Cuadernos de Economía Crítica

Editorial 22

Consejo Editorial CEC — 2025-07-16

Introduction to the Dossier “Neoliberal projects, sectorial dynamics and trade union political organization in recent Argentina”

Facundo Barrera Insua — 2025-07-16

This dossier addresses the impact of neoliberal projects implemented in Argentina following the victory of the Cambiemos alliance in 2015, analyzing how these projects affected labor market dynamics, union organization, and power relations between capital and labor. With articles that directly or indirectly draw on the Power Resources Theory (PRT), the dossier explores union strategies across different sectors (private, public, and the popular economy), highlighting the need to adapt theoretical frameworks to the particularities of countries in the Global South. It also incorporates critical discussions and new analytical dimensions aimed at broadening the understanding of labor and social dynamics in the recent period.

Labour, trade unions and social reproduction: three dimensions of the same crisis

Paula Varela — 2025-07-16

In this contribution I propose to think about the situation of working class nowadays in terms of three dimensions of crises that have different temporalities but emerge interlinked at the present time: the crisis of wage labour that brings us back to the reforms of the 1990s; the crisis of unions thought of under the effects of the ‘union revitalisation’ of the first years of the 21st century; the crisis of social reproduction exacerbated by the pandemic of COVID-19. On this basis, I bring to reflection elements of the Theory of Social Reproduction in order to build an approach that: avoids dichotomies and focuses on the relationship between production and reproduction; considers the socio-reproductive position as a source of labor power; and re-introduces the right to set the conditions of our social reproduction as an horizon of the class struggle.

El power of big entrepreneurs and the dispute over the development model in recent Argentina (2016-2022).

Emiliano López — 2025-07-16

The perspective of power resources has developed valuable analytical tools to account for the strategies adopted by workers' collectives to improve their relative positions in terms of labor rights, wages, representativeness, and general social orientations, among other aspects. However, we consider that power must be studied as a relational category, even more so in capitalist societies, which are characterized by increasingly unequal social structures in both economic and political dimensions.

For this reason, this paper has two central objectives. First, the article develops a discussion of the logics, levels and types of power held by business in order to begin to conceptually delineate power in a dialogical manner and, at the same time, to recognize the basic asymmetries that make up the power disputes between dominant and subaltern classes in given contexts. Secondly, we attempt to account for this discussion based on the analysis of the 2016-2022 period in Argentina through a methodological approach that takes up the discussions about the structural, associative, social and institutional power of big business in the aforementioned period through its collective action.

Cambiemos' “de facto” labor reform: effects on labor and workers (Argentina, 2015-2019).

Ana Natalucci — 2025-07-16

This paper analyses the labour reform implemented by the Cambiemos government, which is understood as the combined set of policies, strategies and discourses aimed at modifying the participation of the working class in the economic structure by disciplining it. This reform had a regressive character due to its intention to improve the conditions and benefits of capital. Based on databases and reports on the labour market, wages and income and conflict, we analyse the government's strategy and discourses aimed at the precarisation and liberalisation of salaried employment. In this regard, we focus on the main characteristics of the labour market, the official offensive against union power and union conflict. The argument is that the result of this process was the configuration of a working class with greater heterogeneity with respect to its working conditions, wages and coverage of the social protection system, which contributed to generating new consensus around future reforms.

Oil and gas policy during Cambiemos government as a trial-and-error process

Diego Pérez Roig — 2025-07-16

This article analyses Cambiemos government policy on oil and gas from the perspective of the public policy making as a trial-and-error process. This approach avoids instrumentalism, a classic bias in public policy studies which characterized the analyses on this period. While this view explains public policy as determined by the power of capitals and their ability to ‘colonize’ the State apparatus, the concept of trial-and-error places State intervention in a crisis-ridden structure of accumulation and domination. As a result, regardless of their professional backgrounds and interpersonal relationships, state officials are subject to the pressure of the two major determinants of state reproduction: accumulation and legitimation. Contradictions in Cambiemos government hydrocarbon policy show the functioning of that coercion in the form of a trial-and-error process.

Productive and Union Dynamics in Pharmaceutical Laboratories: FATSA's Structural and Associative Power in Argentina (2015-2019)

Federico Naspleda — 2025-07-16

This article analyzes the productive and union dynamics in the Argentine pharmaceutical sector between 2015 and 2019. FATSA (Federation of Health Workers Associations) achieved wage improvements without resorting to high levels of labor conflict, leveraging its structural power in a key sector of the economy. The analysis focuses on how intersectoral linkages, industry concentration, and the dynamics of registered employment gave FATSA an advantage in negotiations. The article also examines the union's associative power and its participation in the general strikes organized by the CGT. The study combines quantitative data on the economy, production, wages, and labor conflicts with a qualitative analysis of union strategies. It concludes that FATSA’s strength was essential in mitigating the effects of the crisis on workers through wage negotiations and participation in general strikes.

