Understanding Strikes in the 21^STCentury: Perspectives from the United States

Trade union strength, business power, and labor policy reform: The cases of Argentina and Chile in comparative perspective

“…As argued in the previous section, I focus my analysis on how workers and employers mobilize “associational power” to influence the policymaking process. I define associational power as a capacity to act collectively and mobilize (Rhomberg and Lopez, 2021). This capacity implies fulfilling four tasks (Fairfield, 2015; Schmalz et al, 2018; Traxler et al, 2001): (1) recruiting members and ensuring membership participation; (2) developing strategic capacity (i.e.…”

“…the power derived from workers’ privileged in the economic system), whereas others put the emphasis on “institutional” power derived from workers’ strategic use of the labor law or on “discursive” power derived from unions’ engagement in symbolic struggles (Chun, 2009; Schmalz et al, 2018; Traxler et al, 2001). Among these non-partisan types of power, it has been argued that associational power is particularly important (Fox-Hodess and Santibáñez, 2020; Rhomberg and Lopez, 2021). Associational power refers to unions’ capacity to accomplish different tasks involved in the collective mobilization of workers, for example, capacities to recruit members and forge class-wide solidarity (Bank Muñoz, 2017; Schmalz et al, 2018; Wright, 2000).…”

Retooling militancy: Labour revitalization and fixed‐duration strikes

“…Recent evidence from Chile suggests that tactics mobilized during strikes impact duration, as the deployment of transgressive strategies by workers in the first 2 days is more effective in ending a strike than contained repertoires (Orellena, Pérez, and Link, 2022). But these studies do not demonstrate how union leaders may fix strike duration as a tactic in and of itself, such as in the aforementioned 1-day strikes organized by the Fight for Fifteen campaign (Rhomberg and Lopez, 2021). And while prior research has examined increased militancy by nurses, scholars have not explored the strategy behind organizing fixed duration versus indefinite strikes in healthcare (Hayes, 2009;Briskin, 2011;Krachler et al, 2021).…”

Dignity and bargaining power: Insights from struggles in strawberries

“…In order to consider workers as a cohesive group despite actual intra‐class diversity, associational power is the first order resource. Associational power refers to the ability of individuals to act as a collective (Rhomberg & Lopez, 2021). Its strength is indicated by the ability of the collective ‘to sanction defectors from cooperation both among their own members and among capitalists’ (Wright, 2000, p. 962).…”

“…Dignity made the difference. Where workers dismantled the divisions set between them and engaged each other as coworkers capable of setting the terms for their own interactions, they developed the power to act as a collective, Rhomberg and Lopez's (2021) apt definition of associational power. When allies recognized workers as equal partners in struggle for improving society, workers' internal capacity expanded to a coalition of social actors engaged in collective action.…”