Union resistance in multinational agro-exporting companies in the Global South

Abstract

This article analyzes the strategies developed by the Sindicato de Obreros y Empleados Aceiteros de Rosario (SOEAR) in Argentina’s agro-export sector, a highly concentrated industry dominated by multinational corporations. The aim is to explain how this union managed to build a strategic position and accumulate power within a context shaped by the globalization of production and the financialization of capital, processes that acquire specific characteristics in emerging economies of the Global South. Methodologically, the study combines secondary quantitative data to characterize the sector with primary qualitative evidence obtained through interviews with workers and union leaders, field observations, and analysis of union documents. The findings show that the consolidation of union power occurred through different phases of organizational accumulation, including the recovery of rank-and-file participation, the contestation of leadership within the national federation, significant wage gains, and the institutionalization of workplace health and safety mechanisms.