Collective bargaining, trade union action and political exchange. A theoretical approach supported by the analysis of labour relations in the shipyards of Cadiz, Spain

Abstract

The concept of political exchange, which was introduced by Alessando Pizzorno in the social sciences at the end of the seventies, has been widely used as an analytical framework for addressing the kind of exchange by which social pacts take place. Nevertheless, much less attention has been paid to the explanatory capacity of this concept for analysing one type of exchange which, in addition to individual exchange and collective bargaining, takes place in the labour market: political exchange. The aim of this article is to examine in depth the features and processes that characterise political exchange and distinguish it from exchanges that take place in the collective bargaining market through the study of a particular case: collective action by trade unions in a public enterprise, the Puerto Real shipyard in Cadiz, Spain. Based on our analysis, we suggest a theoretical approach and an analytical strategy that can be applied to labour relation situations and circumstances in which the threat of closure, relocation or massive dismissals in public or private enterprises lead trade unions to resort to collective action characterised by the logic of political exchange.