ABSTRACT
Beyond the efforts in regard to legislation, the self-organization of male and female workers is the main reason for the establishment of real labour representation and labour rights. The institutionalization in countries like Brazil generated a consolidated legislation of workers’ rights, rules of procedure for labour organization, and a specialized law. In the 19th century, most American countries created the first labour organizations on record, the mutual-aid labour associations of Latin America, the “Knights of Labour” associations of North America, or general laying-claims unions influenced by European anarchists and socialists. After World War II, three factors have contributed to defining labour and its representation practices in Latin America: the politics of import substitution, the labour organization model controlled by the State, and the ideological dispute of the Cold War. The structural adjustment programs implemented in Latin America and the Caribbean in the 1980s and 1990s provoked large transformations in the workplace and consequently in labour organization.
