The trade union system: Its background and future prospects

Since the early 1980s the labour movement has had to deal with a series of radical changes in Latin American society and in its own identity. These transformations have been linked to the political changes associated with the termination of dictatorships, the transition to democracy or alternatively the weakening of democratic systems, and to economic changes brought about by the crisis, the external debt, the social consequences of adjustment policies, and the de-industrialization and retrofitting processes.