Neoliberal reforms in Brazil and their impacts on union action and the precariousness of rural work

Abstract

The Labor Reform and the Outsourcing Law, both from 2017, had a big impact on the lives of workers and their unions. They establish that what is negotiated prevails over what is legislated, allow unrestricted outsourcing, and end mandatory union contributions, among other changes. The object of the article is to analyze the practices adopted by rural unions to mitigate the impacts of reforms and how they affect rural workers. We used interviews with union leaders, analysis of the texts of the Collective Labor Conventions (CCT), documents and reports about the subject. The unions have managed to maintain some rights of their members and union contributions in CCT negotiations. However, there was a certain tendency to reduce assistance to workers who are more precarious and more subject to degrading working conditions, since inspections and unions were negatively impacted by the reforms, a situation that worsened during the Covid-19 pandemic.