Labour Relations and Investment in Workers

Abstract

The national reforms represented the political opportunity implicit in Chile’s transition. At this level larger steps towards the building of citizenship could be taken. What we have yet to investigate is the nature of the scattered attempts towards crude forms of occupational citizenship inside Chilean firms. It is in the light of the challenges that persisted there that we can hope to comprehend, in a fuller sense, the implications of what was and was not reformed in Chile’s institutions of labour. We have observed that where occupational citizenship is low outside the firm (as it had remained in Chile), long-term association with the firm, and some control over work aspects, may become obvious elements of social security. By implication, they become the immediate focus of social struggles. Our assumption is that this very fact made the state of local labour relations, the existence of long-term versus short-term relationships with workers, a central development issue in the Chilean context. Our present analysis will assess the central role of social relations and of unions in shaping investments in workers. It will also look at the variegated nature of the factors that motivate workers’ leaders. In this way we will pose the relevance to development studies of labour relations. Labour relations should be conceptualized as a key factor in the development of human resources. Then, the importance of social relations to investments in workers (in long-term relationships and in training) is the general concern of this chapter. Following on from this Chapter 8 will then assess the democratizing role of the unions.¹