Hostname: page-component-789cc574b8-5cx9t Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2023-04-16T08:33:31.405Z Has data issue: false Feature Flags: { "useRatesEcommerce": false } hasContentIssue false
  • English

From Militancy to Clientelism: Labor Union Strategies and Membership Trajectories in Contemporary Chile

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Indira Palacios-Valladares
Get access Rights & Permissions[Opens in a new window]

Abstract

For the past 30 years, Chilean unionism has been shrinking. Through a comparison of the membership trajectories of 26 unions in two firms between 1990 and 2004, this article explains why some unions defied this trend and how their success affected overall union density in their firms. It argues that the unions that experienced the most favorable membership outcomes were those that, at key junctures of firm restructuring, earliest or most aggressively established a partnership relationship with management. However, in a context of great labor weakness, these cases of union accommodation took the form of exclusive patron-client exchanges, which exacerbated collective action problems and further eroded union density.

Type
Research Article
Information
Latin American Politics and Society , Volume 52 , Issue 2 , Summer 2010 , pp. 73 - 102
Copyright
Copyright © University of Miami 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ackers, Peter, and Payne, Jonathan. 1998. British Trade Unions and Social Partnership: Rhetoric, Reality and Strategy. International Journal of Human Resource Management 9, 3: 529–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Angell, Alan. 1972. Politics and the Labor Movement in Chile. London : Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Anner, Mark. 2003. Defending Labor Rights Across Borders: Central American Export-Processing Plants. In Struggles for Social Rights in Latin America, ed. Eckstein, Susan and Wickham-Crowley, Timothy P.. New York : Routledge. 147–66.Google Scholar
Aravena, Antonio. 1999. El sindicalismo en el sector comercio. Revista de Economía y Trabajo PET 9: 59–83.Google Scholar
Armbruster-Sandoval, Ralph. 2003. Globalization and Transnational Labor Organizing: the Honduran Maquiladora Industry and the Kimi Campaign. Social Science History 27, 4: 551–76.Google Scholar
Arrieta, Adolfo. 2003. Mercado del trabajo: organización y representación sindical y gremial. Santiago : OIT/CUT.Google Scholar
Banco Central. n.d. Base de datos estadísticos. http://si2.bcentral.cl/Basededatoseconomicos/951_portada.asp?idioma=E Accessed June 2, 2009.Google Scholar
Barrera, Manuel. 1998. Macroeconomic Adjustment in Chile and the Politics of the Popular Sectors. In What Kind of Democracy? What Kind of Market? Latin America in the Age of Neoliberalism, ed. Oxhorn, Philip and Ducatenzeiler, Graciela. University Park : Pennsylvania State University Press. 127–50.Google Scholar
Behrens, Martin, Hamann, Kerstin, and Hurd, Richard. 2004. How Does Restructuring Contribute to Union Revitalization? In Frege and Kelly 2004. 11–30.Google Scholar
Bronfenbrenner, Kate, and Hickey, Robert. 2004. Changing to Organize: a National Assessment of Union Strategies. In Milkman and Voos 2004. 17–60.Google Scholar
Burgess, Katrina. 2004. Parties and Unions in the New Global Economy. Pittsburgh : University of Pittsburgh Press.Google Scholar
Campero, Guillermo. 1998. Organización sindical y relaciones laborales. In Chile en los noventa, ed. Toloza, Cristián and Lahera, Eugenio. Santiago : Presidencia de la República/DOLMEN. 405–26.Google Scholar
Campero, Guillermo, and Cortázar, René. 1986. Logics of Union Action in Chile. Kellogg Working Paper 85. Notre Dame : Kellogg Institute.Google Scholar
Carmichael, Isla. 2004. Union-Based Pension Funds, Worker Control and Social Investment: a New Role for Unions in the Economy. In Verma and Kochan 2004. 105–16.Google Scholar
Cassoni, Adriana. 2000. Trade Unions in Uruguay: Some Historical Features that Explain Their Economic Role. Working Paper 04/00. Montevideo : Department of Economics, Universidad de la República.Google Scholar
