How strikes can arise: sequences of interaction in the genesis of a total strike in Madrid Underground

Abstract

Workers' responses to austerity measures during the Great Recession were multiple and diverse. When and why they opted for contentious collective actions instead of reluctant acquiescence is still a subject of debate. In this article, I revisit the issue by examining the genesis of a total strike in Madrid Underground in June 2010, which occurred in response to a wage cut applied to this publicly owned enterprise. By drawing upon union communications produced at the time of the events and semi-directive interviews conducted with union representatives and ordinary workers, I retrace the sequences of interaction between workers, unions, the company management, and the regional government, which eventually led to the total strike. The findings reveal that the question of 'how' is as important as the 'why': the relationship between the wage cut and the strike is in fact anything but direct. Rather, the strike resulted from a largely unintended 'composition effect'-a combination of nested interactions between multiple and interdependent players.

On the Usefulness of Combining Strike and Protest Research: Some Insights from the Spanish Case (2000-2016)

“…I have examined such micro-and mesological processes of labor conflicts in previous works(Pohl 2020) …”