Abstract

HAIDAR, Julieta. Shop-floor committees and factory struggles: the case of PepsiCo. Estud. trab. [online]. 2020, n.59, pp.1-30. ISSN 0327-5744.

This article considers the workers resistance to the shutting downof the PepsiCo Florida plant in June 2017 as an event from which it is possible to rebuild and analyze previously developed dynamics inside the factory related to two main historical struggles with the Argentinian shop-floor committees as protagonists: a struggle with capital concerning the control of the labour process or the industrial hegemony; and a struggle with the trade union leadership concerning the conceptions of the functions of unions in general, and in particular their functions in the workplace, that is, a struggle about union hegemony.

The main objective of this article is to analyze the case according to these two analytical axes in order to understand the shop-floor committees' dynamics in the contemporary Argentina. The questions that guided the research are: What are the scope and limits of direct action? What are the opportunities for trade union action in different economic and political contexts? How is the union struggle expressed inside the workplace? How does this struggle impact on the relationship with the company? And what are the effects of left-wing activism on the trade union?

For this research the sources are in-depth interviews with workers, shop-stewards from left-wing shop-floor committees, activists, and food union officials (STIA), as well as publications from the union and the PepsiCo Florida shop-floor committee.

Keywords : Shop-floor committees; Labour process control; Trade union function; PepsiCo.

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