Building Power to Shape Labor Policy: Unions, Employer Associations, and Reform in Neoliberal Chile

During Chile’s transition to neoliberalism, Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship established a body of pro-business labor legislation that later democratic governments found difficult to reform. Pablo Pérez Ahumada examines why, focusing on collective labor law and on the unequal capacity of workers and employers to influence public policy. He develops a relational account of class power, showing how associational power interacts with structural, institutional, and societal resources. Through the contrasting trajectories of Chile’s United Workers’ Center (CUT) and Confederation of Production and Commerce (CPC), as well as comparisons with Argentina and Uruguay, the book explains how organizational strength, class solidarity, and the enduring legacy of neoliberalism shape the possibilities and limits of labor reform.