«Le militantisme intimiste»: Expression d'un syndicalisme d'ingénieurs et de cadres

Abstract

Because of their professional culture, engineers and executives exhibit a trade unionism that is considered atypical. To be an engineer and an executive means to have a social status as well as a profession. In the realm of the social imagination, engineers and executives represent high grades at school and distinguished occupations in their professional Uves; within their companies, they are associated with management and its valúes, norms and behavior. Thus, they are portrayed as individualists, unenthusiastic about the trade unions and detached from any kind of social commitment. However, the growth in recent years of this employment category and the multiplication of hierarchical levéis at every work setting have made these professionals receptive to unión activism: one of a special type, defined as “intimate activism” which evokes the important reasons for their commitment.