Labour in the collieries: the role of overseers in the collieries of the arauco gulf in southern chile (1920-1940)

Abstract

This article analyzes the complex labor structure in the coal mining industry in the Arauco Gulf in Southern Chile and the role of the overseers in the context of a productive activity which maintained most of its traditional features well into the XXth century. According to this, the disciplinary and productive role of overseers and the benefits granted by the Mining and Industrial Company of Chile are examined as a way to legitimate the bosses' control over the working population.