The Argentine Industrial Union (, or, UIA) is the leading industrial employer federation and advocacy group in Argentina. The UIA is a member of the International Organisation of Employers.
History
Early development
A precursor to the Argentine Industrial Union was founded on August 29, 1875, by a group of Buenos Aires manufacturers. The Argentine Industrial Club was organized to "establish a society at the disposal of local manufacturers in their efforts to secure the adoption of economic reforms." Overshadowed during the 19th century by the dominant wool and hides merchants, local industry was further marginalized by the 1876 advent of transatlantic chilled beef and cereals shipping.
The Industrial Club's early supporters in Congress included such distinguished figures as Miguel Cané, José Hernández, Vicente Fidel López and Carlos Pellegrini, and through their support the Club obtained the passage of a customs reform bill that included protective tariffs on an array of consumer non-durables (such as processed foods and textiles). The Industrial Club organized its first exposition in 1877; but differences among its membership over support for President Nicolás Avellaneda led to the group's 1878 division. An initiative led by Corrientes Province Senator Antonio Cambaceres resulted in the February 7, 1887, establishment of the UIA, whose membership reflected a reunified industrial lobby.
From marginalization to influence
The UIA, to be sure, represented at best a secondary sector in the Argentine economy at the time. An 1887 industrial census taken by the group revealed 400 industrial establishments, and 11,000 production workers (these figures exclude a considerable amount of cottage industry). The UIA, which initially represented domestic manufacturers, was also overshadowed by the small, but growing, numbers of foreign industrial subsidiaries (mainly British). The group enjoyed increasing support among the nation's lawmakers, however, and the inaugural of Carlos Pellegrini as President following a political crisis made the UIA a powerful influence for the first time. One of the first milestones in this new era was the 1891 customs law, which for the first time in Argentine history set tariffs on a number of imported industrial supplies at or below those of finished goods.
The return to Julio Roca to the Presidency in 1898 signalled a rollback in pro-industry government policy, however. The UIA reacted quickly, and in 1899, a rally of 70,000 industrial workers and supporters (in a city of half a million) gathered in front of Congress, where UIA President Francisco Seguí submitted a petition for a return of higher import tariffs. Upon receiving said petition, a member of the Congressional leadership stated that: "your banner is union, and seeing you united dispels all doubts as to your strength. The united hands of the worker and his boss is also on our national emblem."
Benefiting from its position as the world's leading recipient of investment from the British Empire, and the resulting expansion in railway lines, Argentine industry and agriculture both grew markedly in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and economic growth overall averaged 8% in the generation after 1880. Representing a sector which had grown to over 300,000 industrial workers by 1914, the UIA had become a fixture in policy discussions, and this presence was symbolized by the 1922 opening of their new headquarters on the Avenida de Mayo (at a roughly equidistant point between Congress and the presidential offices at the Casa Rosada).
The UIA's influence continued to grow with the nation's manufacturing sector, whose output doubled between 1918 and 1929, alone. A 1930 coup d'état and the onset of the great depression erased many of these gains, initially. Saved from collapse by a resilient consumer sector, industry was hampered by a virtual halt in capital goods investment - almost all of which had to be imported. The 1933 Roca-Runciman Treaty, which further impeded the import of U.S.-made production machinery, was vocally opposed by the UIA (though without effect). Most long-standing, protective tariffs stood, however, and the economic recovery that began in the mid-1930s was fully extended to manufacturing.
Industrial production grew by 50% between 1935 and 1945, and its profile became more diversified, as well. Food processing, which had long dominated industry in Argentina, was rivaled by the textile industry in the 1940s. Industry employed nearly a million, and in 1943, its contribution to GDP had exceeded agriculture for the first time.