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Economic Crisis, Reform, and the Pragmatic Left, 1989–2001

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Labour Mobilization, Politics and Globalization in Brazil

Part of the book series: Studies of the Americas ((STAM))

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Abstract

The union movement’s success in influencing the transition left a legacy that emphasized the virtues of militancy and mobilization, one that viewed negotiation with the government, and “defensive” forms of bargaining with employers with suspicion. However, the economic crisis and the neoliberal reform programme of the 1990s limited the opportunities for this type of trade union opposition. The political debate no longer dealt with the deepening of democratic participation as the economic crisis focused government attention on macro-economic stabilization and institutional reform, which precluded the extension of social and labour rights. Widespread fears of joblessness also constrained the successful organization of strikes, while public sector reform and privatization undermined some of the most important constituent groups in the union movement. The consolidation of neoliberal reforms in the aftermath of democratization therefore created a paradoxical situation in which many unions developed a more flexible approach to capital-labour relations, but it also tried to maintain its identity built on the political successes of the 1980s. This paradox underlines the argument presented in this book that past experiences of successful militancy shaped union strategies, while political ideas began to shift from class conflict to a more accommodationist approach based on the new economic and political circumstances. Throughout the 1990s the balance between militant and moderate strategies therefore shifted, derived less from a deliberate choice than a response to an increasingly challenging economic and political context, posing novel challenges to the new unionist agenda.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Wendy Hunter, The Transformation of the Workers’ Party in Brazil, 1989–2009 Cambridge: (Cambridge University Press, 2010), 109–116.

  2. 2.

    Ronald M. Schneider, Brazil: Culture and Politics in a New Industrial Powerhouse (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1996), 111.

  3. 3.

    CUT, “Resolução da reunião extraordinária da executiva da Direção Nacional da CUT realizada no dia 16/3, em São Paulo”, InformaCUT, 55, 20–27 March (1989), 1–2; Vito Giannotti, História das lutas dos trabalhadores no Brasil (Rio de Janeiro: Mauad, 2007), 262.

  4. 4.

    In 1990, the media accused the CUT of organizing political strikes to support the PT, referring to “setembro negro” (“black September”) but CUT representatives such as José Mirande de Oliveira—the CUT’s union secretary at the time—insisted that the strikes purely focused on wages in light of government economic policies. See PT, “Setembro é mês de primavera e não de terror,” Boletim Nacional, 52 (1990), 12.

  5. 5.

    PT, “O momento político em debate,” Boletim Nacional 54 (May 1991): 5.

  6. 6.

    For an overview of conflicts within PT-led municipalities and between the party and municipal workers’ unions in the early 1990s, see Kathleen Bruhn, Urban Protest in Mexico and Brazil (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008), 72–4.

  7. 7.

    The union demanded a 89% wage increase compared to the 77% offer, see “Todos nos perdemos,” Brasil Agora 15 (May–June 1992), 4. On the challenges facing the PT administration in São Paulo in the political context of the early 1990s, see Lúcio Kowarick and André Singer, “A experiência do Partido dos Trabalhadores na prefeitura de São Paulo,” Novos Estudos CEBRAP 35 (1993), 195–216; Bruhn, Urban Protest, 86–8; Hunter, Transformation of the Workers’ Party, 89–92. For an analysis of the 1989 PT election victory in São Paulo and the public transport reform plans, see Fiona Macaulay, “‘Governing for Everyone’: The Workers’ Party Administration in São Paulo, 1989–1992,” Bulletin of Latin American Research 15 (2) (1996), 213–9.

  8. 8.

    Folha de São Paulo, “Há 20 anos termina greve de motoristas e cobradores de ônibus em São Paulo,” Folha de São Paulo, May 20, 2012.

  9. 9.

    For a frank and critical inside account of the strike and its aftermath, see PT, “A greve em que todos perdemos,” Boletim Nacional 64 (July 1992), 14–15.

  10. 10.

    CUT, Resoluções do 4o CONCUT, São Paulo: CUT, September 4–8, 1991, 4–5.

  11. 11.

    PT, “CUT não negocia emprego e salário,” Boletim Nacional, May (1990), 3.

  12. 12.

    “A aposta do ABCD,” Brasil Agora 12 (April 1992), 6–7 and Carlos Eduardo Carvalho, “Não devemos exagerar: Triunfo histórico ou acordo defensivo e questionável,” Brasil Agora 12 (April 1992), 7; França goes as far as arguing that the metalworkers had abandoned class struggle in favour of negotiation by 1992, thereby effectively supporting neoliberal reforms , see Teones França, Novo sindicalismo no Brasil: Histórico de uma desconstrução (São Paulo: Cortez, 2014), loc. 273–322.

  13. 13.

    The resolution also criticized those against negotiation, arguing that these critics limited the range of possibilities for union action by precluding negotiation. It also stated that the opponents’ criticisms masked their own ineffectiveness and “lack of capacity of these sectors to mobilize their unions’ constituencies”, see CUT, Resoluções do 4o CONCUT, 5.

  14. 14.

