Labor Regulations and Unionization Trends: Comparative Analysis of Latin American Countries

This paper discusses the influences of labor regulations on unionization rates through the comparative analysis of Argentina, Chile and Mexico, expecting to contribute to the understanding of the determinants of unionization in Latin America. These regulations, though only one of the factors determining unionization levels, have a crucial role, their influence being at least threefold: they define entitlements to and exclusions from the right to unionize, affect union recruitment strategies and, by generating incentives and disincentives, contribute to shape individual membership decisions. After discussing historical aspects of unionization in the three countries, the analysis centers successively in two periods in which the countries compared showed both similarities and contrasts relevant to the analysis of unionization trends. In the first, the comparison is between Argentina (1976-83) and Chile (1973-89), both under military regimes that had much in common, but with contrasting unionization trends. In the second, the focus is in Argentina (1991-2001) and Mexico (1984-2000), where the reforms implemented to liberalize the economy and ensuing social-economic and labor market transformations were similar, but unionization trends differed. It is argued that, in each case, the divergent behavior of unionization, in spite of the similar economic and sociopolitical contexts, may at least partly be attributed to differences in key labor institutions

Temporary contracts and non-protected employment in Argentina, Chile and Perú: incidence and determinants

Los distintos tipos de contratos temporarios legales y las formas de empleo que no cumplen con la legislación facilitan el ajuste del empleo a los requerimientos de las empresas y permiten reducir costos laborales. Su incidencia en el empleo depende no sólo de la evolución de la economía y del mercado de trabajo sino también de otros factores, en particular las trayectorias recorridas históricamente por la normativa laboral, el control estatal de su cumplimiento y el propio grado de evasión. Para contribuir a la comprensión de los determinantes del grado de difusión de diferentes prácticas de empleo, en este artículo se explora la utilización de los contratos temporarios legales y de las relaciones de empleo no protegidas legalmente por parte de las empresas privadas de tres países latinoamericanos (Argentina, Chile y Perú) durante 2003-2012, un período de crecimiento económico, y el papel explicativo que habrían desempeñado los distintos factores.The diverse kinds of legal temporary contracts and the employment forms that do not comply with legal requirements both facilitate employment adjustment to firms´ requirements and entail labour cost reductions. Their employment incidence depends not only on the economic and labour market evolutions but also on other factors, in particular the historical trajectories followed by labour legislation, state enforcement, and the degree of compliance. To contribute to the understanding of the determinants of the degree of utilization of different employment practices, the study reported in this article explores the use made of the various legal temporary contracts and of precarious employment relationships by private enterprises in three Latin American countries (Argentina, Chile and Peru) during 2003-2012, a period of economic growth, and the explanatory role of diverse factors

Educación, demanda de calificaciones y salarios relativos : el caso argentino, 2004-2011

Se analizan las tendencias en las brechas salariales según educación (atributos de individuos) y calificación (requerimientos de los puestos) en la Argentina durante 2004-2011. La incorporación de ambas dimensiones resulta relevante para discutir la aplicabilidad de interpretaciones que enfatizan ya sea el sesgo en la demanda de trabajo hacia mayores niveles de calificación, o bien los procesos de devaluación de credenciales educativas. Los resultados muestran una estabilización de las distancias salariales entre los asalariados con altos niveles educativos o elevadas calificaciones y el resto, compatible con las tendencias en la relación oferta de graduados universitarios y demanda de calificaciones elevadas.We analyze trends in educational (attributes of individuals) and skill (job requirements) wage differentials in Argentina during 2004-2011. The incorporation of both dimensions is relevant to discuss the applicability of interpretations that emphasize either the bias in labor demand towards higher skills, or the devaluation of educational credentials. Results show the stabilization of wage differentials between wage earners with highest education or skills and the rest; this is compatible with the trend in the relationship between the supply of university graduates and the demand for the highly skilled.Fil: Groisman, Fernando Alberto. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Saavedra 15. Instituto Interdisciplinario de Economía Politica de Buenos Aires. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Económicas. Instituto Interdisciplinario de Economía Politica de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Marshall, Adriana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Centro de Investigaciones Sociales. Instituto de Desarrollo Económico y Social. Centro de Investigaciones Sociales; Argentin

