ESTRUTURA SINDICAL E MUNDO DO TRABALHO

ALGUNS DILEMAS CONTEMPORÂNEOS DO SINDICALISMO BRASILEIRO

Abstract

This paper provides preliminary reflections on the relationship between the Brazilian trade union structure and the changing world of work in the current historical moment. The trade union movement in Brazil was, from the 1930's, organized by direct state interference. While there wasn't, except in specific periods of our recent history, ban to trade union activity, worker's organizations have been heavily overseen by the legal-bureaucratic apparatus that remain standing. The recent changes in capitalism, especially in the last four decades, changed the political and social scene and brought tragic consequences to the reality of work: increasing informality, unemployment rates growth, historic wage gap between men and women abiding, low incomes. These changes have brought a greater complexity to the current historical moment, putting the Brazilian labor movement, with its historically limited action by the state and reduced integration in the workplace, at the crossroads of difficult resolution.