The intensification negotiated. Changes in the workplace regime in a large retail company in Chile (2006-2018)

Abstract

Despite the precariousness and general decline in union activity, experiences of revitalization and counter-movements have been rediscovered from the workers, which are presented as heroic adventures and without structuring effects on working conditions, in a frame of progressive commodification of the society. Based on the Walmart case study in Chile, it is argued that union activity within the company has promoted the transformation of its workplace regime, going from a "despotic" one based on wage insecurity, abuse and anti-union practices, to another “segmented hegemonic”, with better treatment, attempts at regulatory control, promotion of unionization and unequal material benefits. It concludes by reaffirming the thesis that the autonomous organization of workers is possible in precarious contexts, that precariousness is reversible, and that the control of retail work has limits of reproduction under purely despotic and anti-union mechanisms.