Convenors
- Domingo Pérez, Observatorio de Huelgas Laborales y Universidad de O’Higgins (Chile)
- Alpkan Birelma, Özyeğin Üniversitesi (Turkey)
- Charles Smith, St Thomas More College, (USA)
- Maria Eloisa González, Universidad de la República de Uruguay, (Uruguay).
- Carolina Pérez, Universidad de la República de Uruguay, (Uruguay)
Outline
The labour process theory illuminates the methods and organization of work activities within the capitalist mode of production (Thompson, 1989). It encompasses the relationship between employers and employees, the organization of work, power and the socio-economic conditions under which labour takes place. The labour process encompasses the organization of work, the exertion of control over labour, and the resistance by workers, where strikes represent a form of dispute through workers withdraw their workforce to contest conditions, wages, and other work-related issues. Thus, the labour process theory is intrinsically linked to strikes and stoppages, and historically it have played a pivotal roles in influencing the production process, negotiating the terms of labour, and reshaping power dynamics within the workplace and beyond.
Within this framework, in the first place, studies on strike activity contribute to labour process theory to the understanding of the nature of conflict in the workplace and it is specially relevant in a context of strong changes in organization of accumulation process. A strike has been defined as 'a temporary stoppage of work by a group of employees in order to express a grievance or enforce a demand' (Hyman, 1989). Is the disruption of the labour process. Strikes studies correspond to a classic branch of industrial relations studies, but they were in decline and were replaced by new forms of expression of labour conflict in recent decades, probably due to the global downward trend in unionization since the 1980s and new forms of labour. Still, understanding the dynamics of strikes and unions within the labour process framework allows for a deeper comprehension of how labour struggles unfold and transform work relations and environments. It sheds light on the continuous negotiation and contestation inherent in the labour process, highlighting the active role that workers and their organizations play in shaping the conditions of work. The strike is not only a tactic used by workers to press for their claims through work stoppages, but it is also a performative act that deploys the organizational capacities of unions and reveals the conflict in workplaces, providing an overview of labour relations in an aggregate form. In this sense, studies on strikes highlight the main structural conflicts in the workplace. Regarding the LPT, the strike petition has been analyzed through levels (salary, working conditions, organization) that express the political dispute within each workplace (Medel et al., 2023).
Second, the changing conditions posed by changes in the production process as a result of globalization, telecommuting, the gig economy, new labour management and control technologies, and even the threat posed by climate change, are some of the emerging factors that may modify the way workers organize and develop strikes, which requires new research to understand (Cornfield, 2023). In this context, the exercise and success of strike action depends on multiple emerging factors. The position of workers in the economy (Womarck, 2007) and their insertion in global labour markets (Selwyn, 2012), the strategies and models or organization of workers, the regulatory framework, the political and industrial geography (Herod, 2000), to name a few, have put the effectiveness of stopagges under stress. Similarly, the economic structure in the global south disempowers the effectiveness of strikes considering the high rates of informality and precarious employment conditions and wages, so the question arises whether labour strikes have lost centrality in the tactical repertoires of workers in these countries. In spite of this, the strike continues to be a fundamental collective tactic of workers, maintaining its centrality in disputes within workplaces. In this sense, it is necessary to understand the factors that condition its success or failure, as well as to analyze the results produced by its exercise (for example, Velásquez et. al., 2021).
Finally, strikes have also served as a tool for political disputes and mobilize the social class as a whole, exceeding the limits of workplaces. Since the early twentieth century, the distinction between political strikes and economic strikes was already made (Luxemburg, 1970), which has had a recent expression as a result of waves of protest in Latin America and other parts of Global South (e.g., Kim et al. 2020; Pérez y Osorio, 2021; Medel, 2022). In this sense, the study of general strikes allows us to understand the political situation of the country and the deploy of power resources of labour and capital (Perez Ahumada, 2023), but also how social movements are articulated from the workers' movement, putting into discussion the centrality of labour in the conformation and coordination of social classes (Gallas y Nowas, 2016; Lindvall, 2013; Zarate Tenorio, 2014; Azzellini, 2021).
This Special Stream aims to provide a comprehensive and multifaceted exploration of the interplay between the described dimensions. By bringing together diverse perspectives and methodologies, we seek to advance the scholarly understanding of these critical issues and contribute to ongoing debates in labour studies. We encourage innovative and rigorous research that will add significant value to the discourse on strikes and conflicts in the labour process.
How strikes studies contribute to labour process theory in a changing global economy
In recent years there has been a boost in strikes studies thanks to the generation of new databases that record this phenomenon, incorporating sociological variables to the phenomenon; and by the flourishing of the debate on union revitalization (Kallas, 2022). This is demonstrated by the International Strike Report (2024), which brings together researchers from different countries to discuss the phenomenon from different approaches and with different methodologies for recording events. In addition, in recent years the world has witnessed a new wave of general strikes with new labour and political characteristics (e.g., Kim et al. 2020; Gallas y Nowas, 2016; Azzellini, 2021; Cornfield, 2023). Therefore, there is a clear need to understand the dynamics of the new strike activity, its cycles and characteristics in a comparative way across different socio-labour levels, determinants and contexts. Furthermore, there is a need to reconnect this central workers’ action with the theory of the labour process in contemporary debates -an goal that has been less addressed-.
In this context, we invite submissions for a Special Stream on "Strikes: worker’s strategies, cycles and contexts" to be featured in International Labour Process Conference (ILPC) 2025 in Santiago, Chile. This seeks to explore the dynamics between labour strikes, labour process, workers’ organizations and unions, cycles of mobilization, and political-economic conditions and transformations. We welcome contributions from a range of disciplines, including but not limited to labour studies, sociology, history, political science, economics, and geography; and a variety of submission types, including empirical studies, theoretical papers, case studies, and policy analyses. Interdisciplinary approaches and innovative methodologies are encouraged.
This stream aims to examine the following key themes (accompanied by some examples) in the changing nature of labour disputes in the context of undeveloped, industrial and peripheral capitalisms:
- The role of strikes on the labour process: disruption, negotiation, and transformation
- Strikes, Unions, and Workers’ Strategies
- The transformation of Strikes in a changing global economy, and studies of Political / General Strikes and new labour movements
- Methodological Challenges and Future Directions
References
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