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Uruguay The Middle Class
Uruguay has often been described as the most
middle-class
nation in Latin America. In this social category were to
be found
civil servants, teachers, white-collar workers, small
businessmen, officers in the military, and medium-sized
farmers.
Economic crises since the 1960s have, nevertheless,
squeezed this
sector of the population hard. One reason for the rise of
women
in the labor force was the struggle of middle-class
families to
maintain their standard of living. Moreover, it was very
common
for middle-class Uruguayans to have two (or even more)
jobs.
For much of the twentieth century, Uruguay's middle
classes
benefited from the provision of excellent public education
at no
cost up through university. Public schools began to
decline in
quality in the 1970s, however, and few members of the
middle
class could afford the requisite fees to have their
children
educated privately. A similar pattern of deterioration in
public
health care and the value of state pensions occurred,
adding to
the difficulties of the middle classes. Public-sector
wages were
severely squeezed under military rule (from 1973 to 1985),
as
were private-sector wages, but to a slightly lesser
degree. A
major factor was the virtual suspension of wage bargaining
under
a climate of systematic repression of labor unions.
Previously,
white-collar unionization had been high
(see The Labor Movement
, ch. 3).
The middle classes were typically employed as civil
servants
or white-collar workers. Many worked in small businesses,
but
some of these businesses were hurt by the market-oriented
economic reforms of the 1970s, which led to the
liberalization of
manufactured imports
(see Restructuring under the Military Regime, 1973-85
, ch. 3). From 1978 until 1982, the middle
classes
benefited from a boom in imported durable consumer goods,
such as
automobiles, appliances, and electronics. The subsequent
economic
slump left many families heavily in debt and unable to
meet their
obligations. Particularly hard hit were individuals who
had taken
out mortgages denominated in dollars. When the Uruguayan
new peso
(for value of the
Uruguayan new peso--see Glossary)
collapsed in
1982, many of them found their house and apartment
payments had
tripled overnight. A similar debt crunch hit many
medium-sized
firms that had expanded by borrowing.
The Uruguayan middle classes were avid joiners of
interest
groups and professional associations. Among these were the
professional associations of lawyers, civil servants,
notaries,
accountants, bankers, and physicians. Some white-collar
labor
unions, although less prestigious than the professional
associations, were home to the middle classes. For
instance,
workers in health care had the Federation of Uruguayan
Sanitation
Workers, with 13,400 members.
High school teachers (profesores) were organized
in
the National Federation of Secondary Teachers, which had
nearly
2,400 members. Grade school teachers (maestros) had
the
Uruguayan Federation of Elementary Teachers, with nearly
7,100
members. University professors (docentes) belonged
to the
Association of Professors of the University of the
Republic,
which had 2,000 affiliates. The Uruguayan Association of
Bank
Employees (Asociación de Empleados Bancarios del
Uruguay--AEBU)
was much larger, with 15,344 members, as was the
Confederation of
State Civil Service Organizations, with 25,508 members.
Many of
these associations ran cooperative stores and social
clubs. For
example, the AEBU had a large modern headquarters in
downtown
Montevideo containing meeting rooms and a theater.
The importance of education to the middle classes was
underlined by the widespread use of professional titles.
Lawyers
were formally addressed as doctor, accountants as
contador, engineers as ingeniero, and so
forth.
However, the rapid expansion of higher education began to
lead to
graduate unemployment and underemployment in the 1960s, a
further
source of strain on the middle classes.
Data as of December 1990
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