Labor Coalitions in Unequal Democracies

• In Event: Representing Worker Interests in the 21st Century

Abstract

In the last decades of the twentieth century, globalization, technological changes and market reforms weakened labor organizations in Latin America and beyond. In this context scholars not only predicted labor union decline but also suggested that historical differences between formal-sector insiders (e.g., salaried workers) and outsiders (e.g., informal sector, rural and unemployed workers) would intensify. Threatened by informalization, insiders would prioritize their interests at the expense of outsiders, thereby preventing the formation of coalitions advancing goals and demands of both sectors. However, alliances between labor unions and social movements representing outsiders exist in a number of countries. These comprise intermittent as well as enduring coalitions. In some countries, they have crystallized into national labor centrals and confederations and constitute important political and policy actors. In this study I investigate the conditions under which labor unions, which represent insiders, and organizations representing outsiders build stable coalitions in Latin America—a region characterized by high levels of income inequality. Why did insider-outsider coalitions form in some countries and not in others? I further explore the endurance of these coalitions against the threat of fragmentation induced by both internal heterogeneity and external tensions deriving from political party alliances. The study relies on a comparative historical analysis of four cases that display variation in outcomes and potential explanatory factors. I focus on two cases where alliances formed—Argentina and Brazil—and two in which they did not—Chile and Uruguay. I further assess whether the argument proposed helps account for coalition formation in three secondary cases—Bolivia, Peru and South Africa—and explore the implications of this research to understand processes of labor-market dualization in advanced industrialized democracies.

Author

• Candelaria Garay, Harvard University