    “A CUT mostra a cara,” Brasil Agora 10 (March 1992), 4; CUT São Paulo/Escola Sindical São Paulo, “Sindicalismo CUT—20 anos,” Cadernos de Formação, no. 1 (2001–2002), 76–7. Another negotiation attempt happened when the CUT unsuccessfully tried to convince the Itamar Franco government to introduce a full monthly adjustment of wages to inflation in 1993. See “A CUT mostra: é falsa a desculpa do dinheiro” and “A negociação vista no raio X,” De Fato 1 (1) (1993), 4–11.

  15. 15.

    Giannotti, História das lutas, 279.

  16. 16.

    For example, an article in the magazine Causa Operária (published by a left-wing group within the CUT of the same name) argued that the absence of the ABC Metalworkers ’ union from the 1991 general strike signalled that the CUT’s moderate majority had distanced itself from militant action, “Greve geral: Primeiro balanço,” Causa Operária 131 (May 30, 1991), reproduced in CPV, Quinzena 118 (June 1991), 10–11.

  17. 17.

    CUT, Resoluções do 4o CONCUT.

  18. 18.

    Although no further national negotiations on wage and price levels occurred, the government increased the representation of trade unions and employers ’ organizations in social security institutions, signalling the integration of union representatives in parts of the state apparatus. Organized labour also gained a representative on the Administrative Council of the BNDES . See Maurício Rands Barros, Labour Relations and the New Unionism in Contemporary Brazil (New York: St. Martin’s Press; London: Macmillan, 1999), 47 and Marcio Pochmann et al., “Ação sindical no Brasil: Transformações e perspectivas,” São Paulo em Perspectiva 12 (1) (1998), 10–23.

  19. 19.

    PT, “O fundo do poço,” Boletim Nacional 59, October 1991, 8. Jornal do Brasil, “CUT briga na quarta eleição de Meneguelli,” September 9, 1991; Jornal da Tarde, “Guerra entre tendências tumultua o congresso da CUT,” September 7, 1991.

  20. 20.

    PT, “O PT e o momento político: resolução do Diretório Nacional reunido em 16/03/91,” Boletim Nacional, April (1990), 5.

  21. 21.

    Gazeta Mercantil, “Greve inexpressiva poderá levar sindicatos ao Congresso,” May 24, 1991; Folha de São Paulo, “Meneguelli atribui fracasso à ‘falta de empenho’,” May 24, 1991.

  22. 22.

    Another major conflict focused on whether the CUT should affiliate with the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), which critics associated with a moderate political agenda and Cold-War labour politics. Interview Kjeld A. Jakobsen, August 20, 2001; CUT, A política internacional da CUT: História e perspectivas (São Paulo: CUT, 2003), 47–9; Hermes A. Costa, “A política internacional da CGTP e da CUT: Etapas, temas e desafios,” Revista Crítica de Ciências Sociais 71 (2005): 152–3. Gazeta Mercantil, “Divergências políticas dificultam os debates em congresso da CUT,” September 6, 1991.

  23. 23.

    Echoing the debates in the new unionist movement, Ann Mische argues that the Brazilian student movement experienced “a period of internal evaluation and restructuring” during the same period, reflecting “growing dissatisfaction with the factional entrenchment of the movement”, which stifled the movement’s creativity and effectiveness in the late 1980s. See Ann Mische, Partisan Publics: Communication and Contention across Brazilian Youth Activist Networks (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2008), 141–3.

  24. 24.

    Diário Popular, “CUT deve reeleger hoje Jair Meneguelli,” Diário Popular, September 8, 1991.

  25. 25.

    To strengthen the ties between the CUT and the unions, from 1991 onwards unions had to be formally affiliated to the CUT to participate in national decision-making and the number of delegates each union could send would be based on the number of unionized workers affiliated with the CUT, effectively favouring the larger unions. See CUT, Resoluções do 4o CONCUT, 2; Sílvio Costa, Tendências e centrais sindicais: O movimento sindical brasileiro, 1978–1994 (São Paulo: Editora Anita Garibaldi, 1995), 156–7; Alvaro A. Comin, “A estrutura sindical corporativa: Um obstáculo à consolidação das centrais sindicais no Brasil,” (MA diss., Universidade de São Paulo, 1995), 84.

  26. 26.

    Just as the metalworkers ’ union pioneered factory commissions during the 1980s, its representatives also began negotiating with employers at a company and regional level through sectoral chambers (câmaras setoriais). Their remit was to define policies to compensate for the negative effects of economic liberalization on the export sector, particularly in the automobile industry in São Paulo. The unions and employers agreed to reduce car prices by 22% and to involve workers in the restructuring process, which ended up maintaining employment levels and wage adjustments fully linked to monthly inflation . The chambers disappeared in 1994, when sector-specific policies became increasingly discredited within the government. See Departamento de Estudos Sócio-Econômicos e Políticos (DESEP/CUT), “Câmaras setoriais e intervenção sindical,” Texto para Discussão 5 (São Paulo: DESEP/CUT, 1992); DESEP/CUT, “Câmaras setoriais: Para além do complexo automotivo,” Texto para Discussão 6 (São Paulo: DESEP/CUT, 1993); França, Novo sindicalismo, loc. 595–853; Scott B. Martin, (1997) “Beyond Corporatism: New Patterns of Representation in the Brazilian Auto Industry,” in The New Politics of Inequality in Latin America: Rethinking Participation and Representation, ed. Douglas A. Chalmers et al. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), 45–71.

