Labour involvement in national and regional transformation processes: The case of Chile

Third World Quarterly

Volumn 20, Issue 5, 1999, Pages 1049-1059

  Riethof, Marieke ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM   (Netherlands)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ECONOMIC INTEGRATION; NEOLIBERALISM; REGIONALIZATION;

CHILE;

EID: 0033384393     PISSN: 01436597     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/01436599913488     Document Type: Article

References (46)

1. ORIT-1CFTU, From Social Alliance to Continental Action, contribution of the ORIT-ICFTU to the Document of the People's Summit of the Americas, www-document, http://dRmembers.tripod.com/redchile/ cumeng.htm, Santiago 18 April 1998.
2. Restructuring is seen here as both economic and political. It implies a shift in power relations between, and a redefinition of, the state, society and the private sector, often in favour of the latter. Neoliberalism and democratisation processes provide the framework in which these changes take place. In Latin America external actors, such as multinational corporations, international financial institutions and powerful states like the USA, play an important role in this process.
3. J Ramos, Neoconservative Economics in the Southern Cone of Latin America, 1973-1983, Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986, pp 2-9.
4. One of the most important of the authoritarian enclaves is a group of eight designated senators (including former dictator Pinochet) who can block unwanted reforms. See also J Petras & F Leiva, Democracy and Poverty in Chile: The Limits to Electoral Politics, Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1994.
5. On this topic see R Agacino & M Echeverria (eds), Flexibilidad y condiciones de trabajo precarias, Santiago: PET, 1995.
6. Ministerio de Planificación y Cooperación (MIDEPLAN), Balance de seis anos de las politicas sociales, 1990-1996, Santiago: MIDEPLAN, 1996, p 12.
7. Comisión Económica para América Latina (CEPAL), Equidad y transformación productiva: un enfoque integrado, Santiago: CEPAL, 1992;
8. CEPAL, El regionalismo abierto en America Latina y el Caribe: La Transformación económica al servicio de la transformación productiva con equidad, Santiago: CEPAL, 1994;
9. and CEPAL, America Latina y el Caribe: Politicas para mejorar la inserción en la economía mundial, Santiago: CEPAL, 1995.
10. C Celedón & R E Saéz, Caracteristicas y perspectivas de los acuerdos regionales en las Americas en los a n&tild;os noventa, Notas Técnicas no 162, Santiago: CIEPLAN, 1995, pp 41-42. Translations from Spanish were made by the author.
11. For information on exports and imports, see Banco Central de Chile, Boletin Mensual, various dates. For analysis of these data, see & ibid; J Ruiz-Tagle, 'La integratión regional y el ingreso al NAFTA: consecuencias para los trabajadores', Economia y Trabajo en Chile, Informe Anual 1994-1995, no 5, Santiago, Programa de Economfa del Trabajo, 1995; and S Yan&tild;ez & D Lopez, 'Globalización, reestructuración competitiva y empleo, Economia y Trabajo en Chile, Informe Anual 1995-1996, no 6, Santiago, Programa de Economia del Trabajo, 1996. Information on Foreign Direct Investment in Chile can be found in O Caputo, La inversión extranjera directa en la economia chilena: algunas implicancias económicos y sociales, Santiago: Universidad ARCIS, 1994. On the effects of the Asian crisis, see CEPAL, Impacto de la crisis Asiática en América Latino, Oranjestad (Aruba): CEPAL, 1998.
12. A E Femandez Jilberto & B Hogenboom, 'Latin American experiences with open regionalism'. International Journal of Political Economy, 26(4), 1996-97, p 3.
13. See also CEPAL, El regionalismo abierto 1994;
14. and CEPAL, America Latina y el Caribe, 1995.
15. P Bustos, 'Las condicionantes macroeconomicas de la región y la cuestión social', in J Ensignia & H Sassenfeld (eds), Chile-MERCOSUR y eslrategias sindicales en la región, Santiago: Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, 1996, p 67;
16. J Ensignia, 'Chile-MERCOSUR y estrategias sindicales en la región', in ibid, p 2; and Celedón & Saéz, Caraclerislicas y perspeclivas, p 42.
17. M Espinosa, Tendencias sindicales: Análisis de una décoda, Cuadernos de Investigatión, no 2, Santiago; Directión del Trabajo, 1996;
18. and Directión del Trabajo, Cómo operan las normas de negociación colectlva y de organizaciones sindicales: Resultados de un esludio empirico, Cuademos de Investigation, no 1, Santiago: Dirección del Trabajo, 1996.
19. On the analysis of economic groups and their power relations, see W Peres (ed), Grandes empresas y grupos industrials latinoamericanos: Expansion y desafos en la era de la apenura y la globalización. Madrid: Siglo Veintiuno, 1998.
20. M Riethof, 'Globalization, neoliberal restructuring and labour relations: the case of Chile,' unpublished MA thesis, Amsterdam: University of Amsterdam, 1997, p 104.
21. For a comparison with the period before 1973, see R Berins Collier & D Collier, Shaping the Political Arena: Critical Junctures, the Labor Movement, and Regime Dynamics in Latin America, Princeton, NT: Princeton University Press, 1991;
