ABSTRACT
During the 1980s a number of economic and sociopolitical factors at both the international and domestic levels combined to introduce profound changes in the structure, physiognomy, and politics of Latin America's working class. This chapter discusses the effects of the restructuring and neoliberal governmental policies on the labor force, unions, and their strategies as well as on the overall configuration of the working class. On the basis of this analysis, it then offers some hypotheses about the impact of current conditions on the strategies for collective action of Latin American workers. The Latin American governments, as the governments of most other developing regions, have implemented public policies to lower labor costs in order to create favorable conditions for foreign investments. The increased de-skilling of labor in globalized industries enables firms to establish semiautomated plants in developing countries and to take advantage of both their cheap labor and growing workers' productivity.
