Is union representation for workers' cooperative members possible? A comparative study between Brazil and Italy

• Grant number: 13/19991-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Start date: October 31, 2013
• End date: April 29, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Sociology
• Principal Investigator: Marcia de Paula Leite
• Grantee: Raquel Duaibs Aguiar Lorente
• Supervisor: Leonardo Altieri
• Host Institution: Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas (IFCH). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Università di Bologna, Italy
• Associated to the scholarship: 11/10324-2 - Success or setback? The dilemma of cooperatives to thrive., BP.DR

Abstract

For over fifteen years the CGIL (Confederazione Generale Italiana del Lavoro) has been helping atypical and flexible italian workers in obtaining labor rights and social protection. The NIdiL (Nuove Identità di Lavoro), which is linked to the CGIL trade union and dedicates specifically to this growing portion of workers in Italy, also includes workers associated with production cooperatives. In Brazil, the SMABC (Sindicato dos Metalúrgicos do ABC), which is affiliated to the CUT (Central Única dos Trabalhadores) and collects a long history of social claims for their associates, has a similar proposal to represent the workers' cooperatives members, giving them the same rights to union expression and vote that unionized formal workers have. Our research proposes a comparative study between the Brazilian SMABC and Italian NIdiL, aiming at, among other things, verifying if the unions in both cases - considering that unions usually represent formal workers - also represent the self-managed workers. (AU)