ARTICLE

Sidney Jard da Silva

DOI: 10.1590/1981-3821202600020002

The objective of this article is to examine the participation of union actors in the legislative decision-making process related to the social security reform enacted under the Bolsonaro administration (2019–2022), with particular attention to the role of the trade union caucus – comprising both deputies and senators – in the legislative consideration of Constitutional Amendment Bill N° 06 of 2019 (PEC 06/2019). The central research question guiding the study was: how did the union caucus act to defend workers’ interests in a political and institutional context unfavorable to parliamentary opposition to the social security reform? From a methodological standpoint, the study focused on the main stages of the decision-making process associated with the social security reform: 01. the submission of the bill to the legislature; 02. the union caucus’s initial position on the bill; 03. the bill’s consideration in legislative committees; 04. plenary debate and roll-call voting; 05. final approval of the reform bill; and 06. the union caucus’s stance on the text as approved. The research drew on three principal methods: 01. documentary analysis; 02. systematic coding and organization of the empirical material; and 03. interpretive analysis of the findings. The results support the argument that public policy change, notably social security reform, does not result from the straightforward imposition of presidential will on the National Congress. Rather, it emerges from a protracted, often contentious process of political negotiation involving the executive and legislative branches, as well as organized interest groups.