ILO’s actions and workers’ voices against state terrorism in South America

ABSTRACT

The article argues that the ILO’s Committee of Freedom of Association proceedings against dictatorships during the seventies, eighties and nineties in Latin America were a relevant site of conflict for the region’s dictatorships, even when they did not stop the military from attacking workers, unions and labour rights. By examining the most critical Cases opened in Geneva against Chile and Argentina between 1973–1990, the article explores the ILO’s actions, the implicated voices, and the effects of the Cases before and after the coups while reflecting on the importance (and limitations) of international trade unionism solidarities and international efforts during the period.

KEYWORDS:

• Argentina
• Chile
• dictatorships
• International Labour Organisation (ILO)
• Committee of Freedom of Association (CFA)
• trade unions

Acknowledgments

This paper was first presented at the International Colloque Justice Sociale at travail decent: 100 ans d’action de L’OIT that took place in Conseil Economique, Social et Environnemental (CESE) in Paris in June 2019. The author is grateful to the organizers Adeline Blaszkiewicz, Camille Bourdiel, Cyril Cosme, Marine Dhermy-Mairal, Agnès Jeannet, Sandrine Kott, Isabelle Lespinet-Moret, and Marieke Louis as well as to the colloquium participants for their feedback and comments.

Revisions to the paper greatly benefited from Dr Leon Gooberman (Cardiff University) and anonymous referees’ comments. All oversights and omissions are the authors’ alone.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. I adjusted the reference style to include the name, not only the authors’ surname. As Kruskaya Hidalgo Cordero and Carolina Salazar Daza (2020) explain surnames are traditionally paternal and lead to think about authors as male subjects. Changing the standard reference style to make women’s contributions visible can be seen as a tiny step. Still, it is one within the diverse and rich rising feminist movement we are building to fight for equal political, economic, cultural, personal, and social rights for women in Latin America and elsewhere. Ahora es cuando.

2. This marginality is under debate as can be seen in Gabriela Águila (2012), Danny Monsálvez Araneda (2016), Paulo Fontes & Larissa R. Corrêa (2018), and Luciana Zorzoli & Juan Pedro Massano (2021) among others.

3. The Committee was established in 1951 to study complaints about violations of freedom of association, whether or not the country concerned has ratified the relevant ILO conventions. The creation of the Committee followed the model of the ILO’s Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations (CEACR), created in 1926, being since then a crucial element in the supervisory mechanism for standards.

4. On the memory of Pinochet’ dictatorship see, Steve Stern (2010) and Verónica Valdivia Ortiz de Zárate (2003); on the consequences of the military coup Peter Winn (2004). A recent account of the studies addressing labour history can be found in Ángela Vergara (2018).

5. The Commission was set up by the ILO’s Governing Body in January 1950 following negotiations with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, but has been rarely used, and dealt only with six complaints to date (See, David Tajgman & Karen Curtis, 2000). The one about Chile presented a Report of the Fact-Finding and Conciliation Commission on Freedom of Association concerning the situation in Chile in 1975.

6. Complaints and denunciations alleging violations of human rights in Chile were also sent to the Organization of American States and treated by the Inter-American Commission Human Rights (the Reports can be accessed here).

7. Even when Chile had ratified none of both at that moment, they were accepted following the obligations derived from the country condition of member of the ILO, which transcends the ratification of agreements concerning fundamental rights (see the ILO’s Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work adopted by the International Labour Conference at its Eighty-sixth Session, Geneva, 18 June 1998 and Gerry Rodgers et al., 2009).

8. There is still much to know about the creation of international networks of cooperation and how the information was gathered for those first complaints, considering that the Chilean labour movement, even when having international linkages, had not found its international relations until the decade of the seventies as a priority (Eric Palma González, 1996).

9. There were, as well, some claims sent by groups in exile. As an example, see Case 1183, where the reporting entity is the Central Única de Trabajadores de Chile Comité en el exterior.

10. That the international arena was of interest to government should not be taken to mean that there was not an intense struggle within the military over the best international strategy to pursue, as Paula Canelo (2008) has shown.