Cook, Maria Lorena. 2007. The Politics of Labor Reform in Latin America. University Park : Pennsylvania State University Press.Google Scholar
De la Maza, Gonzalo. 1999. Los movimientos sociales en la democratización de Chile. In El modelo chileno. Democracia y desarrollo en los noventa, ed. Drake, Paul and Jaksić, Iván. Santiago : LOM. 377–405.Google Scholar
Del Trabajo, Dirección. 2007. ENCLA 2006: resultados de la quinta encuesta laboral. Santiago : Dirección del Trabajo.Google Scholar
Dirección del Trabajo. n.d. Compendio de series estadísticas 19902007: capítulo sindicalismo. http://www.dt.gob.cl/documentacion/1612/article-62614.html. Accessed May 25, 2008.Google Scholar
Easterly, William. 2001. The Elusive Quest for Growth: Economists' Adventures and Misadventures in the Tropics. Cambridge : MIT Press.Google Scholar
Ebbinghaus, Bernhard, and Visser, Jelle. 1999. When Institutions Matter: Union Growth and Decline in Western Europe, 1950–1995. European Sociological Review 15, 2: 135–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). 2001. Social Panorama 2001: Income Distribution. http://www.eclac.org/publicaciones/xml/1/7961/PSI2001_chap2.pdf.Google Scholar
Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). 2006. Social Panorama: Poverty and Income. http://www.eclac.org/publicaciones/xml/4/27484/PSI2006_Cap1_Poverty.pdf Accessed June 2, 2009.Google Scholar
Escobar, Patricio. 1999. Hacia una caracterización del mercado del trabajo. In Trabajadores y empleo en el Chile de los noventa, ed. Aravena, Antonio et al. Santiago : LOM. 11–81.Google Scholar
Espinosa, Malva. 1996. Sindicalismo en la empresa moderna: ni ocaso ni crisis terminal. Santiago : Dirección del Trabajo.Google Scholar
Etchemendy, Sebastián, and Collier, Ruth B.. 2007. Down but Not Out: The Recovery of a Downsized Labor Movement in Argentina (2002–2006). Working Paper 141. Berkeley : Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, University of California.Google Scholar
Fairris, David, and Levine, Edward. 2004. Declining Union Density in Mexico, 1984–2000. Monthly Labor Review 127, 9: 10–17.Google Scholar
Ffrench-Davis, Ricardo. 2002. Economic Reforms in Chile: From Dictatorship to Democracy. Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fichter, Michael, and Greer, Ian. 2004. Analyzing Social Partnership: a Tool of Union Revitalization? In Frege and Kelly 2004. 71–93.Google Scholar
Frank, Volker. 2002. The Labor Movement in Democratic Chile, 1990–2000. Working Paper 298. Notre Dame : Kellogg Institute.Google Scholar
Frank, Volker. 2004. Policies Without Policy: The Failure of Social Concertation in Democratic Chile, 1990–2000. In Victims of the Chilean Miracle: Workers and Neoliberalism in the Pinochet Era, 1973–2002, ed. Winn, Peter. Durham : Duke University Press. 71–124.Google Scholar
Freeman, Richard B., and Medoff, Joseph. 1984. What Do Unions Do? New York : Basic Books.Google Scholar
Frege, Carola, and Kelly, John. 2004. Varieties of Unionism: Strategies for Union Revitalization in a Globalizing Economy. Oxford : Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frias, Patricio. 1998. El sindicalismo y su crisis en la perspectiva de la vinculación entre la política y la economía. Revista de Economía y Trabajo PET 7: 89–109.Google Scholar
Frundt, Henry J. 2002. Central American Unions in the Era of Globalization. Latin American Research Review 37, 3: 7–53.Google Scholar
Garretón, Manuel Antonio. 1994. The Political Dimension of Processes of Transformation in Chile. In Democracy, Markets, and Structural Reform in Latin America: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, and Mexico, ed. Smith, William C., Añcua, Carlos H., and Gamarra, Eduardo A.. Coral Gables : North-South Center Press. 217–36.Google Scholar
George, Alexander L., and Bennett, Andrew. 2005. Case Studies and Theory Development in the Social Sciences. Cambridge : MIT Press.Google Scholar
