FERREIRA, S. A. S.; http://lattes.cnpq.br/6133905435323733; FERREIRA, Sandro Augusto Silva.
Resumo:
This dissertation aims to understand the role played by the incorporation of new language of
political mobilization, alien to traditional labor union agendas, in an effort to strengthen
Brazilian trade unions. It attempts to identify, by an analysis of the course of actions and of
gains obtained through such actions on the part of Sindilimp/BA, the incorporation of a new
trade union language emphasizing ethnic elements of valorization of being black, and analyze
the true potential of such language as an instrument of mobilization capable of holding dialogue
with the new identities to be found among members of the class who work for a living.
The Trade Union Movement faces a severe crisis of structural character, which can be
perceived by the reflux operating in its midst: decrease in the number of unionized members,
decrease in the number of strikes, changes in the nature of the unions' claims, directed more
toward guaranteeing employment and changing the line of speech of the trade unions itself
This crisis is the result of a conjunction of factors, in particular the crisis of Fordism, which
imposed upon the workers significant losses in the field of labor rights and in the very field
itself of sociability and worker identity. To Bihr (1998)' this is a crisis of a particular model of
Trade Union Movement, identified by the author as a movement of Social Democratic
inspiration, which congregates both the reformists, in the usual sense of the word, and the
Leninist trade unions. The latter, affected by an excessive "fetishism of the State", begin to
encounter difficulties in organizing their trade categories for new demands aimed at countering
impositions brought about by Globalization and Neoliberalization, movements which together
with that of Productive Restmcturing, bear the main responsibility for the present state of reflux
witnessed in the midst of Trade Unions.
Notwithstanding such a framework of structural crisis, some trade unions, among them the
Sindlimp/BA, have managed to attain significant degree of remobilization of their trade
categories by incorporating new political agendas until now consigned to the realm of political
parties. These new agendas have spawned new sets of group identity, thus facilitating the
mobilization of workers.
Sindilimp/BA, through political actions that reveal the sore spots of racial prejudice
in Bahia, has generated in its trade category (where the majority of members are black) greater
identity with the actions of the Trade Union, which in turn has resulted in its strengthening.
Thus, we will verify whether the incorporation of this new anti-racist language may be
considered an efficient alternative action of trade union mobilization.