Pablo Pérez Ahumada. Building Power to Shape Labor Policy: Unions, Employer Associations, and Reform in Neoliberal Chile. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2023. 224 pp.; hardcover, $55.00.

Latin America has undergone transformations of varying degrees in its labor legislation over the past two decades.Politicians, technocrats, unions, entrepreneurs, and informal workers have mobilized in country-specific ways to advocate for changes or preserve existing labor rights.The trajectory of labor relations follows a broader historical arc, beginning with the introduction of workers' rights legislation in several Southern Cone countries in the early twentieth century and continuing through the neoliberal shifts that reshaped much of the region by the 1990s.These changes, besides being politically crucial, have also sparked a rich body of academic research aimed at understanding them.Studies by Murillo (2001), Cook (2010), or Carnes (2014) come to mind.Or, further back in time, works from comparative perspectives, such as those by Bergquist (1986) or Collier and Collier (1991)."Building Power to Shape Labor Policy" is part of this tradition in its quest to understand how unions and employers' associations negotiate reforms in contemporary Chilean experience.Prez Ahumada proposes new lenses to approach this subject matter.Critically drawing on the power resources approach, the author emphasizes the processes "through which workers and capitalists organize to influence the policymaking process" (p.4).The book aims to look beyond conventional factors such as labor market dynamics, deindustrialization trends, authoritarian legacies, or state capacity in promoting and defending reforms.Instead, Building Power to Shape Labor Policy observes a crucial aspect of class relations, related to associational power, seen through the mobilization capacity of employers' associations and workers' confederations.The book's central argument is that labor laws and their interpretations emerge from negotiations between actors with varying levels of influence and capability.Its main contribution lies in understanding in detail the strategies that actors use to enhance their capabilities.More specifically, the author analyzes both historical processes, such as attempts to reform the Chilean Labor Plan during the 1990s, and recent developments related to the difficulties in implementing progressive reforms during this century.Internal processes in the CUT (Workers' United Center of Chile) and CPC (Confederation of Production and Commerce), Chile's main union and business associations, are examined in detail here.Finally, the author proposes reading the Chilean case from a comparative perspective, considering the Argentine and Uruguayan experiences, to demonstrate the strength of his approach.The book's strength resides in three aspects.First, because the Chilean situation is fascinating, given its trajectory of democratization and economic growth, intertwined with labor conflicts at the dawn of the twenty-first century.The author provides a much-needed systematic analysis of this case, approaching it from both a historical perspective-examining the lingering effects of the Pinochet dictatorship on labor relations-and a contemporary lens, revealing how various actors interpret their experiences against a backdrop of social change.The intriguing nature of the case implies a greater challenge given the abundance of studies on the world of work in Chile, one of the most dynamic fields in Latin American academic discussion.This leads to the second noteworthy aspect of the book: its meticulous and comprehensive presentation of evidence.The