“This Is About Our Very Existence as Working Class”. The Decree 622/973 and the Union Reaffiliation Campaign in Uruguay (August 1973-March 1974)

Abstract

A little over a month after its installation, the last Uruguayan civil-military dictatorship regulated the creation and operation of unions and promoted important reforms in labor relations. Faced with these changes, various unions articulated more subtle opposition mechanisms than those deployed up to that moment, opting for actions that implied a certain level of adaptation or integration to the policies of the regime. This article analyzes the main characteristics of these policies, as well as the actions taken by workers’ organizations with the aim of confronting them. The research involved consulting press publications and unpublished union documents, as well as conducting interviews with several union activists of that era.