  27. 27.

    Sindicato dos Bancários de São Paulo, SBSP .

  28. 28.

    Associação de Professores de Ensino Oficial do Estado de São Paulo, or APEOESP .

  29. 29.

    Despite their relative marginalization in the CUT , rural workers became an increasingly visible and active group in the Brazilian union movement in the 1980s and 1990s. For example, in 1998 the percentage of rural unionization was 24.4%, higher than in any other sector. Although the rural workers’ movement was relatively strong, their participation in the CUT congresses decreased from the early 1990s. Rural unionists enjoyed representation proportional to their organizational strength in 1988 but their participation declined during subsequent CONCUTs . In the early 1990s, the rural union confederation Confederação Nacional dos Trabalhadores na Agricultura (CONTAG) began discussing affiliation to the CUT, which many in the CUT saw as an effort to strengthen its roots in the countryside, although some also found CONTAG conservative, see PT, “CUT e Contag no mesmo barco,” Boletim Nacional 5 (December 1991), 3; PT, “CUT discute Contag,” Boletim Nacional 42 (July 1993), 11. On the representation of rural unionists within the CONCUT, see Leôncio Martins Rodrigues et al., Retrato da CUT: Delegados do 3o CONCUT, representação nas categorias (São Paulo: CUT, undated), 22, 27; CUT, Resoluções e Registros, 6o Congresso Nacional da CUT, August 1997, 128.

  30. 30.

    Rodrigues, Sindicalismo e política, 185.

  31. 31.

    For example, between the early and mid-1990s the powerful bankers’ unions of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro were almost equally divided between the majority coalition led by Articulação Sindical and opposition groups which favoured confrontation over negotiation. See Folha de São Paulo, “CUT vai dividida à eleição dos bancários,” Folha de São Paulo, January 17, 1994; CUT São Paulo, “Sindicalismo CUT,” 78–9; Estado de São Paulo, “A CUT sofre com luta interna,”, O Estado de São Paulo, June 2, 1991.

  32. 32.

    Sluyter-Beltrão, Rise and Decline, 280.

  33. 33.

    See also Heloísa de Souza Martins and Iram J. Rodrigues, “O sindicalismo brasileiro na segunda metade dos anos 90,” Tempo Social 11 (2) (1999): 156; Rodrigues, Sindicalismo e política, 215.

  34. 34.

    Cited in CUT São Paulo, “Sindicalismo CUT,” 9–10.

  35. 35.

    Riethof, “Changing Strategies,” 33–5.

  36. 36.

    Rodrigues et al., Retrato da CUT, 22, 27.

  37. 37.

    Further information about CONCUT delegates in 1988, 1991 and 1997 can be found in Rodrigues et al., Retrato da CUT; Rodrigues, Sindicalismo e política, 213; Costa, Tendências e centrais, 160; and CUT, Resoluções e registros, 128.

  38. 38.

    Hernan B. Gómez, Lula, the Workers’ Party and the Governability Dilemma in Brazil (New York: Routledge, 2013), 36.

  39. 39.

    Paradoxically given the MST’s emphasis on autonomy, it received financial resources from the state to administer several rural social programmes during the 1990s, as Gómez argues. Although the MST also organized major anti-governments protests , its organizational survival began to depend on state funding, presaging the increasingly close relations between the PT government and the MST from 2003 onwards, see Gómez, Lula, the Workers’ Party, 46.

  40. 40.

    See footnote 89 on MST involvement in violent protests against the privatization of the Companhia Vale do Rio Doce .

  41. 41.

    Gómez, Lula, the Workers’ Party, 49–50; Gabriel Ondetti, Land, Protest, and Politics: The Landless Movement and the Struggle for Agrarian Reform in Brazil (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2008), 126–7, 162–3.

  42. 42.

    Salvador Sandoval, “Working-Class Contention,” in Reforming Brazil, ed. Mauricio Font and Anthony P. Spanakos (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2008), 208–10.

  43. 43.

    On Força Sindical’s roots in São Paulo’s moderate metalworkers ’ union, see Mark Anner. Solidarity Transformed: Labor Responses to Globalization and Crisis in Latin America (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2011), 141–3.

  44. 44.

    Cardoso, Trama da modernidade, 68.

  45. 45.

    The central union organization Força Sindical and “pragmatic” unionism have not been studied as widely as the CUT and new unionism. The principal studies on Força Sindical’s political role in the 1990s are Leôncio Martins Rodrigues and Adalberto Moreira Cardoso, Força Sindical: Uma análise socio-política (São Paulo: Paz e Terra, 1993) and Cardoso, Trama da modernidade; see also Costa, Tendências e centrais and Barros, Labour Relations.

  46. 46.

    Barros, Labour Relations, 42.

  47. 47.

    Força Sindical, Um projeto para o Brasil: A proposta da Força Sindical (São Paulo: Geração Editora, 1993): 106.

  48. 48.