Golden, Miriam A. 1997. Heroic Defeats: The Politics of Job Loss. New York : Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
González Santibáñez, Cristián. 1998. Notas sobre empleo precario y precarización del empleo en Chile. Revista de Economía y Trabajo PET 7: 48–85.Google Scholar
Haagh, Louis. 2002. The Emperor's New Clothes: Labor Reform and Social Democratization in Chile. Studies of Comparative International Development 37, 1: 86–115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haggard, Stephan, and Kauffman, Robert R.. 2008. Development, Democracy, and Welfare States. Princeton : Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Hébert, Gérard. 1993. Unionism in a Different Context: the Case of Quebec. In Jenson and Mahon 1993. 93–111.Google Scholar
Heery, Edmund, and Adler, Lee. 2004. Organizing the Unorganized. In Frege and Kelly 2004. 45–70.Google Scholar
Herrera, Gonzalo. 1995. Tendencias del cambio tecnológico en la industria chilena. Revista de Economía y Trabajo en Chile PET 5: 77–94.Google Scholar
Jenson, Jane, and Mahon, Rianne, eds. 1993. The Challenge of Restructuring: North American Labor Movements Respond. Philadelphia : Temple University Press.Google Scholar
Jessup, David, and Gordon, Michael E.. 2000. Organizing in Export Processing Zones: The Bibong Experience in the Dominican Republic. In Transnational Cooperation Among Labor Unions, ed. Gordon, Michael E. and Turner, Lowell. Ithaca : Cornell University Press. 179–201.Google Scholar
Kauffman, Robert. 1974. The Patron-Client Concept and Macro-Politics: Prospects and Problems. Comparative Studies in Society and History 16, 3: 284–308.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kauffman, Robert. 2007. The Political Effects of Inequality in Latin America: Some Inconvenient Facts. Working Paper 13/2008/07. Moscow : Center for Advanced Studies.Google Scholar
Kelly, John. 1996. Union Militancy and Social Partnership. In The New Workplace and Trade Unionism, ed. Ackers, Peter, Smith, Chris, and Smith, Paul. New York : Routledge. 77–109.Google Scholar
Kochan, Thomas, Locke, Richard, Osterman, Paul, and Piore, Michael. 2004. Extended Networks: a Vision for the next Generation Unions. In Verma and Kochan 2004. 30–43.Google Scholar
Landsberger, Henry A. 1967. The Labor Elite: Is It Revolutionary? In Elites in Latin America, ed. Martin Lipset, Seymour and Solari, Aldo. New York : Oxford University Press. 256–300.Google Scholar
Larrañaga, Osvaldo. 2009. Inequality, Poverty, and Social Policy: Recent Trends in Chile. Working Paper no. 85. Paris : Social Employment and Migration, OECD.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, Cheol-Sung. 2005. International Migration, Deindustrialization and Union Decline in 16 Affluent Oecd Countries, 1962–1997. Social Forces 84, 1: 71–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levitsky, Steven, and Way, Lucan A.. 1998. Between a Shock and a Hard Place: the Dynamics of Labor-Backed Adjustment in Poland and Argentina. Comparative Politics 30, 2: 171–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mesa-Lago, Carmelo. 2008a. Social Insurance (Pensions and Health), Labour Markets and Coverage in Latin America. Working Paper 36. Geneva : Social Polity and Development Program, United Nations Research Institute for Social Development.Google Scholar
Mesa-Lago, Carmelo. 2008b. Social Protection in Chile: Reforms to Improve Equity. International Labour Review 147, 4: 377–402.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Milkman, Ruth. 1993. Union Responses to Workforce Feminization in the United States. In Jenson and Mahon 1993. 3–17.Google Scholar
Milkman, Ruth, and Voos, Kim, eds. 2004. Rebuilding Labor: Organizing and Organizers in the New Union Movement. Ithaca : Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Montero, Cecilia. 2000. Las relaciones laborales: ¿un asunto público? In El estado y el sector privado, ed. Gomá, Oscar Mñuoz. Santiago : FLACSO-Chile/DOLMEN. 77–120.Google Scholar
