The Labourers at the "State Administration of Railways" in Uruguay, between the late sixties and the early seventies

Abstract

Between the end of the sixties and the beginning of the seventies, the “Administración de Ferrocarriles del Estado” (AFE) –unique railroad company in Uruguay- was going through a financial and management crisis. The problems affronted were of long duration, but they were deepened in the period because of the combination of multiple factors. In this context, almost 12.000 railway workers fought against the deterioration of their working and living conditions. In the first part of the article I provide an exploratory characterization of the economic and political situation of AFE. Then, I present a description of the railway workers. Finally, I show some examples of how their working and live conditions got worsen. The objective of the article is to analyze how the critical situation of the company and some political decisions taken by the national authorities and the company impacted on its development and, as a consequence, on the workers. The data presented in this article were produced during my investigation about the collective action of railway workers between the late sixties and early seventies. It is based, fundamentally, on union and the aforementioned public company documentation.