Paper short abstract:

Union activity tends to be bureaucratic, dispersed in different locations and therefore unnoticeable. Against these circumstances, regular meetings operate as node of activity and as events of consolidation, which enable the ethnographic enquiry of unions as a lived social entity.

Paper long abstract:

Ethnographers of organized labour often focus on "charismatic" events such mass rallies and strikes. Consequently, anthropological enquiry of organized labour tends to neglect the more bureaucratic procedures that are socially constructed in routine meetings. Such meetings are the node of unions' activity; they are important sites where the ethnographer is exposed to social dynamics and intersections that stand at the core of the union, a unique organization that is characterized a distinct political culture.

The centrality of such meetings was evident in fieldworks that I have conducted in 2005-2009 and late 2015. These researches were conducted both in unions' headquarters and labour's committees which represents the workplace level.

I found that union activity tends to be fragmented and unnoticeable, because the stewards were dispersed in different locations. Another reason was the intimidation and restrictions imposed by the employers. Against these circumstances, unions meeting tend to operate as event of consolidation. They are venues that reassemble the stewards, ameliorate their ideas, enable their coordination, and integrate them into their routine activities. Such meetings offer the ethnographer unique opportunity to delve into the actual occasion in which the he or she can experience the union as a lived social entity.

Different meetings require different sort of methodologies. Large-scale meetings force the ethnographer to act as passive observer. More intimate meetings encourage the stewards to disclose information and even to consult with the researcher. In such cases, the ethnographer turns into an object upon whom the stewards project their attitudes towards the general social environment.