Contrataciones temporarias y empleo no protegido en Argentina, Chile y Perú: incidencia y determinantes

Los distintos tipos de contratos temporarios legales y las formas de empleo que no cumplen con la legislación facilitan el ajuste del empleo a los requerimientos de las empresas y permiten reducir costos laborales. Su incidencia en el empleo depende no sólo de la evolución de la economía y del mercado de trabajo sino también de otros factores, en particular las trayectorias recorridas históricamente por la normativa laboral, el control estatal de su cumplimiento y el propio grado de evasión. Para contribuir a la comprensión de los determinantes del grado de difusión de diferentes prácticas de empleo, en este artículo se explora la utilización de los contratos temporarios legales y de las relaciones de empleo no protegidas legalmente por parte de las empresas privadas de tres países latinoamericanos (Argentina, Chile y Perú) durante 2003-2012, un período de crecimiento económico, y el papel explicativo que habrían desempeñado los distintos factores

Poder sindical en la negociación salarial: Modelo de análisis y aplicación al caso argentino

“Poder sindical”, “sindicatos débiles”, “sindicatos fuertes” son expresiones muy presentes en el lenguaje cotidiano, que se comprenden intuitivamente. Sin embargo, ´poder sindical´ es un concepto difícil de definir y con diferentes connotaciones según cuál sea el plano en el que se lo analice: poder para influir sobre las políticas estatales o poder de negociación frente a las empresas. Además, no es posible “medir” directamente al poder sindical y, por lo tanto, para operacionalizarlo habitualmente se recurre a aproximaciones a través de variables susceptibles de medición. Este trabajo se centra en el poder sindical en el plano de la negociación salarial en los distintos sectores de la economía. A través de un estudio comparativo, se exploran las relaciones entre tres dimensiones principales que permiten un acercamiento a la noción de poder sindical: sus fuentes o determinantes, las estrategias sindicales con respecto a la forma de ejercerlo y los resultados de la negociación salarial. Hasta donde llega nuestro conocimiento, los análisis empíricos de las inter-relaciones entre estas dimensiones son muy escasos.Instituto de Investigaciones en Humanidades y Ciencias Sociale

Racial/ethnic differences in trends in heroin use and heroin-related risk behaviors among nonmedical prescription opioid users

Background: This study examines changing patterns of past-year heroin use and heroin-related risk behaviors among individuals with nonmedical use of prescription opioids (NMUPO) by racial/ethnic groups in the United States. Methods: We used data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) from 2002 to 2005 and 2008 to 2011, resulting in a total sample of N = 448,597. Results: Past-year heroin use increased among individuals with NMUPO and increases varied by frequency of past year NMUPO and race/ethnicity. Those with NMUPO in the 2008–2011 period had almost twice the odds of heroin use as those with NMUPO in the 2002–2005 period (OR = 1.89, 95%CI: 1.50, 2.39), with higher increases in non-Hispanic (NH) Whites and Hispanics. In 2008–2011, the risk of past year heroin use, ever injecting heroin, past-year heroin abuse or dependence, and the perception of availability of heroin increased as the frequency of NMUPO increased across respondents of all race/ethnicities. Conclusion: Individuals with NMUPO, particularly non-Hispanic Whites, are at high risk of heroin use and heroin-related risk behaviors. These results suggest that frequent nonmedical users of prescription opioids, regardless of race/ethnicity, should be the focus of novel public health efforts to prevent and mitigate the harms of heroin use

Environmental Drivers of the First Major Animal Extinction Across the Ediacaran White Sea-Nama Transition

