Unpacking Reforms:

Unions and Labor Reforms in Moderate Lefts

Abstract

What reforms in labor markets have left-wing governments carried out in recent years? This question is relevant because it allows us to inquire about the relationship between organized workers and left parties after the boom of market reforms. This paper describes how labor reforms of the leftist governments in Chile and Uruguay, two left generally grouped as moderate, had different consequences for the organization and power of the working class in each country. In Chile the arrival to power of left-wing leaders, although it represented greater protections for workers, had no consequences for the power and organization of formal workers. In Uruguay, however, the coming to power of the left generated levels of union activation similar to those that the country had before the liberalization. This result was due to the different emphasis of the labor reforms in each case. While in Chile, the labor reforms of the Concertación concentrated on the individual rights of the workers, in Uruguay the reforms profoundly modified the collective rights.