Sindicatos y negociaciones salariales

Abstract

Collective bargaining is the main method used by trade unions to further their basic objective of "maintaining or improving the condition of their members working lives". Collective bargaining is a rule making process as well as a power relation-ship between organizations. Thus, besides its original character as a market activity bargaining implies a political and an economic process. In analyzing the outcomes of collective bargaining situations it is important to distinguish between "economic" and "political" variables. This is specially relevant in the Argentine case. In any case it seems necessary to emphasize the extraordinary complex nature of the factors that determine the outcome of any major collective bargaining situation. In this framework, the purpose of the paper is to analyze the Argentine case during the period 1950-1980 comparing the wage outcomes of situations characterized by free collective bargaining with others where wages were established by government decisions. Some conclusions are drawn about the actual "economic power" of Argentine trade unions.