Labor or political conflict? The peer bargaining of Teamsters in the return of neoliberalism to Argentina (2015-2019)

Gabriela Llamosas — 2025-07-16

In this article I analyse the wage demands and the joint agreements of the Teamsters during the period of the Cambiemos alliance government. I approach the concepts of labour conflict and political conflict with the aim of analysing wage disputes in the context in which they occurred. The Teamsters played a key role in the conflict of the period studied, on the one hand, for its strategic place in the country’s economy, and on the other hand, for leading a sector of trade unionism nucleated in the Frente Sindical Para el Modelo Nacional. Throughout the article I try to demonstrate that the results of sectoral wage negotiations are linked to the political conflict between the government and the trade union, so that during the entire period of Mauricio Macri's government two significant moments can be distinguished with regard to the demands and salary negotiations of the studied sector.

Structural Labor disempowerment in a strategic sector: the case of agriculture in Argentina, 2016-2023

Juan Manuel Villulla — 2025-07-16

This work attempts to explain why agricultural workers suffer unfavorable working conditions in one of the most profitable and important economic sectors of the Argentine economy, without registering any significant episodes of collective action. Starting from the “structural power” approach, our hypothesis is that the particularities of agrarian work neutralize its possibilities of conditioning capital in exchange for improvements due to the long-term tendency towards the expulsion of labor; the social and productive heterogeneity of the sector; the dispersion of workers into small staff; poor cooperation in the workplace; and the seasonality of employment. Quantitative methods are used based on public statistics, as well as qualitative analyzes based on first-hand research and specialized literature.

What structural power do state workers of the social reproduction have? Some indicators from national health and education statistics

Anabel Beliera — 2025-07-16

In this article, we aim to examine the importance of structural power as one of the dimensions of union power, evaluating its implications for the analysis of public sector workers in Argentina, specifically in health and education between 2013 and 2023. We present some necessary reflections to conceptualize the structural power of these workers, distinguishing them from the aspects usually analyzed in the private sector. We also suggest a series of indicators that operationalize this dimension, which we analyze comparatively in the selected case studies. Based on the analysis of statistical sources, we will assess the possibility of privatizing or outsourcing the function, the level of salarization and formalization of employment, and the degree of professionalization and training required for these positions, using them as empirical indicators for analyzing structural power in these sectors.

Union actions and power resources in teaching unions. The cases of the Union of Education Workers of Río Negro and the Unified Union of Education Workers of Buenos Aires in the period 2015-2019

Agustin Gotelli — 2025-07-16

In this article, we analyze the conflicts within the teaching sector in two provinces between 2015 and 2019: the actions of the Río Negro Education Workers Union (UnTER) of the province of Río Negro and the Unified Union of Education Workers of Buenos Aires. We organize the article as follows: first, we present the case studies; second, we present the national government's policies during the period under analysis; and finally, we investigate the actions of each union, exploring the use of different types of resources during the period.

Power union strategies in Argentina’s popular economy. An analysis based on the case of CTEP-UTEP (2016-2023)

María Magdalena Tóffoli — 2025-07-16

This article aims to analyze the characteristics and scope of the power-building strategies of the CTEP-UTEP in Argentina during the period 2016-2023. Using the power resources approach developed in the field of union studies, the article examines how different sources of power are situationally and dynamically combined, within two specific strategies: the recovery of the traditional union form and the mobilization of socio-labour demands. A qualitative methodological strategy is employed, based on the analysis of three types of secondary sources: publications and communications on CTEP-UTEP digital media, government documents, and journalistic material.

The Construction of Union Representation in the Popular Economy: Political, Union, and Feminist Strategies of the CTEP During the Macri Administration (2015-2019)

Maria Antonia Muñoz — 2025-07-16

This article aims to analyze how the Confederation of Workers of the Popular Economy (CTEP) deployed union and political strategies during Mauricio Macri's (2015-2019) government, considering the impact of feminist demands on these. Union strategy is defined as the set of actions aimed at representing the interests of its members and improving their working conditions. In contrast, political strategy is understood as actions oriented to challenge and reconfigure the perception of the place of workers in the popular economy within the institutional public sphere. The conclusion highlights that the articulation of these strategies, along with the emergence of feminist demands, not only facilitated a representation process for workers in the popular economy but also promoted a new subjectivity that questioned discourses, identities, institutions, economy, and state.

Associative power as a central element in the dispute over labour reform in Chile.

Lucila D'Urso — 2025-07-16

This paper critically analyses the book "Building power to shape labor policy. Unions, employer associations and reform in neoliberal Chile" by Pablo Pérez Ahumada, edited by the University of Pittsburgh Press and published in 2023. The review presents the central contents of the book and also argues why the book makes a contribution to understanding the course of labour reforms nowadays.