New working class, old challenges: unionism of outsourced workers

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to reflect upon the union struggle of outsourced workers and the role of the Brazilian union structure in their union activity. Such reflections have as their starting point the experience of two unions in the city of Campinas, in the State of São Paulo: the Construction Worker’s Union, the popular name for the Construction, Furniture, Ceramics, Industrial Assembly, Marble, Granite, Cement, Lime and Plaster Industry Worker’s Union, the Sinticon, and the Commerce Worker’s Union, the popular name for the Autonomous Commercial and Business Advisory Agents, Skills, Information and Research Service and Accounting Companies Employees’ Union, the SEAAC. The offices of these two unions in Campinas have a large contingent of outsourced workers.