The Portuguese labour movement and industrial democracy: from workplace revolution to a precarious quest for economic justice

Abstract

This article explores the relevance of various conceptions of industrial democracy to the modern Portuguese labour movement. It seeks to explain the movement's tendency to limit such conceptions to the institutional practices of collective bargaining and concertation. The article also examines the general lack of demands for participation and the movement's shared politicized approach to economic democratization as a struggle for economic justice. It first looks at how the struggles of the revolutionary period decisively narrowed the parameters of industrial democracy in the democratic political regime, excluding a radical pursuit of workers’ control. It then looks at various structural constraints on the development of industrial democracy, taking into account changes in the context of industrial relations through the periods of crisis, recovery and European integration. It assesses industrial democracy by explaining the realities of worker representation in the workplace in terms of the presence of unions and workers’ commissions and, finally, examines the consequences for industrial democracy of the present crisis and ‘adjustment’, arguing that its precarious situation has restricted the labour movement to politicized strategies for economic justice.