    Barros, Labour Relations, 36–9; Cardoso, Trama da modernidade, 36, 47–50. In 2002 Força Sindical’s president Paulo Pereira da Silva (“Paulinho da Força) ran as a vice-presidential candidate of Lula’s main competitor Ciro Gomes and in 2015 became involved as federal deputy in protecting Congress speaker Eduardo Cunha from prosecution for corruption as part of “Cunha’s shock troops”. See Globo, “‘Tropa de choque’ de Cunha reúne deputados de cinco partidos,” Globo, Dec. 6, 2015.

  49. 49.

    DESEP/CUT, Câmaras setoriais, 7.

  50. 50.

    CUT, Resoluções e Registros, 19.

  51. 51.

    For example, see PT, “CUT: Balança mas não cai,” Boletim Nacional 70 (June 1993), 12.

  52. 52.

    Carneiro cited in PT, “Chacoalhada na roseira,” Boletim Nacional 39 (May 1993), 11.

  53. 53.

    PT, “Uma crise a resolver,” Boletim Nacional 40 (June 1993), 12.

  54. 54.

    Another heated debate focused on whether the CUT should formally support and finance Lula’s 1994 presidential election campaign , vehemently opposed by the minority groups, which often belonged to other political parties. Although these groups lost the vote on other radical proposals, they did manage to block this proposal during the fifth CONCUT in 1994, see Folha de São Paulo, “CUT decide não dar apoio formal a Lula,” Folha de São Paulo, May 23, 1994.

  55. 55.

    Durval de Carvalho quoted in Gustavo Codas, “Pancadaria nunca mais,” Boletim Nacional 57 (April 1994), 10.

  56. 56.

    Mische, Partisan Publics, 134–5.

  57. 57.

    Renato Baumann, “O Brasil nos anos 1990: Uma economia em transição,” In Brasil: Uma Década em Transição, ed. Renato Baumann (Rio de Janeiro: Editora Campus/CEPAL, 2000), 21–3.

  58. 58.

    See Sandoval’s detailed discussion on how the reforms affected employment prospects for metalworkers as well as workers in the public and banking sectors and the privatized steel industry, where unions were traditionally strong: Sandoval, “Working-Class Contention”, 200–7.

  59. 59.

    Sandoval, “Working-Class Contention,” 200.

  60. 60.

    Baumann, “Brasil nos anos 1990”, 34–5; International Labour Organization, Panorama Laboral 1999 (Lima: ILO, 1999).

  61. 61.

    Moreover, privatization affected not only workers and individual trade unions in state-owned companies but also divided the union movement as a whole, as analysed in the next section. Gazeta Mercantil, “Mais peso do funcionalismo dentro da CUT,” Gazeta Mercantil, May 20, 1994; Rubens Penha Cysne, “Aspectos macro e microeconômicos das reformas,” in Brasil: Uma década em transição, ed. Renato Baumann (Rio de Janeiro: Editora Campus/CEPAL, 2000), 57, 72–3.

  62. 62.

    DIEESE, “A reestruturação negociada na indústria automobilística brasileira,” Boletim DIEESE 168 (1995), 18–19.

  63. 63.

    Martins and Rodrigues, “Sindicalismo brasileiro,” 159–60.

  64. 64.

    CUT, Resoluções e Registros, 16–7.

  65. 65.

    Vicente Paulo da Silva , 1° de Julho ou 1° de Abril? (n.d.), http://www.cut.org.br/a20104.htm. ‘July 1’ in the title refers to the date of the introduction of the Plano Real in 1994, while ‘April 1’ refers to April Fool’s day.

  66. 66.

    During a time before the “Asian model” was discredited, Vicente Paulo da Silva criticized attempts of the Brazilian government to replicate this model by comparing the “Brazilian cat” with the “Asian tigers”.

  67. 67.

    Folha da Tarde, “Metalúrgicos do ABC protestam contra importação de autopeças,” Folha da Tarde, August 3, 1995.

  68. 68.

    DESEP/CUT, “Os gastos sociais no governo FHC” (São Paulo: DESEP/CUT, 1997).

  69. 69.

    Pamela K. Starr and Philip Oxhorn, “Introduction: The Ambiguous Link Between Economic and Political Reform,” in Markets and Democracy in Latin America: Conflict or Convergence?, ed. Pamela K. Starr and Philip Oxhorn, 1–9. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner) 1999), fn 1.

  70. 70.

    CUT, Resoluções e Registros, 19.

  71. 71.

    Author’s notes, speech Luís Ínacio Lula da Silva , at “Vinte Anos da primeira CONCLAT”, São Paulo, August 23, 2001; Interview with Julio Turra, Secretaria de Relações Internacionais (CUT), São Paulo, August 21, 2001.

  72. 72.

    Interview Fernando Lopes , Executive director, Confederação Nacional dos Metalúrgicos (CNM-CUT), São Paulo, August 22, 2001.

  73. 73.

    The Banco de Horas allowed employers to vary the number of hours worked according to production requirements rather than cutting jobs to respond to changing demand. Participação nos Lucros e Resultados (PLR) allowed unions and employers to negotiate profit- and performance-related pay. Carlos E. Freitas, “Alterações na regulamentação das relações de trabalho no governo Fernando Henrique,” in Precarização e leis do trabalho nos anos FHC (São Paulo: CUT/ Secretaria da Política Sindical, 2001): 11–2.

