Precarização do trabalho e resistências: uma análise das estratégias de luta dos servidores municipais de Candeias entre 2014 e 2018

Abstract

This research analyzes union organization in the municipal public sector and its mechanisms of action in relation to the municipal public entity, considering the context of the precarization of work in the municipal public service. It includes a case study of the collective organization of public servants in the municipality of Candeias. The research is guided by the following question: in light of the relationship between municipal administration and public sector workers within the framework of neoliberal policies adopted by municipal administrations—particularly the legal limitations on the implementation of adjustments, personnel expenses, and increases in primary expenditures—to what extent do the collective action and struggle strategies of municipal employees contribute to the maintenance of rights and advancements for employees in negotiations for improved social and working conditions? Initially, the analysis is delimited to the period between 2014 and 2018, as this time frame allows for the inclusion of various struggle strategies, representing a temporal boundary that covers half of two municipal mandates, including a pre-election period, thus providing a representative sample of workers' collective action without precluding references to previously used strategies and mechanisms. The case study is guided by data collection on the forms of collective action by the public servants of Candeias, constructing a concrete framework of the reality to be analyzed. Subsequently, the workers' struggle strategies were mapped and analyzed through semi-structured interviews with union leaders and municipal workers, seeking to answer the research question using the methods and procedures outlined in the research framework. The central objective of this research is to map and analyze the struggle strategies of municipal public sector workers' collective organizations in Candeias, in maintaining rights and improving working conditions, salary adjustments, and remunerative gains in the context of intensified neoliberal offensives and fiscal adjustments. To achieve this, the study aims to identify the forms of action and struggle strategies of the public sector unions in Candeias; identify the state's positions and arguments in response to union action; analyze the struggle strategies as a means to overcome the state's arguments; and identify and analyze the outcomes and consequences of union action.