Moulián, Tomas. 1997. Chile actual. Anatomía de un mito. Santiago : LOM.Google Scholar
Murillo, María Victoria. 2001. Labor Unions, Partisan Coalitions and Market Reforms in Latin America. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Radrigán, Juan. 1999. Movimiento sindical en Chile: una visión crítica. Working Paper 46. Santiago : Centro de Investigaciones Sociales, ARCIS.Google Scholar
Rojas, Jorge, and Aravena, Antonio. 1999. El mundo sindical y el trabajo asalariado en Chile. In Trabajadores y empleo en los noventa, ed. Escobar, Patricio. Santiago : ARCIS/PET/LOM. 137–227.Google Scholar
Rueda, David, and Pontusson, Jonas. 2000. Wage Inequality and Varieties of Capitalism. World Politics 52 (3): 350–383.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rueschemeyer, Dietrich, Huber Stephens, Evelyne, and Stephens, John D.. 1992. Capitalist Development and Democracy. Chicago : University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Saavedra-Chanduví, Jaime, and Torero, Máximo. 2002. Union Density Changes and Union Effects on Firm Performance in Peru. RES Working Paper 3158. Washington , DC : Inter-American Development Bank.Google Scholar
Saint-Pierre, Celine. 1993. Recognizing the Working Mother: the Quebec Labor Movement and the Feminization of Labor. In Jenson and Mahon 1993. 269–84.Google Scholar
Jorge, Salinero B.. 2006. Veinte años de afiliación sindical y negociación colectiva en Chile: problemas y desafíos. Santiago : Dirección del Trabajo.Google Scholar
Scruggs, Lyle, and Lange, Peter. 2002. Where Have All the Members Gone? Globalization, Institutions, and Union Density. Journal of Politics 64, 1: 126–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sehnbruch, Kirsten. 2006. The Chilean Labor Market: A Key to Understanding Latin American Labor Markets. Basingstoke : Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sharpe, Theresa. 2004. Union Democracy and Successful Campaigns: the Dynamics of Staff Authority and Worker Participation in an Organizing Union. In Milkman and Voos 2004. 62–87.Google Scholar
Silva, Eduardo. 1997. Business Elites, the State, and Economic Change in Chile. In Business and the State in Developing Countries, ed. Maxfield, Sylvia and Ross Schneider, Ben. Ithaca : Cornell University Press. 152–89.Google Scholar
Strachan, Glenda, and Burgess, John. 2004. Trade Union Survival and Women Workers in Australia. In Verma and Kochan 2004. 165–78.Google Scholar
Terry, Michael. 2004. “Partnership”: a Serious Strategy for Uk Trade Unions? In Verma and Kochan 2004. 205–19.Google Scholar
Verma, Anil, and Kochan, Thomas A.. 2004. Unions in the 21st Century: An International Perspective. Basingstoke : Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Visser, Jelle. 1992. The Strength of Union Movements in Advanced Capital Democracy: Social and Organizational Variations. In The Future of Labour Movements, ed. Regini, Marino. London : Sage. 17–52.Google Scholar
Wells, Donald. 1993. Recent Innovations in Labor-Management Relations: the Risks and Prospects for Labor in Canada and the United States. In Jenson and Mahon 1993. 287–313.Google Scholar
Western, Bruce. 1995. A Comparative Study of Working-Class Disorganization: Union Decline in Eighteen Advanced Capitalist Countries. American Sociological Review 60, 2: 179–201.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weyland, Kurt. 1996. Democracy Without Equity: Failures of Reform in Brazil. Pittsburgh : University of Pittsburgh Press.Google Scholar
Weyland, Kurt. 1997. Growth with Equity in Chile's New Democracy? Latin American Research Review 32, 1: 37–67.Google Scholar
Williams, Heather L. 2003. Of Labor Tragedy and Legal Farce: the Han Young Factory Struggle in Tijuana, Mexico. Social Science History 27, 4: 525–50.Google Scholar
Yates, Charlotte. 2003. The Revival of Industrial Unions in Canada: The Extension and Adaptation of Industrial Union Practices to the New Economy. In Trade Unions in Renewal: A Comparative Study, ed. Fairbrother, Peter and Yates, . London : Continuum. 221–43.Google Scholar