11. Details of the objections and the Credentials Committee debates and resolutions can be found here, while academic inquiries considering these disputes at the ILO are pending. On the diversity of positions regarding the Pinochet’s regime see Gonzalo Falabella (1990) and Rolando Álvarez Vallejos (2010).

12. Pinochet formalized the changes introduced since 1973 with a comprehensive reform of the system of industrial relations approved in 1979, the Plan Laboral. The same year, in Argentina, the government passed a new bill for trade unions (and connected issues, as the health services) producing the first rupture on the alliance that sustained the government’s international strategy (Mariana Stoler, 2021).

13. See the Legislative Advisory Commission secret documents (Fondo CAL for its acronym in Spanish) in the Archivo Intermedio del Archivo General de la Nación, sede Paseo Colón.

14. The collection of 280 secret minutes of the meetings held by the Argentine Military Junta between July 1976 and November 1983 was found in 2013 and published by the Ministerio de Defensa (2014). For an academic analysis of the documents see, Paula Canelo (2016).

15. Vitaik Jakasa was kidnapped on 6 May 1977. There is minimal information regarding his abduction and disappearance, denounced to the argentine ‘Truth Commission’ by his family, and investigated under file number 3024 of the Commission on the Disappearance of Persons [Comisión Nacional sobre la Desaparición de Personas, CONADEP]. His disappearance had great international repercussions (see, among others, New York Times, 15/05/1977) and received careful government treatment including the provision of a special pension to his family sponsored by the Ministry of Labour in Argentina at that moment, Horacio Liendo. His file can be accessed in the National Archive of Memory [Archivo Nacional de la Memoria], Buenos Aires, Argentina https://www.argentina.gob.ar/anm.

16. He was designated in 1976 by the business sector as the Vice-president of the Annual Conference, which the Argentinean press highlighted as a sign of institutional support for the country (see, for example, Clarín, 03/06/1976). The opposed post facto interpretation is more plausible: that his designation to such an important and visible position was realised in order to protect him. During 1976, Vitaic Jakasa never explicitly mentioned the repressive situation in the country, although his position meant he was involved in debates of freedom of association and he could not have been unaware of the establishment of Case 842, nor could he have been ignorant of the government response issued through ambassador Martínez.

17. I am unaware of any other relevant action taken by the ILO in Geneva or in Buenos Aires beyond the file opened within Case 842.

18. The ILO’s Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations also offered observations on the Argentine situation and new legislation. See as an example the Summary of Reports on Ratified Conventions for the 66^th Session of the International Labour Conference in 1980.

19. The person in charge of the contacts in Argentina was a lawyer and university professor at the University of Roma, Antonio Malintoppi. Malintoppi took part in other CFA Cases and was expected to shed light on the most delicate issues presented in the Case: trade union activities, claims regarding arrest and disappearances of trade unionists, and general concerns around the freedom of association in other many levels. An account of his two visit can be found in Victoria Basualdo (2010) and Luciana Zorzoli (2017).

Additional information

Funding

I am grateful to the Argentine National Scientific and Technical Research Council for funding my PhD project and a Postdoctoral appointment (2016-2018) that made archival research in Geneva possible. Also, to a Regional Cooperation Scholarship and Prof Dr Patricio Herrera Gonzalez from the University of Valparaíso Business School in Chile, who kindly hosted me in 2018 to do archival work and discuss the ILO’s actions and relevance in the region.

Notes on contributors

Luciana Zorzoli

Luciana Zorzoli is Lecturer in Employment Relations at the Management, Employment and Organisation Section in Cardiff University Business School. Luciana’s research interests include international and comparative employment relations focusing on labour unions in Latin America. In close connection to this, she is interested in the International Labour Organization (ILO) role in the region and the challenges faced by the ILO in the Global South. She co-edited with Juan Grigera Rethinking the Proceso (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020) and with Juan Pedro Massano Clase Obrera y Dictadura Militar 1983-1976 (A Contracorriente, The University of North Carolina Press 2021).