Awakening the Invertebrate Giant: The Labor Strategy of the Kirchners’ Administrations (2003-2015)

Abstract

This article attempts to explain the political determinants of the Kirchners’ strategy towards unions. It argues that this strategy entailed three main features: (1) a considerable redistribution of income and power towards the working class in industrial relations, (2) an attempt by state officials to recraft the landscape of union organizations, and (3) the lack of inclusion of unions in the political arena. This strategy is explained by the pre-existent endowment of political resources of working-class organizations in Argentina. While their high mobilizational capacity and considerable autonomy vis-à-vis the ruling party forced the government to craft coalitions with unions in order to reduce social unrest, unions’ lack of inclusion in the state is explained by the weak, pre-existing ties between unions and the Partido Justicialista. Moreover, both factors led the Kirchners to try to recraft the relative power of union organizations “from above” in order to create their own base of support among unions, which they lacked.