on the legacies of union democratization movements. I claim that unions which had previously consolidated democracy from below gained significant degrees of autonomy from state-corporatist confederations. As a result, democratic unions enjoyed sufficient autonomy and internal solidarity to resist restructuring. Alternatively, where democratization movements had been defeated, oligarchic labor elites who retained strong ties to the official labor sector tended to extend controls over the bargaining process and union government in order to facilitate restructuring. An analysis of the data lends support to the hypothesis that militancy was associated with autonomy and internal union democracy. Unions with competitive elections, regular turnover in office, and high rates of participation were found to have: (1) high strike rates; (2) the highest percentage change in nominal and real average wages and benefits; (3) the strongest work rules; and (4) high levels of public protests. The results of the study underscore the impact of union government structures on workers' strategic orientations and bargaining patterns. |
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| ISBN: | 9798209197881 |
| Fuente: | ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global |