The evolution of Portuguese trade unionism: Political economies and power resources

Abstract

The present work set out to study the evolution of Portuguese trade unionism, by articulating the different cycles of economic growth of the country and their respective political economies with the impacts on the development of its power resources. The study is divided into four parts: first, it gives an overview of the economy, labour relations and trade unionism; the second part analyses the process of asymmetric European integration and the implementation of the austerity policies (2011–2015); the third part studies the political cycle between 2015 and 2019, the so-called Contraption; finally, some preliminary considerations are advanced.