Negotiated Neoliberalism? : The Labor Struggles and the Latin American State. Evidence from the Peruvian Mining Industry (1993-2013)

In 1993, Peru experienced one of the most radical neoliberal reforms in Latin America. In its attempt to attract international investors, the government deregulated the labor market, undermined labor rights and created a non-interventionist legal environment for collective bargaining. As a result, the number of unions, strikes and collective agreements felt dramatically, while the labor movement almost disappeared.  Nowadays, Peru is the Latin American country with the best economic projections–in spite of its increasing inequalities–; it is the second world producer of copper and gold; and multinational corporations control 85% of the country’s mineral resources.

In this context, mineworkers have mobilized to get better salaries and working conditions, and have started organizing to bargaining with global mining companies. Most of the studies about these efforts have focused on the contention between labor and capital–particularly within specific workplaces–, but have overlooked the role that State has in the dynamics and outcomes of the collective bargaining and the labor conflicts.

Using unique quantitative data of all the state’s interventions in the mining industry’s collective bargaining processes between 1993 and 2012, as well as qualitative evidence of two in-deep case studies, this paper analyzes the role of the state in the configuration and outcomes of labor disputes. The study shows that, in spite of the commonplace ideas about the “neoliberal state” and its pro-employer tendencies, Peruvian workers have been able to engage in face-to-face negotiations with public workers and politicians in order to confront global companies. This paper offers a typology of the main negotiation’ mechanisms between state and labor unions; analyzes their main differences with previous strategies used by workers’ organizations; and discuss its implications for a theory of the relationship between the labor movement, the state and the global capitalism in Latin America.