Chile

The decades between the 1880s-1920s are called the “Heroic Era” of union organizing because of political persecution, labor abuses, and state violence. Events such as the massacres of Santa María de Iquique (1907) and San Gregorio (1921), where hundreds of nitrate workers and their families were gunned down, have become part of workers’ collective memory. Their stories have been passed on by generations through songs, poems, plays, and oral tradition.  

Like in other parts of Latin America, labor unions used the working-class press to organize, communicate, and foster communities. These newspapers are some of the most important sources for studying union politics, culture, and life, and many of them have been digitized or preserved by local libraries and archives.

Beginning in the mid-1920s, labor laws eliminated some of the worst abuses in the workplace, established new public institutions to oversee labor relations and the enforcement of the law, and recognized labor unions and their bargaining and strike rights. This was a period of institutionalization. While repression and harassment continued (especially between 1926-1931 and 1948-1952) and the enforcement of labor laws remained uneven, the trade union movement gained status and visibility in Chilean society. In addition, industrialization expanded in the 1940s-1960s, and a new union culture emerged in the steel, metal, textile, and large-scale mining industries. Access to union fees allowed labor unions to support members and sponsor various activities, such as sports competitions, cooperatives, and cultural events.

National confederations have historically played an important role in the country, connecting local unions to larger political struggles and leaders. At specific points, they also maintained international connections and joined regional and global movements. The Federación Obrera de Chile (FOCH) was the first national labor organization. Founded by railroad workers in 1909, the FOCH became a national organization with nearly 150 thousand members, held national meetings, and maintained local councils throughout the country. Political repression and the economic consequences of the Great Depression eventually dispersed the FOCH. The Popular Front Era opened new opportunities for building broader labor and political coalitions. In 1936, the Confederación de Trabajadores de Chile (CTCh) brought together trade unions representing white-collar and blue-collar workers from diverse political traditions. However, they could not survive the anti-communism of the early Cold War and split in 1946. Following a period of division within the labor movement, acerbated by the anti-communist legislation of 1948, Chilean workers created one of the most influential organizations, Central Única de Trabajadores (CUT), in 1953. The CUT played a central role, led powerful national strikes, and supported the socialist revolution led by President Salvador Allende (1970-1973).  

Within this history, rural workers deserve a special place. Authoritarian employers, traditional paternalism, and anti-union legislation prevented rural workers from organizing. In 1967, under the government of President Eduardo Frei Montalva, a new law guaranteed rural workers the right to unionize. The number of rural unions rose in the following years and, in tandem with the process of Agrarian Reform, offered previously disfranchised rural communities a path to improve living and working conditions. Collection of documents, ethnographies, and oral histories and memories have started to document this history.

The years of the Popular Unity and Chile’s road to socialism (1970-1973) are a unique time in the union movement’s history. The CUT signed an agreement with the new government, and national labor leaders joined the government. Workers participated in occupied factories and neighborhood organizations at the local level and formed larger movements such as the industrial belts. This visibility can be seen in photographs and documentaries like Patricio Guzmán’s The Battle of Chile documentary. On the eve of the military coup of 1973, about 35 percent of the workforce belonged to a labor union, the highest rate of unionization in Chilean history. Their organizations challenged the traditional power of the economic and social elite.

Under the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship (1973-1990), the military heavily repressed the trade union movement. Labor leaders were persecuted, assassinated, exiled, and laws suspended. During the first two years of dictatorship, the International Labour Organisation reported that 110 union leaders had been killed, and 120 were imprisoned or disappeared. Some of these stories are told through memorials, human rights reports, and testimonies. Workers started organizing in the late 1970s to protest draconian economic policies and anti-labor legislation. Especially noteworthy were the first strikes organized by copper workers. Efforts to bring together different labor groups, as well as to bridge between leftist organizations and those with ties to the Christian Democratic Party and the Catholic Church, included the Confederación Nacional Sindical (1975) and the Central Unitaria de Trabajadores (CUT, 1988-present). Some of the most influential leaders of this period include Tucapel Jiménez (a leader of the public service union killed in 1982), Manuel Bustos (textile leader), Rodofolo Seguel (copper unions), and Arturo Martínez.  

Despite workers’ contributions to the struggle for democracy, gains have been uneven. The 1980 constitution has acted as a roadblock to many of the efforts to reform labor laws, and economic reforms and changes, global and local, have undermined the traditional power of industrial workers. Today, most Chileans worked in the service industry. An extractive boom that includes fishing, forestry, and mining has offered employment, but many jobs are precarious and dangerous. Despite all obstacles, Chilean workers have continued to organize as efforts in Walmart, supermarkets, and private health care services demonstrate. Many of these new unions are led by women.

Many groups in Chile have used social media and the internet to share information about labour histories:

• Archivo Digital de Músicos de Valparaíso: An online collection that includes digitized documents of the Sociedad Musical de Socorros Mutuos y del Sindicato Profesional de Músicos, a labour and mutual aid organization repressing musicians in the port of Valparaíso. The digitized documents are part of a larger project on the history of professional musicians in Valparaiso
• Memorias de Chuchunco: A project recovering the history of a working-class neighborhood in Santiago. On their site, people can access books, ephemera, photographs, and testimonies about social and community life
• Cordones Industriales 50 años: This group used Instagram to recover and share the history of industrial belts during the socialist years (1970-1973). @cordonesindustriales.50