Author(s): Amaral, Virgílio
Date: 2015
Persistent ID: https://hdl.handle.net/10316/43800
Origin: Estudo Geral - Universidade de Coimbra
Subject(s): Portugal; 25 April 1974 revolution; Single Union Law; Political discourses; Conceptions about labour organisation
5th International Conference on Humanities and Social Sciences, 25-26 September, 2015, Rome, Italy
The current research analyses political discourses around the controversy of the Single Union Law, which occurred in the post- April 25th revolutionary context, to understand how the contending parties built different conceptions about the arrangements of labour organisations. By reconstructing the meanings conveyed in the arguments, it is observed that each party invests some words – Unions, Freedom – with different meanings. Additionally, it is observed that each side tends to use certain rhetorical mechanisms as listed by Castro (2002), Amaral (2013) and Amaral & Pereira (2014). The conclusion provides a historical and ideological overview of the different main conceptions and dilemmas yielded in the discourse analysis provided, along with the dilemmas that labour unions are confronted with in the current times, namely considering the issue of job insecurity.