The Ediacara Biota-the oldest communities of complex, macroscopic fossils-consists of three temporally distinct assemblages: the Avalon (ca. 575-560 Ma), White Sea (ca. 560-550 Ma), and Nama (ca. 550-539 Ma). Generic diversity varies among assemblages, with a notable decline at the transition from White Sea to Nama. Preservation and sampling biases, biotic replacement, and environmental perturbation have been proposed as potential mechanisms for this drop in diversity. Here, we compile a global database of the Ediacara Biota, specifically targeting taphonomic and paleoecological characters, to test these hypotheses. Major ecological shifts in feeding mode, life habit, and tiering level accompany an increase in generic richness between the Avalon and White Sea assemblages. We find that ∼80% of White Sea taxa are absent from the Nama interval, comparable to loss during Phanerozoic mass extinctions. The paleolatitudes, depositional environments, and preservational modes that characterize the White Sea assemblage are well represented in the Nama, indicating that this decline is not the result of sampling bias. Counter to expectations of the biotic replacement model, there are minimal ecological differences between these two assemblages. However, taxa that disappear exhibit a variety of morphological and behavioral characters consistent with an environmentally driven extinction event. The preferential survival of taxa with high surface area relative to volume may suggest that this was related to reduced global oceanic oxygen availability. Thus, our data support a link between Ediacaran biotic turnover and environmental change, similar to other major mass extinctions in the geologic record

IL-10, IL-13, Eotaxin and IL-10/IL-6 ratio distinguish breast implant-associated anaplastic large-cell lymphoma from all types of benign late seromas

Breast implant-associated anaplastic large-cell lymphoma (BI-ALCL) is an uncommon peripheral T cell lymphoma usually presenting as a delayed peri-implant effusion. Chronic inflammation elicited by the implant has been implicated in its pathogenesis. Infection or implant rupture may also be responsible for late seromas. Cytomorphological examination coupled with CD30 immunostaining and eventual T-cell clonality assessment are essential for BI-ALCL diagnosis. However, some benign effusions may also contain an oligo/monoclonal expansion of CD30 + cells that can make the diagnosis challenging. Since cytokines are key mediators of inflammation, we applied a multiplexed immuno-based assay to BI-ALCL seromas and to different types of reactive seromas to look for a potential diagnostic BI-ALCL-associated cytokine profile. We found that BI-ALCL is characterized by a Th2-type cytokine milieu associated with significant high levels of IL-10, IL-13 and Eotaxin which discriminate BI-ALCL from all types of reactive seroma. Moreover, we found a cutoff of IL10/IL-6 ratio of 0.104 is associated with specificity of 100% and sensitivity of 83% in recognizing BI-ALCL effusions. This study identifies promising biomarkers for initial screening of late seromas that can facilitate early diagnosis of BI-ALCL

Hole Doping Evolution of the Quasiparticle Band in Models of Strongly Correlated Electrons for the High-T_c Cuprates

Quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) and Maximum Entropy (ME) techniques are used to study the spectral function $A({\bf p},\omega)$ of the one band Hubbard model in strong coupling including a next-nearest-neighbor electronic hopping with amplitude $t'/t= -0.35$. These values of parameters are chosen to improve the comparison of the Hubbard model with angle-resolved photoemission (ARPES) data for $Sr_2 Cu O_2 Cl_2$. A narrow quasiparticle (q.p.) band is observed in the QMC analysis at the temperature of the simulation $T=t/3$, both at and away from half-filling. Such a narrow band produces a large accumulation of weight in the density of states at the top of the valence band. As the electronic density $$ decreases further away from half-filling, the chemical potential travels through this energy window with a large number of states, and by $\sim 0.70$ it has crossed it entirely. The region near momentum $(0,\pi)$ and $(\pi,0)$ in the spectral function is more sensitive to doping than momenta along the diagonal from $(0,0)$ to $(\pi,\pi)$. The evolution with hole density of the quasiparticle dispersion contains some of the features observed in recent ARPES data in the underdoped regime. For sufficiently large hole densities the ``flat'' bands at $(\pi,0)$ cross the Fermi energy, a prediction that could be tested with ARPES techniques applied to overdoped cuprates. The population of the q.p. band introduces a {\it hidden} density in the system which produces interesting consequences when the quasiparticles are assumed to interact through antiferromagnetic fluctuations and studied with the BCS gap equation formalism. In particular, a region of extended s-wave is found to compete with d-wave in the overdoped regime, i.e. when the chemical potential has almost entirely crossed the q.p.Comment: 14 pages, Revtex, with 13 embedded ps figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. B., minor modifications in the text and in figures 1b, 2b, 3b, 4b, and 6