Ecuadorian Confederation of Class–Based Organizations (CEDOC)

The Ecuadorian Confederation of Class-Based Organizations (Central Ecuadoriana de Organizaciones Clasistas—CEDOC) was founded in 1938 as a Catholic labor federation. It was originally called the Ecuadorian Confederation of Catholic Worker Organizations, It is the oldest labor federation in Ecuador. Conservative, sierra-based, and linked with the ruling elite, CEDOC favored employee-employer harmony under capitalism. CEDOC appealed to artisans who rejected the anticapitalist positions taken by the rival CTE (Confederation of Workers of Ecuador). CEDOC broke ties with the Catholic Church in 1955 and moved toward a philosophy of Christian humanism. By the 1970s CEDOC had evolved into a much less conservative organization. After 1971 CEDOC began to cooperate with the CTE in the United Workers Front (FUT).

BIBLIOGRAPHY

For a concise and highly perceptive 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," which provides an excellent general account of Ecuadorian labor. Patricio Ycaza, Historia del movimiento obrero ecuatoriano, 2d ed. (1984), also contains much worthwhile information.

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 Investigaciones Sociales de la Universidad de Cuenca, 1995.

Paz y Miño Cepeda, Juan J. La C.E.D.O.C. en la historia del movimiento obrero ecuatoriano: 50 años de lucha, 1938–1988. Quito: Editorial Voluntad, 1988.

                                          Ronn F. Pineo