Challenges, strategies and alliances of the trade unions in Mercosul

Abstract

In this article, the authors analyse the challenges, strategies and alliances of the trade union movement face to the Southern Common Market (Mercosul), aiming at the understanding of how these actors have achieved regional areas for negotiation and interaction. They formulate the following question: is it possible to reach a regional articulation of the trade unions able to influence the evolution process of Mercosul, in such a way that it guarantees or widens the workers’ interests? As far as methodology is concerned, the authors present the leaders’ perceptions of the main brazilian and argentinian trade unions, according to interviews done at the end of 1998 and beginning of 1999. The authors concluded that although the trade unions have different origins, backgrounds and political or ideological positions, they manage to keep a unified and well structure position during the Mercosul negotiations, which may become the basis to a supranational syndical culture. The trade unions decided for a wider negotiation position, aggrieving the confrontation or mere criticism. Even being mainly motivated by national interests, the economic regional integration of the southern countries of South America propiciate the beginning of the implementation of trade unions practices into the region.