REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND NEW LABOR STRATEGIES: TRADE UNIONS AND THE NEW CAR PLANTS IN RESENDE, BRAZIL

Abstract

Ten years ago, Resende was a peaceful town near a well-known mountain resort in the State of Rio de Janeiro and housing the famous military academy through which many of the military elite of Brazil have passed. Near the border of the State of São Paulo and beside the main road linking the cities of Rio and São Paulo, Resende seemed doomed to a slow existence with no bright future ahead. This paper draws upon on-going research into the social impacts of new developments that took place in Resende, after the inauguration of two big vehicle assemblers – Volkswagen’s bus and truck plant in 1996 and the Peugeot/Citroen car assembly plant in 2001. In the case of VW, the plant was also presented as a major development in vehicle assembly. The unique feature of the plant’s production system rests on the relationship between the assembler (VW) and its component suppliers. At Resende, these were involved in a joint enterprise to establish a “modular consortium” of production. In this system, the component suppliers finance a part of the factory and organise the assembly of their components on site. As such, few of the production workers are employed by VW whose main role in the process is to co-ordinate production and market the vehicle.

Citation

Rangel de Paiva Abreu, A. and Ricardo Ramalho, J. (2003), "REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND NEW LABOR STRATEGIES: TRADE UNIONS AND THE NEW CAR PLANTS IN RESENDE, BRAZIL", Cornfield, D.B. and Mccammon, H.J. (Ed.) Labor Revitalization: Global Perspectives and New Initiatives (Research in the Sociology of Work, Vol. 11), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 131-152. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0277-2833(03)11006-0