Divisão sexual do trabalho e precarização: o trabalho subcontratado nas facções têxteis

Abstract

This thesis aims to analyze the insertion, relationships, working conditions and resistance processes of women workers in sewing factions in Rio Grande do Norte. Therefore, we seek to draw a profile of the women who work in the Pró-Sertão factions; know and analyze the conditions and work relationships of women linked to sewing factions in RN; analyze the repercussions of the counter-reform of the State for women who work in sewing factions; identify the resistance strategies of faction workers in the process of labor exploitation. In the context of the structural crisis of capital, given the need to restore capital, with the resumption of profit rates, an articulated strategy based on the triad was sought: productive restructuring, neoliberalism and the financialization of capital. It is noteworthy that the contemporary situation is marked by the advance of capitalism, marked by the expropriation, precariousness and intensification of exploitation of the working class as a whole. In this context, it is essential to demarcate that the oppression of women occurs with greater intensity, as a result of the consubstantiality between class, race/ethnicity and sex/gender, with the sexual division of labor. The subcontracting process, amplified by the flexible production mode, has been intensifying in Brazil and in Rio Grande do Norte it has expanded with the creation of the Textile Industry Interiorization Program, the Pró-Sertão. This program was implemented by the government of the State of Rio Grande do Norte (RN) in 2013 – through the Secretaria de Estado do Desenvolvimento Econômico (SEDEC) – in partnership with the Federação das Indústrias do Estado do RN (FIERN) and with the Serviço Brasileiro de Apoio as Micro e Pequenas Empresas (SEBRAE), with the objective of supporting the implementation of factions to provide apparel services in the upstream supply chain of large industries in the textile segment. In order to achieve the research objectives, the methodological procedures of documentary research and field research were used. The city of Parelhas-RN was chosen to carry out the interviews (7 interviews were carried out), as it was the city in the Seridó region that has the largest number of processes, according to the survey we carried out. However, during the research, we conducted an interview with a seamstress from the city of São José do Seridó due to the feasibility of access. Totaling 8 interviews. This research is based on historical-dialectical materialism, as a method and theory, with a qualitative character. To carry out the research, we obtained approval from the Research Ethics Committee. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there were several obstacles to carrying out the research, which was carried out observing the protocols for preventing contamination by the virus. The research showed that violations of labor rights in sewing factions in RN, linked to Pró-Sertão, result from the precarious insertion of women in work, subcontractors, and the absence of combative political organization. In this sense, with regard to working conditions, it was possible to verify that there is an intense work rhythm, which reaches exhaustion; the absence in some companies of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE); mental and physical illness as a result of work and bullying, through psychological pressure on seamstresses to achieve the daily goal. The precariousness of these women's work takes place amid the intensification of the expropriation of the working class and the weakening of the combative political organization.