Globalization, Business Strategies and Workers: the political implications for trade unions

This paper analyzes the effects ofglobalization and of productive restructuring on production, on the employees involved in industries that employ continuous processes and on the .unions of the pulp and paper sector. The restructuring has reached a broad scope: going from the restructuring of the production chains, on an internationalscale, to the redefinition of the management strategies of the industries, and reaching beyond the industries internaI boundaries through the changes brought on with respect to the communities and the companies that make up the supply chain and, also taking into consideration the reformulation ofthe strategies taken up by the unions. "Technkal" management decisions that conceal a "political" dimension have altered the relationships ofpower among the bosses, engineers and other employees.