The Closing of the Coal Mines in Lota and Coronel. Social Representations form the Union Movement in the 90s

Abstract

The present article approaches the set of actions and the social and political representations that the coal-bearing miner union movement performed in the beginnings of the 90s, a decade in which more than 100 years of exploitation of that mineral in the zone of Lota and Coronel were put to an end. This paper tries to answer the following questions: what continuities and breaks can be appreciated in the union action of the miners of the coal during the terminal crisis of the industry? What types of social and political representations did the mining unions create in order to validate his collective action? What was the effect of this union action on the offers of productive restructuring that were designed to escape the crisis?