Trade unions and the far right: Workplace geopolitics in Latin America

This article examines how the rise of far-right political actors in Latin America interacts with trade unions’ power resources and how unions respond strategically. Grounded in critical international political economy, the study proposes a ‘workplace geopolitics’ framework to analyse the intersection of world order transformations, state institutions and national industrial relations. Drawing on 2025 interviews with union leaders in Argentina, Chile and Uruguay, the empirical analysis identifies a recurring sequence in far-right labour strategy: ideational delegitimation, institutional expansion and structural reform of industrial relations. The findings also suggest that these trajectories are not uniform. Union counterstrategies, including retrenchment, prevention and containment, are highly contextual. They are shaped by the perceived political influence of these actors and by existing institutional configurations. The article contributes to labour politics debates by offering a comparative analytical framework to assess how such changes in global politics influence labour institutions and actors at the national level.