An analysis of informal sector unionization among marginalized agricultural workers : a study of the Sindicato Interempresa de Trabajadores Temporeros y Permanentes de Santa María

Abstract

This thesis examines the politico-economic and legal structures surrounding the informal sector, and the effect these structures have on the organizational potential of workers in this sector. A case study of a particular labour force, the Temporeros, and a specific union in Chile comprised of these workers, The Interenterprise Union of Temporary and Permanent Workers of Santa Maria, forms the core of the thesis. This labour force and their Union illustrate the obstacles that such workers face during the transitional process surrounding the movement toward the creation of "formal" organizations. This thesis takes into consideration the body of literature surrounding the debate in defining the informal sector, and the two prevalent schools of thought in the area of the informal sector, the structuralist school and the legalist school. The conclusions arising from the case study point to the fact that because of the heterogeneous and controversial nature of the informal sector many of the definitions, when considered on their own, are too simple to explain the situation of all informal sector workers, such as the Temporeros. It is important not to think of the informal sector solely from an economic perspective, but to also look at the position of the workers in this sector with respect to the labour legislation and regulatory institutions. In this sense, the principal tenet of the legalist school is true, but legal structures only have relative autonomy, because they are influenced by the political economy underlying the development strategy of the country. The result is that a theoretical synthesis of the two schools of thought provides a valuable analytical framework when discussing the informal sector.