A Workers’ Republic? Changes in Labor Relations during the PT Governments in Brazil

• In Event: Las relaciones laborales en América Latina: continuidades y rupturas

Abstract

The existing literature typically suggests that the political strength of labor organizations and the configuration of the labor market in Latin America vary as a direct function of changes in national labor legislations. In this paper, I show that reforms in-depth or superficial of Brazil´s labor code do not appear to represent the main cause for changes in that country´s labor relations. Instead, I argue that transformations in the country´s model of economic development and in the nature and functioning of its political institutions are at the root of these developments. The main organizations comprising the labor movement in Brazil thus modulated their political strategy according to the new structure of opportunity resulting from the accession of the PT to the presidency in 2003. Contrarily to what has been posited by several authors, this change afforded organized labor increased but not decisive influence over the decision making process in Brazil, during that period.

Author

• Jean François Mayer, Concordia University