Artículo



Dados vol. 44 n. 1 Rio de Janeiro 2001

A filiação sindical no Brasil

Cardoso, Adalberto Moreira

Resumen

Recent literature approaching the impacts of social and economic transformations on trade unionism in both Brazil and the world tends to emphasize structural determinants of the current crisis in union representativeness. However, comparative analysis suggests that variation in the unionization rate also depends on action strategies by union leadership and specific political or ideological situations in given countries. The article points out that an exclusive focus on structural determinants makes excessive concessions to globalization as an interpretative key, thereby denying space to politics. By way of demonstration, the article analyzes union membership rates in Brazil from 1988 to 1998 according to the economic sectors and individual characteristics of the adult wage-earning population. It further demonstrates that the economic reforms now under way in Brazil explain the absolute variation in the number of union members, but not the relative variation, which suggests room for agency.

Palabras-clave: trade unionism; globalization; trade union density; economic restructuring; trade union strategies.

DOI: 10.1590/S0011-52582001000100003

Texto completo

A filiação sindical no Brasil