Abstract

The aim of the essay is to analyse the historical evolution of the right to strike between innovation and tradition as reflected in contemporary regulation trend. The chosen approach analyzes the right to strike through the evolution of the social, economic and political conditions of the labour relations system. The author identifies several issues that still exist in the current debate and he criticizes the doctrine of post-modern conflict. Nevertheless, the author believes that the contemporary collective conflict in European Latin countries has new characteristics arising from the tendency to institutionalize the industrial relations system. Strike becomes an instrument managed by "majority principle" and no longer instrument of all workers' protest and claims. Attributing the right to proclaim strikes to the trade unions majority is the most effective means of limiting the right to strike in the contest of plant level industrial relations.