The precariat, unionism and collective action: a comparative analysis between Brazil and Portugal (2003-2014)

• Grant number: 15/02025-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research
• Start date: August 01, 2015
• End date: July 31, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Sociology - Other specific Sociologies
• Principal Investigator: Ruy Gomes Braga Neto
• Grantee: Ruy Gomes Braga Neto
• Host Investigator: Michael Boris Burawoy
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley), United States

Abstract

The recent development of the new Global Labour Studies has highlighted the centrality of the mobilizations of informal and precarious workers in the revival of the labor movement collective action. In addition, a significant part of these studies emphasize the importance of transnational extension of the scope of trade unionism in the reconfiguration of national labor movements. The purpose of this project is to analyze the changes in the organizational strategies of the union movement in Brazil and in Portugal since the rise of new dynamics of collective action of the "precariat", ie young workers inserted in precarious working conditions. According to an approach in terms of combined and uneven development, we define Brazil as an exemplary case of emerging dynamics of major economies of the Global South and Portugal as a paradigmatic case of regressive dynamics of the labor movements in southern Europe. In short, we will seek to understand to what extent the advancement of international economic crisis in Brazil and Portugal stimulated the formation of "countermovements" facing the commodification of labor and supported by new coalitions between labor unions and social movements arranged by precarious workers. (AU)