Labor movement and neoliberal structural change in Nicaragua. The trade union response to the self-employed workers in Nicaragua (1990-2014)

• In Event: Nuevas estrategias sindicales y relaciones laborales

Abstract

The unionization of self-employed persons has been a strategy of the Nicaraguan labor movement to counter job insecurity and loss of union power, caused by the productive restructuring of the neoliberal policies implemented after the fall of the Sandinista Revolution in 1990. These strategies have consolidated since 2002 with the creation of the Confederation of Self-Employed Workers (CTCP by its acronym in Spanish). This organization brings together the majority of unions in the informal economy sector of the country, and has become one of the most influential actors in the Nicaraguan trade union movement.

This research uses a socio-historical perspective, tracing the development of the Nicaraguan trade union movement in the period 1990 to 2014. It uses quantitative information to analyze the changes in the characteristic and quality of life of workers. Similarly, it uses qualitative information to explore the practices and experiences of collective action by the self-employed workers. Finally, newspapers, pronouncements and institutional CTPC documents are analyzed to contrast information.

This research departs from a structural-constructivist paradigm, because there is an interdependence between the action of the labor movement and the social, political and economic context of Nicaragua. Its substantive theory is grounded in Charles Tilly’s contentious politics, because the CTPC is a social and labor movement that builds its identity and collective action through different repertoires in a dynamic structure, defining opportunities and threats.

Author

• Douglas E Castro Quezada, Universidad Centro Americana