Unions Today
Argentine workers' right to strike is protected by law, but unauthorized demonstrations have involved direct conflict with police in recent years.
Argentina's relatively inflexible labour market has been cited as a component of the country's high unemployment problem, and in the 1990s the government struggled to introduce labour laws which, among other things, would reduce the ability to bargain collectively above the enterprise level, and increase labour market flexibility. These changes were strongly opposed by the unions, including two general strikes in 1996. By 1998 measures agreed to by both sides had been passed, with industry-wide bargaining intact, and the removal of the temporary contract system which had allowed for workers with no social benefits.
Additional labour reforms were passed in 2004.
The union movement was weakened under the neoliberal conditions imposed first by the military junta and later reinforced by Carlos Menem (ironically, a Peronist) and his minister of finance, Domingo Cavallo. Arguably, the protagonism of popular struggle has now passed to other movements, such as the unemployed piqueteros, who were much more prominent during the protests and crisis of 2001 and 2002.
Still, the heritage of Argentina's long history of labor organization remains important to this day.
Read more about this topic: Trade Unions In Argentina
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