Os consórcios de produtores rurais no complexo agroindustrial citrícola paulista: das gatoperativas aos gatosórcios- a velha forma de contratação de mão-de-obra rural
Abstract
Since the 90 s, following the world productive restructuring trend, the industries of
concentrate orange juice from the citrus agribusiness complex in São Paulo state refuse
to be responsible for hiring people to work in the orange crop and, in this manner, new
forms of recruiting workers are arising. Thus, the present work is intended for verifying
if a new class of hiring named Rural Producers Partnership serves its purpose of
directly hire orange pickers thus guaranteeing the formalization of the job as well as
serving all work legislation required by the formalization. The partnerships were created
as an alternative to rural work co-ops whose activities were interrupted by the Brazilian
Department of Labor in 1999. The "gatoperativas ", as they were known, promoted a
growing instability in rural work conditions when depriving workers from their major
achievements, that is, their direct labor contract and labor rights. Since these activities
were repressed, the partnerships have been a solution to the end of the intermediary
manpower promoted by the recruitment agents. In this work it is also concluded that the
partnerships are dominated by these agents, and their work relations are not organized
by the producers, thus jeopardizing the work activity.