Workers Confederation of Ecuador (CTE)

The Workers Confederation of Ecuador (Confederación de Trabajadores del Ecuador—CTE) is Ecuador's largest union federation. In 1944 elements of the radical labor movement reached an agreement with leading politician José María Velasco Ibarra: Labor supported Velasco's return to power and he permitted the legal founding of the CTE. The CTE organized principally coastal workers from the more advanced sectors of the economy. It frequently provided important support for populist and reform-oriented politicians. Led at different times by both socialists and communists, the CTE has historically been the most staunchly militant of Ecuador's labor federations. As a result, it has repeatedly been the target of vigorous government repression. The CTE has also often been harmed by bitter left-wing factional disputes. Prior to the 1970s, the CTE was usually openly hostile to its key rival labor federation, the generally more conservative Ecuadorian Confederation of Class-Based Organizations (CEDOC). Since 1971, however, the CTE and CEDOC have sometimes cooperated in the United Workers Front (FUT).

See alsoVelasco Ibarra, José María .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

For a concise and highly perceptive analytical summary, see Richard Lee Milk, "Ecuador," in Latin American Labor Organizations, edited by Gerald Michael Greenfield and Sheldon L. Maram (1987), pp. 289-305. See also Milk's 1977 Indiana University dissertation, "Growth and Development of Ecuador's Worker Organizations, 1895–1944," for an excellent general account of Ecuadorian labor. Patricio y Icaza, Historia del movimiento obrero ecuatoriano, 2d ed. (1984), also contains much worthwhile information. For the broader political economic context, see Osvaldo Hurtado, Political Power in Ecuador, translated by Nick D. Mills, Jr. (1985).

Additional Bibliography

Alexander, Robert Jackson, and Eldon M. Parker. A History of Organized Labor in Peru and Ecuador. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2007.

Espinoza, Leonardo. Historia del movimiento obrero ecuatoriano: Proceso político y proceso sindical. Cuenca: Instituto de Inves-tigaciones Sociales de la Universidad de Cuenca, 1995.

Torre, Carlos de la. Populist Seduction in Latin America: The Ecuadorian Experience. Athens: Ohio University Center for International Studies, 2000.

                                           Ronn F. Pineo