ABSTRACT
The birth of a social movement can mark the first stage of a change in the social system triggered by the need to adapt to the environment, or a contingent phenomenon that the system’s control mechanisms then regularize. The external mechanisms of social control block any attempts to subvert the social order with repression, propaganda, social policies and so forth. The labor union movement, like other social movements, is one of the processes whereby a society produces its structuration. It is through conflict that collective identities and the awareness of a common fate are forged, and the images of the adversaries are formed. An awareness of this origin makes it possible to assess whether organizational decisions – which can always be revoked or revised – are appropriate. The organizational aspects are analyzed from an organizational standpoint, but they reflect the same collective action that, interpreted in another light, appears as a labor union movement.
