Abstract
This chapter’s objective is to consider the difference between 1980s and 1990s in Brazil from the point of view of the social question. In the 1980s, a crucial reference point is the 1988 Federal Constitution, as a corollary of a decade marked by strong social mobilizations, despite the poor economic performance. In contrast, in the 1990s Brazil entered the neoliberal era, bringing serious social consequences. This is a period during which the economy remained stagnant and unemployment and informality increased strongly, at the same time the unions were put in a defensive position and the social rights won in the 1988 Federal Constitution were put under severe attack.
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- 1.
The core of Brazilian automotive industry. The ABC comprises seven cities of São Paulo state: Diadema, Mauá, Ribeirão Pires, Rio Grande da Serra, Santo André, São Bernardo do Campo, and São Caetano do Sul.
- 2.
For a critical approach to Weffort’s interpretation about populism phenomenon in the Brazilian trade unionism, see for instance French (1992).
- 3.
According to Sabóia (1986), based on National Survey by Household Sampling, carried out annually by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (PNAD/IBGE), in 1979, the employed population in Brazil (just over 44 million people) was distributed by major sectors of the economy as follows: agriculture, 32.5%; industry (manufacturing industry, construction industry, and other industrial activities), 23.9%; and services (ancillary services, transport and communication, social activities, public administration, and others), 43.6%. The employed population was also categorized according to the following labor conditions: “employees with a formal contract,” 37.3%; “employees without a formal contract,” 25.0%; “self-employed,” 21.8%; “unpaid workers,” 12.1%; and “employers,” 3.8%.
- 4.
An English version of Brazil’s 1988 Constitution with amendments through 2014 can be found at: https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/Brazil_2014.pdf. For a discussion of the arduous construction of social rights in Brazil focusing on 1988 Constitution and its enforcement in the early 1990s, see Paoli and Telles (1994).
- 5.
In the same year, also the National Command of the Working Class (Comando Nacional da Classe Trabalhadora – CONCLAT) was created, bringing together the traditional communist groups known as Trade Union Unity and conservative union leaderships called “yellows,” which was renamed for Workers’ General Center (Central Geral dos Trabalhadores – CGT), in 1986.
- 6.
A distinct chapter is related to the heterogeneous and still large segment of “rural workers,” here including not only the different types of employees but also the “family farmers.” For a brief overview on rural workers’ unions in Brazil, focusing on their sectors more connected to CUT, see Favareto (2007).
- 7.
In Harvey’s (1989) sense. Baltar et al. (2010, p. 17) warn, however, about the idiosyncratic nature of “flexibility” of labor relations in Brazil: “In comparison with the main developed countries, flexibilization was late in coming, but it put in a strong appearance in the 1990s, in the context of an economic crisis, trade and financial liberalization with exchange rate appreciation and redefinition of the state’s role in the economy. It is idiosyncratic because the specificities of capitalism in Brazil are such that the country has always had a flexible labour market, especially after the military dictatorship, allowing the employer to adjust the quantity and price of labour to different economic scenarios.”
- 8.
According to Ramalho (1999), while among minority sectors, union reaction has forced companies to a certain level of concessions, in the majority ones, the trend was the weakening of union’s power due to job insecurity. The extensive use of outsourcing was a strong mark in that context. For Druck and Borges (2002), outsourcing was the main work management strategy in productive restructuring, resulting in a significant change in workers’ profile and diversification of work forms.
- 9.
In the episode of the “petroleum workers’ strike” (in 1995) the anti-union stance by the government became evident (see Rizek 1998).
- 10.
Whereas CUT led the resistance against the privatization program, Força Sindical (at the time, Brazilian second most important confederation) supported it. Founded in 1991, Força Sindical brought together unionists mostly identified with the liberal and pragmatic perspective. See Cardoso (1992).
- 11.
For an overview assessment of the neoliberal policies and flexibilization measures and their effects on the labor market in Brazil, in the 1990s, see Pochmann (2009) (in English).
- 12.
In spite of this, CUT kept a positive performance in terms of amount of affiliated unions and formally represented workers. Between 1994 and 1997, the affiliated unions rose from 2009 to 2570 (an increase of 27.92%).
- 13.
See, for instance, Oliveira (2011).
- 14.
An English version can be found in Soto (1989).
- 15.
Portes and Haller (2004) also refer to the concept of “self-provisioning” developed by British sociologists for dealing with the subsistence production practices that have been observed in developed economies, among middle-class families (repairs, growing of vegetables, etc.). These are, however, distinct from “informal” activities (since they do not infringe state standards, nor involve market production).
- 16.
Chen (2012, p. 16) observes that formalization as government policy implies several paths: “formalization of the informal economy can and should take different forms, including: shifting informal workers to formal jobs; registering and taxing informal enterprises; providing business incentives and support services to informal enterprises; securing legal and social protection for the informal workforce; recognizing the organizations of informal workers; and allowing their representatives to take part in rule-setting, policymaking, and collective bargaining processes.”
- 17.
Also for Hart (2007, p. 07), the “structural adjustments” produced from the 1980s are the basis of the world economy’s informalization process.
- 18.
According to Chen (2012, p. 07), such reformulation has required a new kind of measurement of “informality”: “The expanded definition focuses on the nature of employment in addition to the characteristics of enterprises and includes all types of informal employment both inside and outside informal enterprises. This expanded definition was endorsed by the International Labour Conference (ILC) in 2002 and the International Conference of Labour Statisticians (ICLS) in 2003. In 1993, the ICLS had adopted an international statistical definition of the informal sector to refer to employment and production that takes place in unincorporated small and/or unregistered enterprises. In 2003, the ICLS broadened the definition to include the various types of informal employment outside informal enterprises: statisticians refer to this expanded notion as ‘informal employment’.”
- 19.
According to ILO (2002, p. 03): “There is no simple relationship between working informally and being poor, and working formally and escaping poverty. But it is certainly true that a much higher percentage of people working in the informal relative to the formal economy are poor, and even more true that a larger share of women relative to men working in the informal economy are poor” (ILO 2002, p. 03).
- 20.
See www.wiego.org. “Founded in 1997, WIEGO is a global action-research-policy network that seeks to improve the status of the working poor in the informal economy, especially women, by building and strengthening organizations of informal workers; improving research and statistics on informal employment; and promoting fair and appropriate labour, social protection, trade, and urban policies” (Chen 2012, p. 12).
- 21.
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Véras de Oliveira, R. (2019). Between 1980s and 1990s: Promise to Denial of Social Rights. In: Crisis and Social Regression in Brazil. SpringerBriefs in Sociology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-99402-4_2
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