Abstract

RAMALHO, José Ricardo  and  SAMPAIO CARNEIRO, Marcelo. Labour, trade unions and contestation to large infraestructural projects in the Brazilian Amazon. Trab. soc. [online]. 2016, n.27, pp.79-92. ISSN 1514-6871.

From the 1960s onwards, the Brazilian Amazon witnessed a new cycle of economic expansion. This expansion redefined the development strategies for the region and had significant repercussion of the environment and local social groups. This texts analyses one of the projects implemented since then, the Grande Carajás Program, which stimulated the settlement of pig iron producing industries throughout the Estrada de Ferro Carajás, and of metallurgical plants in the municipalities of Marabá (State of Pará) and Açailandia (State of Maranhao). The article shows the dual impact of these policies. On the one hand it increased regional economic activity, the size of cities and towns, and created new jobs. On the other, it significantly affected the precarization of labour, environmental degradation and offenses to human rights. The objective is to analyze the characteristics of the labour markets through the actions of the metalworkers' union and other social movements in the municipalities of Açailandia, especially the struggles around industrial unemployment and campaigns against 'slave labour'.

Keywords : Amazon; Precarization; Labour; Development.

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