Publications

Castillo, G.; Orsatti, A. (Comp.)
Informal work and trade unionism in Latin America and the Caribbean: good training and organisational practices

Montevideo: Cinterfor/ILO, 2005
114pp. (Trade Unions and Training, 5)

 

(Full text only available in Spanish in pdf format)

 

In this new publication of the series entitled "Trade Unions and Training," an updated scenario is provided, both of trade union experiences and of reflections in their regard, relating to workers of the informal economy in the region of Latin America and the Caribbean.

Both of them (practice and reflection) have been, during the last twenty years, the result of merging several factors and initiatives. Among the factors, it is important to highlight the increasing power acquired by informality, both in terms of its economic importance and employment generation, the conditions of low productivity and labour precariousness that frequently run alongside its expansion, and the challenge involved for trade union organisations that have, historically, structured their bases of organisation and representation in the formal - predominantly industrial - economy and in salaried labour relations. Among the initiatives, we highlight the concurrence of both the trade unions of the different branches, national offices and regional trade union organisations, and the concomitant influence of the ILO throughout the period.

Regarding the ILO, stress is to be laid on the focuses brought to bear at the time by PREALC (Regional Employment Programme for Latin America and the Caribbean), by the Regional Office on an ongoing basis and, insofar as more specifically concerns training aspects within the strategies addressed to the productive units and workers of the informal economy, by Cinterfor/ILO (frequently linking those approaches to the trade unionism perspective).

The experiences described in this publication possess different points of departure:

- Those developed by horizontal regional trade union organisations, involving basically national confederations: ORIT-CIOSL (Inter-American Regional Workers' Organisation of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions) and CLAT (Latin American Workers' Confederation of the World Confederation of Labour).

- Those promoted by sector regional organisations, such as those addressing municipal workers (ULATMUN) and domestic workers (CONLACTRAHO).

- Those implemented by prototypical organisations of workers of the informal economy at the national level, in this case represented by the cases of FNOTNA/CROC in Mexico and of FUTRAND/CTV in Venezuela.

As for the ILO contribution to such experiences and processes, in the first place we have the article by Gerardo Castillo, Miguel Frohlich and Alvaro Orsatti on building up a comprehensive educational approach towards informal labour from the perspective of Latin American trade unionism and, in second place, the article by Montserrat Hurtado on training methodologies and models adapted to the complex reality of informal workers.

As a complement, the results of sub-regional seminars in the Andean Area (2003) and in the Southern Cone (2004) are each presented and organised within the framework of the Project "Trade unions and decent work in the era of globalisation in Latin America" (ACTRAV/ILO - Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs of Spain). The results are a species of sub-regional trade union consensuses with reference to the subjects on which this publication focuses.

An element linked to the work of ILO that it is interesting to highlight refers to its contribution to a maximisation of the potential for convergence that is to be observed among the perspectives of ORIT and CLAT, regarding the diagnosis and organisation of informal labour, from the vantage point of two initially distant sources that are approaching each other. This is reflected in the abovementioned sub-regional consensuses among national offices that belong to both confederations propitiated by ACTRAV in 2003 and 2004, also including feedback between these activities and key elements of the renewal of the ORIT strategy in its recent 16th Congress (Brasilia, April 2005). We should also recall, as background more distant in time, an important regional conference on employment policies (Santiago, 1995, described in the first article).

This trend is especially valuable in a situation in which, on the basis of the world agreements of the ICFTU (CIOSL) and the WCL (CMT), kinds as yet to be determined of regional strategic or organic agreements could be produced.

For Cinterfor/ILO, this publication is located within its ongoing work of dissemination of pioneer experiences in the training field that, from different sources, merge in the objective of decent work, especially for those collectives and sectors, such as the informal economy, where their relative absence is most notorious.

Gerardo Castillo

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Presentation
Gerardo Castillo

Building a comprehensive training strategy aimed at workers in the informal economy. The CIOSL-ORIT experience
Gerardo Castillo, Miguel Frohlich and Alvaro Orsatti

Presentation
1. Concepts of informality for trade union action
1.1 The CIOSL approach
1.2 The ORIT approach

2. A strategic outline of ORIT
2.1 Internal strategy
2.2 External strategy

3. ORIT institutional developments on the subject
3.1 Convergence of areas and contents
3.2 The socio-economic projects
3.3 Relations between ORIT and ILO on the subject of informality
ACTRAV-ILO: Recommendations on informal sector and social sector.
"Employment policies in Latin America" regional seminar

4. Reflections on comprehensive education for informal workers
4.1 Lessons from ORIT activities
4.2 Cinterfor/ILO recommendations

5. New stage of trade union work: "more widespread" informality and new training models
5.1 Strategic re-focusing on atypical labour collectives subject to trade unionisation
5.2 New ILO teachings on training matters
Bibliography

Training methodologies and models adapted to the complex reality of informal workers. On the basis of ILO experiences in Latin America
Montserrat Hurtado

Introduction
Vocational training and creation of employment in contexts of population in poverty conditions
Training women
Access to training and training centres and programmes
Methodology of training action
What must we keep in mind for a training proposal?
Characteristics of the informal sector to keep in mind in a trainer training programme
Criteria for designing a training programme addressing workers (of both sexes) of the informal sector
Pedagogical strategies
The profile of the teacher
Desirable point of arrival of training
Let's talk a little about literacy
Conclusions
Bibliography

SUBREGIONAL CONSENSUSES

Conclusions of the ILO-ACTRAV seminars. Informal economy, trade unionism and decent work
Andean seminar
Overall considerations
Specific conclusions
Organisational policies

Southern Cone seminar
Elements for a diagnosis
Objectives in trade union policy
Proposals at the organisational level
Recommendations at the international level

Annex. Informal and precarious labour collectives for trade union organisation and action. Alvaro Orsatti
Atypical labour collectives that can potentially be unionised
1. Dependent workers
2. Independent workers
3. Other criteria
Instruments to connect and unionise atypical labour collectives

REGIONAL EXPERIENCES

CLAT. Informal economy workers and the workers' movement
General strategic approach
Workers' Movement
Informal labour
Recent developments of training activity origin
The Southern Cone seminar of 1999
The seminar of 2002
The Brasilia workshop seminar in 2004

NATIONAL EXPERIENCES

FNOTNA/CROC - MEXICO
Experience in representing non-salaried workers
Definition of non-salaried workers and their relationship with informality
Origin and characteristics of the Federation
Objectives
Programme of action
External programme
Internal programme

FUTRAND/CTV - VENEZUELA
Experience in representing non-dependent workers
Origin
Concepts
General strategy
Strategic lines
Instruments

SECTOR EXPERIENCES

CONLACTRAHO
Building a strategy for the labourisation of female domestic workers
Characteristics of the Confederation
Southern Cone
Andean
Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean
Strategy
Evaluation

ULATMUN
Educational focus on the action of municipal workers towards informal labour in large cities
Characteristics of ULATMUN
General elements
Training for informal workers
Policies regarding informal labour in cities
Trade union strategies

 

 

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