somanlu jul dez 2006.pmd - Eventos - Ufam

“Soldiers” and citizens in the rainforest: Brazilian rubber tappers...
Upon arrival in the Amazon the worker would sign a two year contract with
the operator of the seringal. Under the contract, the seringalista agreed to deliver
trails that could be used immediately, to assist the seringueiro to construct a barraca
(shack) and a defumador (smokehouse for curing rubber), and to furnish the tapper in
advance with foodstuffs, clothing, and medicine, up to the amount of 150 cruzeiros
per month, as well as utensils and tools necessary to tap rubber, including a gun and
ammunition for hunting. These supplies were not supposed to constitute commercial
transactions and seringalistas were not to derive a profit. All sales were to be recorded
in the caderneta (account book) of the seringueiro.
The tapper was required to deliver all rubber exclusively to the boss with
the penalty of confiscation and even potential “criminal legal proceedings” for sale
to third parties. Upon sale of the rubber, seringueiros were to be credited by the
seringalista the value corresponding to a minimum of 60 percent of the official
price in effect in Manaus or Belém where it would be sold, excluding any expenses
of freight, insurance, taxes, charges, and commissions, which were always to be
borne by the seringalista.
The seringueiro contracted to work six days a week during the tapping
season and was to receive a minimum wage for all work carried out on behalf of
the seringalista in the off-season. The tappers were also entitled to hunt and skin
animal game and to cultivate up to one hectare of crops. The caderneta would
record all transactions (subject to verification) – both debts relative to the supply of
merchandise and credits for delivery of rubber. The seringueiro was barred from
leaving the estate until all accounts and obligations were settled with the boss, unless
a prospective employer assumed as guarantor the responsibility of his outstanding
debt. The settling of disputes that arose between seringalista and seringueiro regarding
the terms of the contract fell under the jurisdiction of the newly created federal
labor court, the Justiça do Trabalho. 26
The official contract for the seringais – an unprecedented attempt by the
state to mediate labor relations in the countryside – walked the line between the
labor discipline demanded by bosses and pro-business government officials and the
protectionist measures advocated by more liberal members of the Vargas and
Roosevelt administrations. The contract dropped the right to fine workers for
damaging trees, as urged by the seringalistas, or other arbitrary charges levied by the
bosses (particularly in marketing rubber), and aimed to curtail price gouging on
50 Somanlu, ano 6, n. 2, jul./dez. 2006