  74. 74.

    These negotiations represented a typical example of the transformation of labour relations in Brazil: originating in local practices where these negotiations were already common place and resulting in federal legislation in 1998.

  75. 75.

    In November 2001, Volkswagen workers in São Bernardo do Campo accepted a 15% wage cut and reduction in working hours in return for employment protection and proper redundancy schemes. Martins and Rodrigues, “Sindicalismo brasileiro”, 176; Raymond Colitt, “Brazil unions adapt to changing times,” Financial Times, November 22, 2001; Raymond Colitt, “Brazilian workers approve VW pay-cut agreement,” Financial Times November 21, 2001.

  76. 76.

    CUT/Secretaria de Política Sindical, A estratégia da CUT em relação ao Banco de Horas (São Paulo: Secretaria de Política Sindical/CUT, 1998), 2–3.

  77. 77.

    Sindicato dos Metalúrgicos do ABC , Participação nos lucros e resultados : A visão dos metalúrgicos do ABC (São Bernardo do Campo: Sindicato dos Metalúrgicos do ABC, 1998), 12.

  78. 78.

    Direct negotiations between employers and employees on issues such as shorter working weeks, temporary dismissal, and a-typical labour contracts (e.g., temporary and part-time contracts) became common in the 1990s, see Maria S. Portella de Castro, “Mercosul e Relaçoes Trabalhistas,” Informe OIT, February 1999, mimeo, 39; Maria S. Portella de Castro, Estratégias sindicales frente a los procesos de globalización e integración regional: Un análisis comparado TLCAN-Mercosur, 1999, mimeo, 39; Martins and Rodrigues, “Sindicalismo brasileiro”, 167–70. The federal government also reduced the costs of firing employees, a measure facilitated by Congress’ approval of withdrawing its ratification of ILO Convention 158 (protection against unjustified dismissals), see Maria L. Cook, “Labor Reform and Dual Transitions in Brazil and the Southern Cone,” Latin American Politics and Society 44(1) (2002): 18–23.

  79. 79.

    CUT/Secretaria de Política Sindical, Estratégia da CUT, 2–3.

  80. 80.

    For the CUT’s views on globalization and neoliberalism during the mid-1990s, see CUT, “Modelo de desenvolvimento, política industrial, e reestruturação produtiva: As propostas da CUT,” Propostas para Debate (São Paulo: CUT, 1994), 7; CUT, Resoluções do 5o Congresso Nacional da CUT (São Paulo: CUT, 1994), 3–10.

  81. 81.

    See, for example, CUT, “Modelo de desenvolvimento,” 7.

  82. 82.

    In a 1991 article for the PT magazine Boletim Nacional , Jorge Bittar—then a unionist in the state-owned telecommunications sector, later elected as PT councillor and federal deputy —argued that state subsidies had often enriched the elites, causing many of the country’s economic problems, while workers were “interested in the distribution of income and wealth as well as the state as instigator of development”. Wladimir Palmeira—student activist during the dictatorship and PT co-founder—argued that defending state ownership at all costs was in fact conservative, arguing in favour of active state intervention as a redistribution mechanism instead, quoted in PT, “Privatizações: Duas visões,” Boletim Nacional 57/58 (September 1991), 6–7.

  83. 83.

    Civil society participation in the privatization process was limited to political lobbying in Congress and the Senate as civil society’s only point of access to the decision-making process. These efforts contributed to a parliamentary inquiry into the implementation of the privatization programme in 1993. See Congresso Nacional, Relatório final da Comissão Parlamentar Mista de Inquérito (Destinada a investigar fatos decorrentes da execução do Programa Nacional de Desestatização, Relatório n. 3, 1994-CN, published as a supplement to Diário do Congresso Nacional, no. 32, 21 July 1994; Alexandre Ferraz, “Sindicatos e política de privatização no Brasil,” MA diss., University of São Paulo, 2002, 79; interview with Argemiro Pertence Neto, Secretário de Comunicação, Associação de Engenheiros da Petrobras (Association of Engineers of Petrobras, or AEPET), Rio de Janeiro, September 6, 2001. The judiciary was another important focal point for the opposition, allowing protestors to challenge the legality of privatization .

  84. 84.

    Thomas J. Trebat. Brazil’s State-Owned Enterprises: A Case Study of the State as Entrepreneur (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), 69.

  85. 85.

    Author’s interview with Mozart Schmitt Queiroz, general secretary of the Sindicato dos Trabalhadores na Indústria Petróleo no Estado de Rio de Janeiro (Petroleum Workers’ Unions of Rio de Janeiro, SINDIPETRO-RJ ), Rio de Janeiro, September 17, 2001. See also Licinio Velasco Jr., A economia política das políticas públicas: Fatores que favoreceram as privatizações no período 1985/94, Texto para Discussão 54 (Rio de Janeiro: BNDES, 1997): 20.

  86. 86.

