Abstract

The workforce representatives —generally organized into a union— have the responsibility to embody the collective voice of workers, defending their interests and proposals in the productive environment. The representation of workers manifests their social power through collective action, and its main tool against its counterpart, i.e. the business organization, is conflict —mainly strikes—. With conflict, workers and especially their representatives show the power they have in defending their interests. Several studies focus on analyzing the relationship between forms of labor representation and conflict, empirically highlighting the existence of a relationship that is different from the one expected theoretically. In this regard, evidence indicates that the concentration of labor representation in a single labor organization or union, hypothetically related to greater unity in the labor representation in the workplace and therefore greater power to convene workers to collective action, is not associated with a higher level of industrial conflict. All studies indicate that this inverse relationship between bargaining power and conflict is related to the effect of multi-unionism and the incentives it creates for union competition.