A Study on the legal aspects, outcomes and implications of the labor union system of Brazil

Contrary to the korean labor law system with characteristics of pluralism and free establishment of trade unions, brazilian system is still being influenced by the corporatism planted in laws and industrial relations long time ago. Especially this paper aims to analyze and criticise the current industrial relations system of Brazil in the legal perspective. It seems to be very interesting to seek for the answers of the questions like why brazilian system is not still able to accept pluralism, why the influence of corporatism is still predominant and so on. In the legal history of Brazil, the Vargas government is considered as the most important factor. It is because that the Vargas government established state corporatism which made it possible for the Vargas government to control labor union activities. Furthermore, the Vargas government went through the enactment of constitution and labor law, in particular, the consolidation of law laws(consolidação das leis do trabalho) stipulating that only one union could be organized in the same category at a certain regional level. This system is called as ‘unicidade sindical’, being interpreted as union unity in english. In addition, the brazilian labor laws had enabled the government to exercise control over the activities of unions. Nowadays the governmental influence diminished very much but still remains. The government's control over the union activities has been embedded into the brazilian industrial relations' system and continued to the present. This study investigates how the corporatism model once established in the Vargas government has influenced the current industrial relations system in the legal perspective and reviews what kind of implications the brazilian labor union system gives us today.