22. and P Drake, Socialism and Populism in Chile: 1932-1952, Chicago, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1978
23. This hypothesis is supported by a study by Mizala and Romaguera on an analogous topic, namely, that companies which produce for the international market are more inclined to modernise the production process. Ruigrok and Van Tulder argue that there is a complex relationship between the position of a company in relation to other companies and actors (or their power position in this context) and their connections to regional or world markets, as well as their internationalisation strategies and means of dealing with trade unions and workers. A Mizala & P Romaguera, 'Flexibilidad del mercado del trabajao: el impacto del ajuste y los requisites del crecimiento económico', Colección Estudios CIEPLAN, 43, 1996;
24. and W Ruigrok & R van Tulder, The Logic of International Restructuring, London: Routledge, 1995.
25. G Rosenthal, 'Regional integration in the 1990s', CEPAL Review, 50, 1993, pp 15-16.
26. M Wannöffel, 'Regulation laboral en el proceso de la integratión económica en América Latina', in M Wannöffel (ed), Ruptura en las relaciones laborales, Caracas: Nueva Sociedad/Fundación Friedrich Ebert, 1995, pp 11-12.
27. L Palomares & L Mertens, 'El movimiento sindical ante los cambios en la práctica productiva', Revista de Economia y Trabajo, 1(1), 1993, p 127.
28. R W Cox, Production, Power, and World Order: Social Forces in the Making of History, New York: Columbia University Press, 1987.
29. J Godio, 'Politicas laborales de la Coordinadora de Centrales Sindicales del Cono Sur (ccscs) en las instituciones de la integratión (1991-1996)', in Ensignia & Sassenfeld, Chile-MERCOSUR, p 115; Ruiz-Tagle, 'la integratión regional', p 52.
30. Principal members are Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. It became officially operational on 1 January 1995 as a free trade zone and customs union.
31. Ensignia, 'Chile-MERCOSUR' pp 8-10; Ministerio de Economia, 'Chile y MERCOSUR: al borde del libre comercio'. Zona Publica, 8, 1996, p 5.
32. Yanez & Lopez, 'Globalización' p 89; E Rivera, Modela económico e inserción inlemacional de procesos de inlegración en América Latina, Serie Publicaciones Debate Sindical, no 4, Santiago: Fundación Friedrich Ebert, 1995, p 7.
33. Ministerio de Economia, 'NAFTA: razones y desafios', Zona Publica, 2, April 1995, pp 5-8; Ruiz-Tagle, 'La integratión regional', pp 48-49.
34. Ministerio de Econorma, 'NAFTA', pp 5-6.
35. Protest in the USA was organised by a wide variety of organisations, such as trade unions, environmental organisations, farmers and far right groups. These groups have also played an important role in the ultimate rejection of the expansion of NAFTA. In Mexico, protests were exemplified by the insurrection of native farmers in Chiapas (Zapatistas). See also M E Rupert, '(Re)politicizing the global economy: liberal common sense and ideological struggle in the US NAFTA debate'. Review of International Political Economy, 2(4), 1995, pp 658-692.
36. For regional trade union activities in 1998 see Summit of the Peoples of America, Towards a Continental Social Alliance, Documents, Santiago, 15-18 April 1998 (http://dRmembers.tripod.com/~redchiIe/ indice.htm).
37. Coordinadora de Centrales Sindicales del Cono Sur (ccscs), 'Carta de los derechos fundamentales del MERCOSUR: propuesta de los trabajadores', mimeo, December 1993.
38. The CMC consists of the presidents of the central banks of MERCOSUR countries. The highest institution is the Consejo Mercado Común (CMC), whose members are the ministers of the economy.
39. Godio, 'Poh'ticas laboralin', pp 100-104, 109-110, 112-114; and Bustos, 'Las condicion antes macroeconomicas,
40. Central Unitária de Trabajadores, 'Resoluciones II Congreso Programático', mimeo, Santiago, 22-24 May 1997, p 36.
41. A Martmez, 'Movimiento sindical y globalización', in Ensignia & Sassenfeld, Chile-MERCOSUR pp 34-35; and M Rozas, 'La cur y el MERCOSUR', in Ensignia & Sassenfeld, Chile-MERCOSUR, pp 40-43.
42. M Albuquerque, Implicancias del factor laboral en un eventual tralado de libre comercio con Estados Unidos, Documento de Trabajo no 43, Santiago: Corporación 2000, Programa de Estudios Prospectives, 1994, pp 23-24; and Ruiz-Tagle, 'La integration regional', pp 53.
43. J Godio, 'Reflexiones sobre los desafios del sindicalismo', Critica y Communicación, 5, 1991, pp 6-9;
44. K Koonings, D Kruijt & F Wils, 'The very long march of history', in H Thomas (ed), Clobalization and Third World Trade Unions: The Challenge of Rapid Economic Change, London: Zed Books, 1995, pp 103-105, 109.
45. For a very useful analysis of categories of workers and their representation, see also Cox, Production, Power and World Order.
46. L Geller, 'Labour market adaptation: towards an action agenda', in G Standing & V Tokman (eds), Towards Social Adjustment: Labour Market Issues in Structural Adjustment, Geneva: International Labour Organisation, 1991, p 186.