    Within the public sector opposition to privatization could be found among staff of state-owned enterprises, politicians connected to the public sector, in contrast with governmental institutions committed to privatization, such as the BNDES , see Velasco, Economia política, 20; Werner Baer, The Brazilian Economy: Growth and Development (Westport, CN: Praeger, 1995), 261–2; Luigi Manzetti, Privatization South American Style (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 54–5.

  87. 87.

    A participant from the Brazilian northeast at the trade union-organized Third Regional Energy Conference (Rio de Janeiro, September 2001) commented to me that privatization was slow to develop in the northeast due to clientelism and corruption as local politicians often had a stake in state-owned enterprises and distributed jobs in exchange for votes and political favours. See also, Globo, “Trevisan denuncia pressões contra a desestatização,” Globo, April 13, 1986; Gazeta Mercantil, “Congresso ameaça privatização,” Gazeta Mercantil, March 14, 1990.

  88. 88.

    For example, in the case of the steel company Cosipa in the state of São Paulo, the municipal government supported union protests against mass dismissals in the run-up to privatization , see PT, “Cosipa: Demissões suspensas,” Boletim Nacional 79 (December 1993), 3. On the similar case of CSN, see Edilson J. Graciolli, “Um laboratorio chamada CSN: Greves, privatização e sindicalismo (A trajetoria do Sindicato dos Metalúrgicos de Volta Redonda - 1989/1993),” (PhD thesis, Universidade Estadual de Campinas, 1999), 224. A related argument was that state-owned companies funded social and cultural projects. For example, CVRD had to place 8% of its annual turnover in a social fund, which financed schools, environmental projects, and trade union services. Post-privatization, the new owners only have to pay for projects that had already been approved. Interview with Marcelo Sereno, December 17, 1999; Centro de Pesquisa Vergueiro (CPV), “Muito além da Vale,” in CVRD: Privatização da Vale do Rio Doce (São Paulo: CPV 1997).

  89. 89.

    The CVRD owned significant amounts of land in the Amazon region, provoking protests among rubber tappers and the MST against the company’s privatization and the potential sale of these lands. An example of violent protests against the privatization of CVRD was the destruction of a CVRD-owned port in the state of Espírito Santo in December 1998. Other examples of protest included road blocks, occupations, demonstrations at privatization auctions, and hunger strikes, see Folha de São Paulo, “Bloqueio causa prejuízo de R$ 5 mil à Vale,” Folha de São Paulo, July 10, 1996; Folha de São Paulo, “Exército pode retirar garimpeiros no PA,” Folha de São Paulo, Oct. 21, 1996; Folha de São Paulo, “Termina greve de fome na Vale,” Folha de São Paulo, Dec. 2, 1997; Folha de São Paulo, “Protesto destrói porto no Espírito Santo,” Folha de São Paulo, Dec. 3, 1998; Folha de São Paulo, “Meneguelli defende ocupação da Usiminas,” Folha de São Paulo, Sept. 20, 1991.

  90. 90.

    See Gazeta Mercantil, “Urucum não impede venda da Vale,” Gazeta Mercantil, April 16, 1997; Folha de São Paulo, “Leia a principal ação contra a venda da Vale,” Folha de São Paulo, May 2, 1997.

  91. 91.

    Folha de São Paulo, “Projeto de PT sofre investida,” Folha de São Paulo, November 26, 1996.

  92. 92.

    Sindicato dos Trabalhadores nas Indústrias de Prospecção , Pesquisa e Extração de Mineríos (Union for Workers’ in the Mineral Prospecting, Research and Extraction Industries).

  93. 93.

    Interview with Luiz Vieira and Celso Vianna de Fonseca, respectively president and communications officer of SINDIMINA. Rio de Janeiro, September 15, 2001.

  94. 94.

    The average job losses in state-owned enterprises between 1991 and 1994 were 49% of the workforce, and 75% of this reduction happened in the process of preparing companies for privatization . Excluding dismissals in the process of pre-privatization restructuring, 39,631 workers were fired from 22 former state-owned enterprises between the early and mid-1990s. Armando Castelar Pinheiro, No que deu afinal a privatização? Texto para Discussão 40 (Rio de Janeiro: Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social, 1996); Chico Santos, “‘Privatizados’ cortam 39,6 mil empregos,” Folha de São Paulo, March 3, 1997; Francisco Galrão Carneiro, “Privatizações na América Latina: Seus efeitos e impactos sobre o mercado de trabalho,” Estudos Empresariais (3)2 (1998): 8; Graciolli, “Laboratorio chamado CSN,” 221–2.

  95. 95.

    Interview with two representatives of the Human Resources Department of CVRD , Rio de Janeiro, November 9, 2001; Interview with Luiz Vieira and Celso Vianna de Fonseca, September 15, 2001.

  96. 96.

    Interview with two representatives of the Human Resources Department of CVRD , Rio de Janeiro, September 11, 2001; Interview with Luiz Vieira and Celso Vianna de Fonseca, September 15, 2001; Interview with Marcelo Sereno, December 17, 1999; PT, “Nota 10, bilhete azul,” Brasil Agora 7 (January 1992), 5.

  97. 97.

