What tactical repertoire to use in strikes and when to use it? Strategies of workers and their mobilization power in Chile (2010–2018)

This research analyses workers’ mobilization power in Chile through the joint-cost model, suggesting that wider tactical repertoires, and especially transgressive ones, tend to result in shorter strikes, as a proxy of relative success against the employers. Using the Labor Strike Observatory's original dataset, we study this relation in the Chilean case, where neoliberalism has weakened unions and constrained the occurrence of strikes at the workplace level. We advanced two quantitative methods of analysis. First, using latent class analysis, we identify the tactical repertoires used by strikers. Second, following an event history methodology, we estimate the contribution of each repertoire to the risk of ending the strike. This paper analyses the strategies and milestones of strikers’ actions, shows the greater power of violent tactics compared to peaceful ones at the beginning of the conflict and finally discusses some limitations of the joint-cost model in the capital–labour relation.