Trade unions and inclusive policies in Latin America: a new premise?

Following the expansion of anti-poverty measures that Latin American countries underwent from the decade of 2000s, large part of the population was included for the first time in the system of social protection. The role of the politics has already investigated by many authors who claim, among the main contributory factors, the democratic regimes and governments headed by the left. The research project is aimed to investigate the trade unions in such a period of transformation, and it particular it would show the strategy they adopted while facing pro-outsiders policies, which often coincide with non-contributory measures. Indeed, present literature does not address precisely whether trade unions are completely supportive of social assistance or if, on the contrary, they are supportive of it. Thus, after the identification of a peculiar path of expansion of anti-poverty measures, the theory of insiders-outsiders will be tested against the power resources and the revitalization. While the former states the opposition of the trade unions to these type of action, the second – even through different processes – support the thesis that organized labour can adopt more encompassing strategies. The research also aims to understand whether differences exist among countries with a very similar background in terms of welfare regime, labour market structure and historical/economical development but with extremely different trade union’s system. The countries taken into consideration are Argentina and Uruguay.