Place matters: Effects of mobility on union strategies

Abstract

How are productive transformations expressed in the organization of space? How does the latter define the development and success of trade union strategies? To answer these questions, through case studies based on archival research and ethnographies in Peru, this text presents three models of mining accommodation: in dormitories, cities and hotels. It describes how they respond to specific forms of organization of production, and examines how the spatial mobility each one imposes on workers’ everyday life delimits different patterns of collective action.