The Big Game: A Society of Conflict and Social Dialogue

Collective bargaining has been one of the most important legal instruments used by the Welfare States in decision making of public policies in Europe and in Latin America. It is potential for resolving conflicts among the actors of a society is a powerful mechanism to battle the inequalities generated by the markets. The acquired rights of workers are defined mostly in formal and informal spaces, logic established in the labor relations system, by institutional actors. Considering as a reference both cases at different stages in implementing the Welfare State, this analytical work perspective have a goals to understand the logic about negotiation and social cohesion like the basis for determining the minimum wage and the recent policies of their increase in value in Brazil and Portugal. The study takes in a social transformation phase experienced by the two countries. In contrasting moments in the political guidelines of their respective governments. That can tell a lot about social issues and the possibilities about socio-economic achievements, by workers in each context, both in the framework of the dismantling of the Portuguese-welfare state, and the expansion of social policies that are associated with the strengthening of a Brazilian-welfare state. This proposal is a methodological relevance for the purposes of sociological and economic, in qualitative and quantitative research, the comparative study of institutional focus, in the forms of organization and trade union action, and recovery measures in the minimum wage that influence into categories negotiations wage workers organized in both countries.