Background
on Brazil’s labour movement
…unions and health
Even though the CUT stands for this ‘new trade unionism’
- a conflicting strategy towards management and a participative
approach of their members - they also didn’t succeed to change
the emphasis from the external labour market to the internal labour
market and thus leaving the working conditions under the unique
control of management. On top of this they also didn’t succeed
in building real internal capacities of involvement to be able to
confront and influence above-mentioned processes of lean production.
In that sense also the most CUT unions generally lack an adequate
strategy towards an effective bargaining strategy on working conditions,
on new management policies and a strategy of building an active
participation and involvement of their members.
In respect to health, the neglecting of addressing the internal
labour market led to a union practice that cares only about ill
workers, about compensation, so generally speaking about reparation
instead of prevention. Unlike in the US and Europe where various
networks of union initiatives on health workplace prevention (exchange
on union education, union campaigns and strategies) exist, most
unions in Brazil, especially outside the industrial centres (and
even more in the rural sector), have only little knowledge about
the extent of occupational diseases and how to prevent them in their
sector. There is a lack of knowledge by both workers and union leaders
about the issue. Even for workers health reps in the CIPA in these
sectors there is little or no training at all by the unions to prepare
them for their tasks.
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