Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T07:59:00.818Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

14 - Labor, Workers’ Rights, and Democracy in Latin America

from Part IV - Country and Regional Perspectives

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2022

By
Mark Anner
Edited by
Angela B. Cornell  and
Mark Barenberg
Angela B. Cornell
Affiliation:
Cornell University, New York
Mark Barenberg
Affiliation:
Columbia University, New York
Get access

Summary

This chapter traces Latin America’s labor movement’s long, tumultuous struggle for workers’ rights, equity, and democracy through periods of corporatism, authoritarian rule, neoliberalism, and contemporary left- and right-wing populist governments. This chapter argues that, while segments of Latin America’s labor movements have, at times, collaborated with autocratic elites, a significant share of labor leaders and members have fought for democratization not out of perceived partisan advantage, but rather out of commitment to the principles of liberal democracy – and labor has often realized that commitment by strengthening democracy. This chapter examines theoretical debates on labor and democracy and labor’s role in the struggle for democratization and equity during crucial periods in regime formation and transition in Latin America.

Keywords

Latin Americaworkers’ rightsdemocracyinequalityright-wing populismlabor unions
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Labor and Democracy , pp. 237 - 249
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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

Adler, Glenn, and Webster, Edward. 1995. “Challenging Transition Theory: The Labor Movement, Radical Reform, and Transition to Democracy in South Africa.” Politics & Society 23, 1: 75–106.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Agee, Philip. 1975. Inside the Company: CIA Diary. New York: Stonehill.Google Scholar
Alba, Victor. 1968. Politics and the Labor Movement in Latin America. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Alexander, Robert J. 2005. A History of Organized Labor in Bolivia. Westport, CT: Praeger.Google Scholar
Anner, Mark. 1996. “¿Hacia la Sindicalización de los Sindicatos?” Estudios Centroamericanos 573–574: 599–614.Google Scholar
Anner, Mark. 2008. “Meeting the Challenges of Industrial Restructuring: Labor Reform and Enforcement in Latin America.” Latin American Politics and Society 50, 2: 33–65.Google Scholar
Anner, Mark. 2011. Solidarity Transformed: Labor’s Responses to Globalization and Crisis in Latin America. Ithaca, NY: ILR Press, an imprint of Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Anner, Mark S., and Veiga, João Paulo. 2020. “Brazil.” In Frege, Carola M., and Kelly, John, eds. Comparative Employment Relations in the Global Economy, 2nd Ed. New York: Routledge, pp. 404–426.Google Scholar
Baccaro, Lucio, Benassi, Chiari, and Meardi, Guglielmo. 2019. “Theoretical and Empirical Links between Trade Unions and Democracy.” Economic and Industrial Democracy 40, 1: 3–19.Google Scholar
Blofield, Merike. 2012. Care Work and Class: Domestic Workers’ Struggles for Equal Rights in Latin America. University Park: The Pennsylvania State University.Google Scholar
Buhlungu, Sakhela, ed. 2006. Trade Unions and Democracy: Cosatu Workers’ Political Attitudes in South Africa. Cape Town: HSRC Press.Google Scholar
Collier, Ruth Berins, and Collier, David. 1991. Shaping the Political Arena: Critical Junctures, the Labor Movement, and Regime Dynamics in Latin America. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Cook, Maria Lorena. 1998. “Toward Flexible Industrial Relations? Neo-Liberalism, Democracy, and Labor Reform in Latin America.” Industrial Relations 37,3: 311.Google Scholar
Cook, Maria Lorena. 2007. The Politics of Labor Reform in Latin America: Between Flexibility and Rights. University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press.Google Scholar
Diamond, Larry. 1999. Developing Democracy: Toward Consolidation. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Diamond, Larry, Hartlyn, Jonathan, and Linz, Juan J.. 1999. “Introduction: Politics, Society, and Democracy in Latin America.” In Diamond, Larry, Hartlyn, Jonathan, Linz, Juan J., and Lipset, Seymour Martin, eds. Democracy in Developing Countries: Latin America, Second Edition. Boulder, CA: Lynne Rienner Publishers.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Drake, Paul W. 1996. Labor Movements and Dictatorships: The Southern Cone in Comparative Perspective. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
García Dueñas, Gilberto, and Montalvo, Karla Molina. 2017. Trade Unions in Transformation: Building Power in Global Networks: The International Union League in Central America. Berlin: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung.Google Scholar
