| Summary: | This article examines the associational and societal foundations of structural power. A case study
of the ten-year-long history of the Unión Portuaria de Chile is analysed with a focus on a critical
juncture in 2012–2014. The Chilean dockworker case is an emblematic example of trade union
movement revitalisation via strikes of strategically positioned workers. Yet ethnographic research
with the organisation suggests that the role it has come to play in the country was only possible as
a result of intensive long-term organising efforts to develop a high degree of internal unity at
multiple scales, as well as sustained alliances with external actors. As a result, the authors argue that
the most economistic accounts of worker power and trade union movement revitalisation are
analytically insufficient and would benefit from greater attention to associational and societal
dimensions of power, even among the most strategically positioned workers.
KEYWORDS: trade union revitalisation; structural power; associational power; strategic position; dockworkers
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