A digitised version of ICSF library, with more than 2000 original documents and 12,000+ curated links, collected over the last 33 years The International Collective in Support of Fishworkers (ICSF) is an international non-governmental organization that works towards the establishment of equitable, gender-just,self-reliant and sustainable fisheries, particularly in the small-scale, artisanal sector.
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Labor agency and the importance of the national scale: Emergent aquaculture unionism in Chile

Oseland, Stina Ellevseth and Haarstad, Havard and Floysand, Arnt (2012) Labor agency and the importance of the national scale: Emergent aquaculture unionism in Chile. Political Geography.

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Official URL: https://ac.els-cdn.com/S0962629811001855/1-s2.0-S0...

Abstract

In this article we argue for the continuing relevance of the national scale in understanding the geographies that shape and constrain labor agency. Recent contributions to labor geography have held that some of the central concepts used to understand the transformative capacities of labor, such as agency and scale, are under-theorized. On the basis of our study of the emergent labor movement in the Chilean aquaculture industry, we suggest that this field suffers from what we term "glocalocentrism", which overshadows the fundamental importance of structures and processes that are primarily scaled nationally. With the labor repression of the Pinochet regime imprinted in current national institutions and organizational traditions, the aquaculture sector was able to develop in southern Chile from the early 1980s onwards, without a significant union movement to press workers' claims, and it benefited from exploitative practices and low wages. The first company level unions did not appear until the late 1980s, and a national confederation of aquaculture unions was formed as late as 2006. After the outbreak of the ISA virus in 2007, thousands of workers were left unemployed, and the young union movement struggled for state intervention and programs, with some success. International networks brought attention to the issue, but structures and processes at the national level conditioned the possibilities for the emergent labor movement to press its claims successfully.

Item Type: Documents
Class Number: 100.LAB007
Keywords: Labour, Chile, Aquaculture, Fishworker Movements, Employment, Fishworkers, Processing Units, Wages, Globalisation
Subjects: Decent Work
Depositing User: Varsha V icsf
Date Deposited: 14 Jul 2022 04:40
Last Modified: 14 Jul 2022 04:40
URI: http://icsfarchives.net/id/eprint/15422

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