John McDonnell has said Labour would allow UK workers to go on "sympathy" strikes for overseas counterparts.
Shadow chancellor Mr McDonnell pledged to reverse laws, introduced by Margaret Thatcher, which bar workers from taking action in solidarity with workforces overseas.
Mr McDonnell said on a visit to Scotland on Saturday: "When we go back into government we will restore trade union rights, and that will enable workers to take similar sympathy action on the basis of supporting fellow workers internationally."
He said abolishing it would mean "workers can revive the spirit of the Rolls-Royce workers in East Kilbride" who "struck a blow against the brutal Pinochet dictatorship" in Chile in the 1970s.
The Hunter Hawker planes the Chilean airforce used were powered by engines built at the factory, but workers there refused to repair them.
Mr McDonnell said: "The action taken by the Rolls Royce workers at East Kilbride was a momentous act of solidarity by Scottish workers in the aftermath of Chilean junta's overthrow of a democratically-elected government, and the torturing and killing of civilians and those who opposed it.
"Such collective action and acts of solidarity have been attacked and undermined by restrictive anti-union laws started in the 1980s under Thatcher's Tory government.
"The next Labour government will ensure workers can revive the spirit of the Rolls-Royce workers in East Kilbride, when they struck a blow against the brutal Pinochet dictatorship.
"In this way, we will open the next chapter of democratic society by enhancing democracy at work."
Reporting by Press Association.
