Creative tensions and tactical innovations in the urban union movement: the cases of telemarketers and bus drivers in Rio de Janeiro

Abstract

This article analyzes recent experiences of union activism displayed by two categories of workers in the urban services sector: telemarketers and bus drivers. More specifically, the objects analyzed here are the telemarketers’ strike in the State of Rio de Janeiro in 2014 and the struggle of Rio de Janeiro’s bus drivers between the creation of Sintraturb-Rio, in 2009, and the 2014 strike. We argue that the cycle of protests initiated in 2013 has revealed and reinforced the interweaving between the struggle for the right to the city and the struggle for decent working conditions in large urban centers. The creative tensions between different generations of militants and the tactical innovations observed in the cases of telemarketers and bus drivers in Rio de Janeiro point towards this conclusion.