Gordon, Jennifer. 2009. Towards Transnational Labor Citizenship: Restructuring Labor Migration to Reinforce Workers’ Rights: A Preliminary Report on Emerging Experiments. New York: Fordham Law School.Google Scholar
Handlin, Samuel, and Collier, Ruth Berins. 2011. “The Diversity of Left Party Linkages and Competitive Advantages.” In Levitsky, Steven and Roberts, Kenneth, eds. The Resurgence of the Latin American Left. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 139–161.Google Scholar
Hawkins, Daniel. 2011. The Struggles over City Space: Informal Street Vending & Public Space Governance in Medellín, Colombia. Baden: NOMOS Verlagsgesellschaft.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
ITUC. 2009. “Annual Survey of Violations of Trade Union Rights 2009.” Brussels: International Trade Union Confederations. http://survey09.ituc-csi.orgGoogle Scholar
Jakobsen, Kjeld. 2001. “Rethinking the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions and Its Inter-American Regional Organization.” Antipode 33, 3: 363–383.Google Scholar
Keck, Margaret E. 1989. “The New Unionism in the Brazilian Transition.” In Stepan, Alfred, ed. Democratizing Brazil: Problems of Transition and Consolidation. New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 252–296.Google Scholar
Kucera, David, and Sari, Dora. 2019. “New Labour Rights Indicators: Method and Trends for 2000–2015.” International Labour Review 158, 3: 419–446.Google Scholar
Kwon, Seung-Ho, and O’Donnell, Michael. 1999. “Repression and Struggle: The State, the Chaebol, and Independent Trade Unions in South Korea.” Journal of Industrial Democracy 41, 2: 272–294.Google Scholar
La Botz, Dan. 1999. Mask of Democracy: Labor Suppression in Mexico Today. Boston: South End Press.Google Scholar
Levenson-Estrada, Deborah. 1994. Trade Unionists Against Terror: Guatemala City 1954–1985. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Levitsky, Steven, and Mainwaring, Scott. 2006. “Organized Labor and Democracy in Latin America.” Comparative Politics 39, 1: 21–42.Google Scholar
Levitsky, Steven, and Roberts, Kenneth. 2011. “Latin America’s ‘Left Turn,’ A Framework for Analysis.” In The Resurgence of the Latin American Left. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 1–28.Google Scholar
Levitsky, Steven, and Ziblatt, Daniel. 2019. How Democracies Die. New York: Broadway Books.Google Scholar
Maich, Katherine. 2014. “Marginalized Struggles for Legal Reform: Cross-Country Consequences of Domestic Worker Organizing.” Social Development Issues 36, 3: 73–91.Google Scholar
Marinaro, Paolo. 2018. “’We Fight Against the Union!’: An Ethnography of Labor Relations in the Automotive Industry in Mexico.” In Atzeni, Maurizio and Ness, Immanuel, eds. Global Perspectives on Workers’ and Labour Organizations. Singapore: Springer.Google Scholar
McDonnell, Patrick J, and Renderos, Alexander. 2020. “Is El Salvador’s Millennial President a Reformer or an Autocrat?” Los Angeles Times, February 28.Google Scholar
Norton, Chris. 1985. “Build and Destroy.” NACLA Report on the Americas XIX (6): 26–36.Google Scholar
Ost, David. 1990. Solidarity and the Politics of Anti-Politics: Opposition and Reform in Poland since 1968. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.Google Scholar
Payne, James L. 1968. “The Oligarchy Muddle.” World Politics 20, 3: 439–453.Google Scholar
Przeworski, Adam. 1991. Democracy and the Market: Political and Economic Reforms in Eastern Europe and Latin America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Roberts, Kenneth M. 2014. Changing Course in Latin America: Party Systems in the Neoliberal Era. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Roberts, Kenneth M. 2019. “Crises of Representation and Populist Challenges to Liberal Democracy.” Chinese Political Science Review 4: 188–199.Google Scholar
Rosaldo, Manuel. 2016. “Revolution in the Garbage Dump: The Political and Economic Foundations of the Colombian Recycler Movement, 1986–2011.” Social Problems 63: 351–372.Google Scholar
Rueschemeyer, Dietrich, Stephens, Evelyne Huber, and Stephens, John D.. 1992. Capitalist Development & Democracy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Tarlau, Rebecca. 2019. Occupying Schools, Occupying Land: How the Landless Workers Movement Transformed Brazilian Education. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
UFCW Canada. n.d. “UFCW Canada Supports Migrant Workers in Guatemala.” www.ufcw.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2971:ufcw-canada-supports-migrant-workers-in-guatemala&catid=259:directions-1259&Itemid=6&lang=en (accessed July 14, 2020)Google Scholar
Chan, Wan, Sze, Debby, and Pun, Ngai. 2020. “Economic Power of the Politically Powerless in the 2019 Hong Kong Pro-Democracy Movement.” Critical Asian Studies 52, 1: 33–43.Google Scholar
Weil, David. 2014. The Fissured Workplace: Why Work Became So Bad for So Many and What Can Be Done to Improve It. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×