Dados is one of the most widely-read social sciences journals in Latin America. Created in 1966, it publishes innovative works, originating from academic research, by Brazilian and foreign authors. Edited by IESP-UERJ, it aims to reconcile scientific rigor and academic excellence with an emphasis on public debate based on the analysis of substantive issues of society and politics.
Dados vol. 26 n. 3 Rio de Janeiro 1983
Abstract
This paper deals with the technological changes which took place in the textile industry, notably in the spinning and weaving sections, during the 1970s. Those changes had to do with the process of equipment substitution affecting two central stages of production. As a result, the occupational structure of the industry was also affected, changing the composition of work and skills required and consequently molding workers as new social actors different from the ones that prevailed in the 1960s. More specifically, the author seeks to analyze the changing labor market as perceived by these new social actors, avoiding excessively general social and political approaches to the problem in favor of a more limited understanding of internal differences within the textile labor force employed in the affected sectors. It is the main hypothesis of this paper that the modernization of the technical base affects the degree of heterogeneity within the industry, establishing not only objective differences in the nature of the work performed by various sub-groups of workers, but also determining the way in which each sub-group perceives these differences. The differential perceptions of unemployment and the chances of progress in the job; of wages, promotions, and intersectoral mobility; of the union and the labor market, are then evaluated in reference to workers employed in the production and maintenance sections of large and medium-sized textile plants. Evidence is provided by interviews conducted with a sample of 94 textile workers. The paper also seeks to reevaluate current conceptions of authoritarian and democratic practices in the industry. The analysis of the perceptions of the labor market reveals a widespread lack of workers' participation in decision-making processes as well as the impossibility of anticipating work changes or alternatives to unemployment. It discusses finally what are the possibilities and strategies for the democratic dissemination of information concerning the social effects of technical change, the transformations in the structure of industry as they affect the labor force, and the contradictions that permeate the workday and the labor market.
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