    An increase in jobs at EMBRATEL (a long-distance telecom company), call centres, and tele-sales obscured the total job losses in TELEBRAS. Furthermore, telecom companies began outsourcing some of their activities, leading to a loss of job security and occasionally to more precarious working conditions . See DIEESE/Subseção FITTEL, Evolução do Emprego no Setor de Telecomunicações, DIEESE/Subseção FITTEL, May 2000; International Monetary Fund . Brazil: Recent Economic Developments. IMF Staff Country Reports no. 98/24 (Washington D.C.: IMF, April 1998): 14.

  98. 98.

    Interview with Luiz Vieira and Celso Vianna de Fonseca, September 15, 2001; author’s notes during visit to Cosipa trade union office and interview with trade union official, Cubatão, April 20, 1999.

  99. 99.

    Tribunal Superior de Trabalho , or TST.

  100. 100.

    Martins and Rodrigues, “Sindicalismo brasileiro,” 157–8.

  101. 101.

    Diário do Grande ABC, “Metalúrgicos da região param em solidariedade a petroleiros,” Diário do Grande ABC, May 20, 1995.

  102. 102.

    Many public-sector strikes in 1995 focused on privatization and employment after the job losses of the early 1990s, including in the electricity sector, education, and telecommunications, see DIEESE, “As greves de maio de 1995,” Boletim DIEESE 171, June (1995), 53.

  103. 103.

    Cited in Petrobras , União e força: Memória das organizações dos trabalhadores da Petrobras, 1954–2009 (Rio de Janeiro: Petrobras, 2009), 19.

  104. 104.

    Folha de São Paulo, “Operação foi determinada por FHC na 2a,” Folha de São Paulo, May 25, 1995.

  105. 105.

    Manzetti, Privatization South American Style, 199.

  106. 106.

    Interview with Argemiro Pertence Neto, Secretario de Comunicação, Associação de Engenheiros da Petrobrás (AEPET), Rio de Janeiro, September 6, 2001; Interview with Julio Turra, Diretor Executivo (Secretaria de Relações Internacionais), CUT, São Paulo, August 21, 2001.

  107. 107.

    See Federação Única dos Petroleiros (FUP), “Carta Aberta á População Brasileira,” Rio de Janeiro: FUP, September 1995; Assessorias de Imprensa dos Sindicatos de Petroleiros do Estado de São Paulo, “Defender o monopólio do petróleo: Um desafio para a imprensa sindical,” São Paulo: Sindicatos de Petroleiros do Estado de São Paulo, 1995.

  108. 108.

    The reaction of the press and the Brazilian government to the Petrobras strike illustrates the image of public-sector workers as benefiting from state protection, see Estado de São Paulo, “Os perigos da greve,” O Estado de São Paulo, Oct. 3, 1995. In clear support of the government, the newspaper O Estado de São Paulo argued in an article entitled “FHC knocks out the left in one year” that “this type of unionism, which lives off the monopolies inherited from an obsolete state and which confuses its corporatist interests with the defence of the national interest, is … one of the pillars of our backwardness”, see Estado de São Paulo, “FHC nocauteia esquerdas em um ano,” O Estado de São Paulo, Nov., 6, 1995. An article in Veja suggested a convergence of interests between the CUT , public-sector management and public-sector unions, with the latter benefiting from Brazil’s economic and political crisis: “As defenders of a strong state, the leaders of these [public-sector unions] only managed to enlarge their union basis among public workers in the last ten years because they faced a state in crisis,” see Veja, “A nova cara do ABC,” Veja, May 25, 1994, 44.

  109. 109.

    DIEESE, “Greves de maio,” 53–4; Diário do Grande ABC, “Petroleiros acabam com a greve de 31 dias sem conseguir nada,” Diário do Grande ABC, June 3, 1995.

  110. 110.

    Diário do Grande ABC, “Metalúrgicos da região”; Diário do Grande ABC, “Sindicatos da região preparam apoio à greve dos petroleiros,” Diário do Grande ABC, May 20, 1995.

  111. 111.

    Estado de São Paulo, “Lula e Vicentinho recorrem ao ABC,” O Estado de São Paulo, May 28, 1995.

  112. 112.

    Gazeta Mercantil, “Acordos terão novo tom,” Gazeta Mercantil, June 5, 1995; Estado de São Paulo, “Movimento abriu crise no PT,” O Estado de São Paulo, June, 3, 1995; PT, “Carta Aberta de Lula,” Linha Direta, June 5, 1995.

  113. 113.

    See also Salvador Sandoval, “The Crisis of the Brazilian Labor Movement and the Emergence of Alternative Forms of Working-Class Contention in the 1990s,” Revista Psicologia Política 11(1) (2000), 181.

  114. 114.

    Folha de São Paulo, “Meneguelli defende.”

  115. 115.

    CUT, “Análise da Lei de Concessões,” preparatory document for seminar “A Empresa Pública e seu controle social”, São Paulo: CUT, 1995, mimeo, 6.

  116. 116.

    DESEP/CUT, A crise brasileira e os trabalhadores. São Paulo: DESEP/CUT, August 1993, 14; Paulo R. Schilling, “Privatização: Lucros concentrados e prejuízos socializados,” Contexto Pastoral 20, May–June 1994, 15.

  117. 117.

    CUT, Resoluções e registros, 18.

