The power of “powerless” workers: Colombian waste picker cooperatives' struggle for social and economic inclusion

Traditional labor unions view informal sector workers as “unorganizable” due to their lack of legal protections and the fact that many are self-employed. Nonetheless, in recent decades, street vendors, domestic workers, home-based producers, and waste pickers in many countries have begun mobilizing. How do informal workers in hostile social, economic, and political contexts attain and wield power?

To explore this question, I investigate Colombia’s largest and most established waste picker’s organization, the Association of Recyclers of Bogota (ARB), and its campaign to win inclusion in Bogota’s 2011 waste management tendering process. Based on ten weeks of ethnographic research, I investigate how the ARB responds to three key challenges: 1.) Waste pickers have no recognized employer, despite the fact that manufacturers, consumers, governments, and waste management firms all benefit from their labor. How and to whom do waste pickers make legal claims to win recognition and compensation for their economic, social, and ecological contributions? 2.) Due to their poverty and perceived lack of hygiene, Colombian waste pickers—traditionally known as desechables (“disposable people”)—face public scorn, harassment by authorities, and threat of murder by “social cleansing” vigilante groups. How does the ARB convert stigma into a source of symbolic power, leveraging waste pickers’ position at the bottom rungs of society to shame governments and businesses into action? 3.) City officials take advantage of the porous boundaries of the waste picking profession to undercut the ARB’s negotiating power by promoting the creation of rival associations led by well-heeled government allies, including former military officers. How does the ARB draw upon transnational and domestic activist networks, as well its own membership, to gain legitimacy as an “authentic” representative of Bogota’s waste pickers? The paper closes with observations comparing the organizational challenges facing Colombian waste pickers with those confronted by waste pickers in Brazil.