Production of nature and labour agency. How the subsumption of nature affects trade union action in the fishery and aquaculture sectors in Aysén, Chile

Abstract

This research seeks to link labour studies with political ecology by studying how the subsumption of nature affects labour agencies in fisheries and aquaculture in Aysén, Chile. For this purpose, the time-space-form approach is used to compare their impact on the distribution of union power resources between these sectors. The findings indicate that the labour agency is impacted by natural materiality and the environment unequally according to the strategy of appropriation and commodification of nature. This relationship between labour and nature is mediated by the organisation of the labour process, because bio-geographical conditions set the process of resource appropriation and commodification and, consequently, shape the relationship between capital and labour.