Integração e exploração da força de trabalho: o caso da fumicultura potiguar.

Abstract

The objective of the present work is to describe and analyze the integration, from the case of tobacco cultivation by small producers integrated to Souza Cruz in the State of Rio Grande do Norte, between 1980 and 1996. To answer the central question, how and why the structuring of the integration in the tobacco industry, a survey was carried out, precisely on the way in which the integration is structured, through interviews conducted with 20 integrated producers between 1993 and 1996. The integration relationship, in this case, it consists of an oral contract signing obligations of both parties. On the one hand, the company undertakes to supply the means of production, which are purchased with nominal financing from the integrated producers, in the provision of technical assistance and in the purchase of production. On the other hand, the producer undertakes to produce the tobacco according to the company's technical recommendations and sell it the same. During the cultivation of tobacco, the integrated producer uses non-labor ties to use non-family labor during the planting and harvesting periods, and is responsible for payment of the same. In these terms, integration appears as the agrarian version of part-wage labor, structured by capital because this mechanism enhances the exploitation of the labor force through, among other factors, wage discounts. Thus, integration is structured by capital not only because it encounters natural, technical and social obstacles in rural areas, but also, and above all, because it corresponds to a mechanism that increases the exploitation of the labor force.