The article analyzes the debate that took place in Mexico and Argentina regarding the necessary changes to labour legislation, situating its importance in a historical perspective. Insofar as labour legislation was not an obstacle for the de facto flexibilization of labour relations, the governments of these countries resisted pressures to transform the law. The limits to the changes imposed on labour relations were set by the effort to prevent the final undermining of official labour movements that had been politically associated through corporatism with the parties in power during the 1990s.