New trade unionism, new trade unionists. Wanted and unwanted effects of the Mujica government’s labor policies

• In Event: New tendencies in Latin American trade unions

Abstract

Big changes have taken place within the Uruguayan trade union movement since the coming into power of the Left. Since 2005 the government has sought to introduce more regulation with the aim of consolidating labor reform in the country. Specifically, this reform is characterized by an increase of protective measures for the workers, based on the introduction of a series of laws related to their rights. These laws reflect many old aspirations of the Uruguayan trade union movement. The changes in the regulation of labor relations also provide the background of a significant increase in union membership: from 110,000 unionized workers in 2005 to 353,000 workers registered in some union in 2013.

While changes in regulation have strengthened the trade union organization, they have also significantly changed its historical profile. For one, there is a leadership that is less articulated with political organizations, particularly with the leftist parties, which has led to a tendency towards corporatist strategies in some sectors of the trade union movement. These trends are combined with the ones of other sectors that maintain a more traditional style of action. At the same time, in recent years, a new highly skilled sector linked to new productive sectors has developed but has not been incorporated into the trade union movement. These tendencies mean that in spite of the significant growth of unionism in the last years, it has failed to be consistent in its collective pursuit of common objectives. It has therefore been unable to obtain durable agreements that its numerical strength theoretically should allow for. Beyond this tendency, the new Uruguayan unionism is constituting itself in a space of formation of new trade union leaders from the popular sectors.

Author

• Mariela Agueda Quiñones Montoro, Universidad de la República