Strengthen unions to strengthen democracy in Chile

As is often the case at this time, the commemoration of May 1 forces us to think about the challenges that the country has in labor matters. In this 2025 these challenges are diverse, from reflecting on the scope of the progressive reduction of the workday until looking closely at the “vital salary”, pushed by trade union organizations. However, a permanent challenge, and sometimes hidden in the public debate, says related to the need to strengthen the negotiating power of the unions.

Strengthening unions is not, at all, a new idea in Chile. From the return to democracy in 1990, many people have insisted on that idea. However, this has not materialized in substantive prosindic reforms. Why are unions so weak and why has it cost so much to strengthen them? Faced with such a question, the conservative sectors argue that the unions are weak simply because they are organizations “of the past”, lacking legitimacy and controlled by leaders with interests outside the work world (for example, political interests), whose action harms the companies and the economy as a whole.

Therefore, from this perspective, strengthening unions is counterproductive with the development of the country. For their part, some sectors of the progressive world explain the union weakness arguing that unions are “outdated” organizations that, given their inability to represent new sectors of the work world, no longer fulfill a particularly relevant role in the struggles of the 21st century. Thus, from this perspective it is argued that the strengthening of unions could be desirable, but it should not necessarily be a goal central of left or center -left matches.

Despite their differences, both positions agree to assume that unions are largely obsolete organizations and devoid of legitimacy, since in practice they are unable to properly represent the interests of the workers. As a sign of this, this story continues, the union affiliation rates are low in Chile, as is the interest of the workers to join a union.

However, is this indeed? In Chile, only 16% of the workers are affiliated with a union. However, recent investigations indicate that the low level of union affiliation no It is explained by the lack of legitimacy of the unions or by the little interest of the workers in unionizing. In a recently published article, we show that Chile is the country of Latin America where the most trusted the unions. As shown in Figure 1, the available data indicates that in Chile the probability of trusting “much” or “something” in unions is almost 45%. This percentage is significantly greater than that of several countries in the region (for example, Venezuela, Argentina, Guatemala, El Salvador, Panama, Mexico, etc.) In the article we argue that the comparatively high levels of confidence in Chilean unions are explained, among other reasons, by the increase in social mobilizations in the last decade. As is known, the growth of these mobilizations led to a deterioration of citizen confidence in political institutions such as government, parliament and parties. However, in the article we argue that this deterioration in trust may have not occurred for the case of unions (at least, not at the level observed for political institutions). The implication is that, far from being organizations lacking legitimacy, Chilean unions may have revitalized their image in the heat of the social mobilizations of the past decade.

Source: Pérez Ahumada, P., & Carrasco, K. (2024). Class policy and confidence in unions in Latin America. Latin American Research Review, 1–24. Trust is measured through a variable that indicates whether people trust “a lot” or “something” in the Syndicatos.

More recent data reaffirm these types of conclusions. Within the framework of a Fondecyt project we conducted a national survey together with national and international researchers and researchers, in order to study the perceptions of Chileans and Chileans about unions and labor relations (n ​​= 3,048 cases). Preliminary results of the survey suggest several interesting issues. For example, very in line with official statistics, about 15% of salaried people surveyed said they were a member of a union. However, when only people who work in a company where there is union, the level of union affiliation rises to almost 60%are considered. This suggests, again, that an important cause of the low union affiliation is not the lack of interest, but the practical impossibility of unionizing. When there is the option to join a union, most workers Yeah He does it.

In the same survey, we asked a multiple answers question to study why people are unionized. As we could see, the main reasons indicated by the workers are two: “To have more economic benefits” (62%) and “because as workers you have to be united to defend our rights” (51%). In other words, the affiliation to unions in Chile is due to both economic and regulatory motivations (collectivist type).

Finally, in the survey we also ask what the workers’ workers think. Using a scale from 0 to 10, where 0 is “nothing important and 10 is” very important “, we ask” how important do you think are the unions for …? ” When analyzing items such as “(unions are important) to get better salaries and working conditions for workers” or “(unions are important) to protect the rights of women who work”, we find that about 60% of people reported high or very high scores (6 or more points on the scale of 0 to 10). In the defense of wages and working conditions, as well as in the protection of the rights of working women.

In sum, in contrast to those who on the one hand and on the other dismiss the relevance of the unions, these figures suggest that strengthening negotiating power is essential to satisfy the aspirations of Chilean workers. Now, union strengthening is also key to strengthening democracy in the country. This, for two fundamental reasons. On the one hand, because a long -standing aspiration of the country’s workers would be fulfilled. On the other hand, because when unions are strong, democratic systems are more robust. Unions not only promote the political participation of the workers and their involvement in civic associations of different types (neighborhoods, sports, etc.), but also stimulate their interest in politics and public issues, thus strengthening their pro-democratic orientations.

In an election year that will be marked by programmatic proposals of various kinds, this new May 1 reminds us that the strengthening of the unions should be located at the center of the agenda of the left and center -left parties. This would allow these parties to reconnect with central demands of the workers and, at the same time, propose legislative changes (for example, a prosindical labor reform) that in the medium term could be fundamental to protect democracy before the threat of authoritarian agendas of ultra -right.