Trade Unions, Labor Market Dualization, and Investment in Early Childhood Education and Care in Latin America

In this chapter, the authors analyze how the dualization of the labor market and the segmentation of the welfare state shape the role that trade unions play in contemporary social investment reforms in Latin America. They argue that in contexts of low dualization, social policy reforms are more likely to have direct consequences for the labor conditions of the formal workforce because welfare provision is less segmented. When organized labor’s interests are affected, unions have more incentives to get involved in shaping social policies. In contrast, in highly dualized labor markets, social policy expansion is less likely to be directly linked to formal workers’ labor conditions. In these contexts, it is unlikely that organized labor will act as an important driver (or opponent) of policies aimed at extending benefits to labor market outsiders. The authors focus on two important reforms which expanded early childhood education and care public services to previously excluded segments of the population: Chile Crece Contigo in Chile (2006) and the Estancias Infantiles para Madres Trabajadoras program in Mexico (2007). They show that neither in Chile nor in Mexico was organized labor a relevant actor in the agenda-setting stage. However, in contrast to unions in Mexico, which did not attempt to shape the policy at any stage of the process, unions in Chile have become highly involved in the post-reform period.