  118. 118.

    At the sixth National Congress of the CUT in 1997, 35.7% of the delegates were civil servants and 19.3% of the delegates were employed by state-owned enterprises, CUT, Resoluções e registros, 128.

  119. 119.

    Sidney Jard da Silva, “‘Companheiros Servidores’: Poder político e interesses econômicos do sindicalismo do setor publico na CUT,” MA diss., Universidade de São Paulo, 1999, 65–6, 70–2.

  120. 120.

    Ferraz, “Sindicatos e política de privatização”, 82–4.

  121. 121.

    Força Sindical, Um projeto, 106–7, 272; Patricia Vieira Trópia, “O neoliberalismo no movimento sindical: Uma análise das bases sociais da Força Sindical ,” Paper presented at the 23rd Encontro Anual of the Associação Nacional de Pós-Graduação em Ciências Sociais, Caxambu, 1999, 6.

  122. 122.

    Força Sindical, Um projeto, 48.

  123. 123.

    Força Sindical, Um projeto, 229–31.

  124. 124.

    Even though the national directorate of Força Sindical supported privatization and the “flexibilization” of state monopolies, several of its affiliates disagreed and opposed privatization. For further analysis, see Trópia “Neoliberalismo no movimento sindical,” 7, 10–2.

  125. 125.

    A similar conflict happened in the case of Usiminas in 1991, see PT, “As duas maracutaias da Usiminas,” Brasil Agora 2 (October 1991), 8–9; Folha de São Paulo, “Presidente do sindicato defende privatização: Sindicalistas divergem sobre destino da Usiminas,” Folha de São Paulo  October 3, 1991; Veja, “A praça da bagunça: O leilão da Usiminas é derrubado em meio a um festival de selvageria,” Veja, Oct. 2, 1991.

  126. 126.

    Ferraz, “Sindicatos e política de privatização”, 85–110.

  127. 127.

    Quoted in PT, “Os demônios da impotência,” Brasil Agora 21 (August 1992), 4.

  128. 128.

    CUT, O papel das empresas, 10.

  129. 129.

    Velasco, Economia Política, 24–33; Enrique Saravia, “Proceso de privatización en Argentina y Brasil: Consecuencias en materia de mercado de trabajo y desempeño empresarial, practicas utilizadas para el ajuste de personal.” Working Paper 97 (Geneva, International Labour Organization, 1996): 12–3; Ferraz, “Sindicatos e política de privatização”, 52–4.

  130. 130.

    SINDIMINA, “Proposta: ‘Os trabalhadores da CVRD diante da privatização’” (Aracaju: Sindimina, 1996); interview with Luiz Vieira and Celso Vianna de Fonseca, September 15, 2001.

  131. 131.

    SINDIMINA, “Proposta: ‘Os trabalhadores’”.

  132. 132.

    SINDIMINA, “Proposta: “Os trabalhadores’”.

  133. 133.

    Interview with Luiz Vieira and Celso Vianna de Fonseca; Interview with Maria Lucia Garcia, InvestVale (Investors’ Club CVRD), Rio de Janeiro, September 11, 2001.

  134. 134.

    Sindicato dos Engenheiros de Volta Redonda (SENGE/VR), Privatização? Não Obrigado! May, (Volta Redonda: SENGE/VR, 1990): 35–6.

  135. 135.

    CUT, Resoluções e Registros, 15.

  136. 136.

    Ferrero also notes this shift, calling attention to increased networking among social movements and arguing that it was easier to mobilize popular support by organizing political campaigns rather than strike action, see Juan Pablo Ferrero, Democracy against Neoliberalism in Argentina and Brazil: A Move to the Left (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), 95–6, 108.

  137. 137.

    Sandoval, “Working-Class Contention,” 209–10.

  138. 138.

    There were parallels between the MST’s experience and the widening of new unionism’s political agenda and conception of class in the late 1980s and early 1990s. As Wolford argues, the MST underwent a shift from identifying as a workers’ movement focused on agrarian reform to a broadly conceived anti-neoliberal agenda which appealed to a wide range of people, see Wendy Wolford, This Land is Ours Now: Social Mobilization and the Meanings of Land in Brazil (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2010), 95–101.

  139. 139.

    Lúcio F. de Almeida and Félix Ruiz Sánchez, “The Landless Workers’ Movement and Social Struggles against Neoliberalism,” Latin American Perspectives 27(5) (2000), 20–3.

  140. 140.

    Hunter, Transformation of the Workers’ Party, 137.

  141. 141.

    For example, see Hunter’s argument about the relationship between the PT’s experience in local government and political pragmatism, Hunter, Transformation of the Workers’ Party, Ch. 4. See also Gómez, Lula, the Workers’ Party, Ch. 5 about the changing relationship between the PT and civil society in the 1990s; and Samuels, “Socialism to Social Democracy,” about internal changes.

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  1. Modern Languages and Cultures/Latin American Studies, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, Merseyside, UK

    Marieke Riethof

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Riethof, M. (2019). Economic Crisis, Reform, and the Pragmatic Left, 1989–2001. In: Labour Mobilization, Politics and Globalization in Brazil. Studies of the Americas. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60309-4_5

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