ILPC 2026

In recent decades, there has been a growing debate on the precarization of labour. While some have received the concept acritically, others, from a Latin American perspective, have reacted to this debate arguing the inapplicability of the concept originated in the Global North. This article takes a different path, contributing to this debate by showing that any serious consideration requires a case informed analysis. This paper reports some mixed trends observed in the precarization of dockworkers labour in the Chilean ports of Valparaíso and Talcahuano/San Vicente. Through a flexible and pragmatic ethnographic research strategy, I have gathered quantitative data about ports, logistics, employment and labour conditions, and qualitative data about workers, employers and public officials’ views regarding ports development. My analyses show some mixed trends of labour precarization and union revitalization. For one part, private companies and governments shifted the risks derived from logistical business and international trade uncertainties to workers through outsourcing, labour flexiilization, and intensification of automation and technology in ports. All these favour labour precarization. For the other part, a growing power of labour unions, strikes and the resurgence of a practice of control of the labour force derived from an outmoded closed-shop scheme, have limited the social effects of labour precarization. The so called “la nombrada” is a personnel allocation mechanism based on dockworkers internal solidarity and a degree of control of the labour force by the labour union. The paper shows that its survival in a neoliberal economy can be explained because it remained attractive for workers, private companies and the government. For companies, because it reduces the transaction costs derived from contracting employees in an unregulated labour market. For the government, it produces social peace, stability in ports and trade security. For workers, it reduces the social inequalities that may have been produced by a purely competitive labour market. . I argue that the Union power accumulated by dockworkers’ leaders depends on the practice of “la nombrada”. La nombrada has been fought for and against, becoming an object of state regulation and a major issue in social, economic and political struggles in ports. This study shows that “la nombrada” has been adapted by each labour union in interaction with its context, adjusting it to a series of national and local factors. Among these, management style, technological and organizational changes in each company seem crucial. Along with these, political, legislative, social, and economic changes in the country have been also important. The paper concludes that labour precarization is context dependent, and that although global and national factors are key forces pushing for precarization, local union practices –such as la nombrada- may counter or reduce its effects