UNION PLURALITY IN THE FIELD? FAMILY FARMERS AND PAID RURAL WORKERS IN A DISPUTE SETTING

Abstract This article aims to analyze the changes in the union structure of rural workers in recent decades, marked by the emergence of new political identities struggling for the recognition of their diversity and creation of forms of representation. Since the 1980s there have been some initial organizational experiences of wage earners and small farmers outside the established trade union channels. However, it was in the early years of the twenty-first century that a separate union of family farmers was formed and started to compete with the unionism of the National Confederation of Agricultural Workers (Contag) and, more recently, the National Rural Salaried Confederation (Contar), as the exclusive representative of rural workers. The study aims to explore these recent changes in the representation of workers in the field, conflicts of position generated and their relations with the State.