Q: Identify and discuss the development of the labor movement in Chile from 1990 to the present.

LABOR MOVEMENT DEVELOPMENT IN CHILE : 1990 TO PRESENT

2007

Labor Movement Development in Chile : 1990 to Present

Chile underwent a change in 1990 to a democratic form of government . As a result of this transformation to democracy , the labor movement within Chile has undergone massive development . As developments have been undergone , several areas of the labor movement have especially experienced change , including collective bargaining

Under the prior authoritarian rule of Augusto Pinochet , collective bargaining negotiations by labor units was strictly limited to initial wage readjustments , the time period for inflationary

adjustments , and the levels of inflation adjustments (Frank , 2002 ) In his in-depth study of the labor movement in Chile , Professor Volker K . Frank explicitly states that the most important of all changes concerns the new law on collective bargaining . The reform that came about during the early 1990s involved a corporations last offer to a union and their rights to proceed with the business of their corporation based on the union reaction , as well as the rights of the union to strike based on a corporation following certain criteria

Because the first reforms that impacted the labor movement in the early 1990s fell short , more reforms were enacted in the middle 1990s Professor Frank explains that This new legislation envisions major changes that would indeed limit the employers ' abusive powers , which a very flexible labor market has given them in the first place . In this sense , unlike the first reform of 1990-92 , this second one does move much more toward a `protective ' labor market (Frank , 2002 ) This major development in the labor movement is most key because of the enhanced protection afforded the laborer by a government becoming more democratic

The labor movement in Chile is far more complicated than reforms to collective bargaining laws or limitations on abusive powers . By first analyzing those key changes , however , one can better understand the tremendous development Chile has indeed undergone

Reference

Frank , V . K (2002 ) The Labor Movement in Democratic Chile , 1990-2000 University of

Notre Dame : Helen Kellogg Institute for International studies

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