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Uruguay The Labor Movement
Several of the uncommon economic and political
characteristics of Uruguay influenced the development of
its
labor movement during the early 1900s. First, because the
only
sizable concentration of workers was in Montevideo, the
labor
movement was largely restricted to that city and was thus
not
really a national phenomenon. Second, the small number of
workers
employed by most individual firms limited the tendency of
workers
to form mass organizations. Third, the government played a
central role in labor policy. State enterprises and
government
organizations became the nation's largest employer. In
addition,
legislation established many private-sector labor policies
that
preempted organized labor.
Uruguay's laborers, like the economy as a whole, made
great
strides during the early decades of the 1900s. Ironically,
this
progress slowed the growth of a cohesive labor movement.
President Batlle y Ordóñez, who firmly supported the
working
class and the right to strike, was an important figure for
laborers during this period. His ideology of Batllism--in
sharp
contrast to the repression of labor in many other Latin
American
nations--aimed to reconcile labor and capital, or
employees and
owners. The Batllist government created the Office of
Labor and
ensured that a share of the increasing livestock export
earnings
was transferred to the urban working class. By the late
1920s,
legislation limited the workweek and workday, established
a
minimum wage, and required that benefits be paid to
injured or
retired laborers. This congenial atmosphere gained the
official
labor movement only limited support. In 1926, for example,
only
6,000 out of 65,000 industrial workers were dues-paying
union
members.
The cordial relationship between labor and government
deteriorated as Uruguay's economic growth stalled in the
1930s.
The government became less tolerant of unions. The unions,
in
turn, became more militant. Communism replaced anarchism
as the
dominant political ideology of labor leaders. During and
after
World War II, a sometimes-violent split between the
communist and
noncommunist labor elements developed. This ideological
division
prevented the labor movement from speaking with one voice
and
limited its national impact. In contrast to Argentina,
where the
Peronist labor movement gained great political power
during the
1950s, the labor movement in Uruguay remained fragmented.
An important question for the labor movement in Uruguay
has
been whether public-sector workers have the right to
strike.
Government employees--both in government agencies and in
state
enterprises--constituted the largest group of salaried
workers in
the country. Thus, the government's civil-service wage
policy set
the tone for wages in general. The government also
participated
directly in setting private-sector wage policy, along with
unions
and owners, through the tripartite advisory boards--the
wage
councils--established in the 1940s. When public employees
tried
to strike, the government responded harshly. After a 1952
strike
in the petroleum refinery, for example, the government
enacted a
mild form of martial law.
The confrontation between government and labor became
pronounced in the late 1960s. The Communist Party of
Uruguay had
come to dominate the unions after the Cuban Revolution,
and the
unions' objectives were as much political as they were
economic.
The government would not tolerate labor's leftist
political
program, especially given the charged atmosphere of the
period.
Nor was the government in a position to fulfill the
unions' wage
demands; a wage and price freeze was imposed, and the wage
councils were abolished in June 1968. Strikes and
repression
became frequent. The confrontation reached its climax in
1973,
when the major labor group, the National Convention of
Workers
(Convención Nacional de Trabajadores--CNT), organized a
general
strike to protest the military coup. The strike--the labor
movement's last stand--dissolved within two weeks. The
military
regime that seized power in 1973 outlawed the CNT and
arrested
its leaders. Union activity ceased for almost ten years.
During
the 1970s, 12,000 public-sector workers and at least 5,000
private-sector workers were dismissed because of their
trade
union or political activities.
The military government allowed unions to resurface in
1981
through the Law of Professional Associations. Labor
organizations
were allowed to exist on three levels: by individual
enterprise,
by occupational category, and on a national scale. But the
government took pains to depoliticize the labor movement.
The
secret ballot was to be used on the individual-enterprise
level,
both for election of leadership and for strike votes.
Leaders of
previously outlawed organizations were admonished to limit
their
political activity. The law's timing was more important
than
these limitations, however. As economic activity slowed
during
the 1981-84 recession, union activity was minimal.
Nevertheless,
the unions did play a role in the "democratic
counteroffensive"
that led to the restoration of civilian rule in the
mid-1980s.
Successful general strikes before and after Sanguinetti's
election helped dissuade the military from interfering in
the
political process.
Relations between labor and government were delicate
during
the Sanguinetti administration
(see Political Forces and Interest Groups
, ch. 4). The framework for relations was
established
before the civilian government took office, during the
1984-85
period of multiparty consultations, officially called the
National Conciliatory Program (Concertación Nacional
Programática--Conapro). A working group recommended that
the
incoming government adopt a three-part policy toward
labor:
repeal of the legislation that restricted union activity
and
collective bargaining; reinstatement of all public-sector
employees who had been dismissed by the military regime
for their
union activity; and restoration of workers' purchasing
power
through periodic wage increases, but in a manner
consistent with
bringing down inflation. The new government quickly
complied with
the first two recommendations, but the third became a
contentious
issue.
Data as of December 1990
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