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ABSTRACT
With the initialization of the Brazilian Automotive Regime, in 1995, Brazil started attracting a
new wave of investments in the automotive sector directed at the construction of new plants.
The saturation of the consumer markets and the high costs of production in Europe and the
United States made the major automakers target their investments to regions where they could
find expanding consumer markets and qualified and cheap labor. That wave of investments
was accompanied by fierce disputes among the states in the federation with the aim of
bringing those plants to their territories. Hence, in 1999, the government of the state of Bahia,
by intruding in the American automaker Ford and the government of the state of Rio Grande
do Sul, offering generous tax incentives as well as pressuring the federal government, by
means of its representatives in the Congress, in order to postpone the deadline for
qualification, which had expired in May of 1997, so as to allow the automaker to have access
to the foreseen tax advantages, was successful in its purpose of attracting the automaker to the
state. The automotive complex is located in Camaçari, in the Metropolitan Area of Salvador,
having started its operations in the year of 2001. In the following year, the first occurrences of
workers with Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI) started taking place. Aspects concerning the
organization of labor, such as the ergonomic conditions, the intense rhythm of the assembly
line, the pressure for results, and the lack of breaks during the production are pointed out by
both union leaders and workers as the main factors contributing to this health hazard. The
object of this study is the relation between labor, illness and union action in the Ford Nordeste
Industrial Complex. This research aims to identify the nature of the actions of the union that
represents the metalworkers in regard to the occurrences of Repetitive Strain Injury, which
attacks both the workers hired by the automaker and the outsourced workers in the automotive
parts and components plants. The results that are presented are based on the use of
quantitative data, such as the statistics surveyed by CEREST in Camaçari between the years
of 2004 and 2007, the data referring to SRTE´s tax action on the automotive complex between
the years of 2002 and 2007, as well as on qualitative data, such as semi-structured interviews
conducted with workers and grassroot union representatives, and the use of secondary sources
such as newspaper stories, national news magazines, and the analyses of union bulletins. The
study that was carried out realized that despite the significant number of workers that have
been struck by the illness, other issues that were placed as challenges to union action since the
beginning of the plant´s operation, such as increasing the sector´s wage floor, and the
negotiations around the payment of profit sharing (PLR) did prevail in relation to the issues
related to falling ill with RSI. This leads us to the conclusion that, in the case that was
analyzed, the action of the union as far as the health of the workers is concerned has been
sporadic and lacking in system, meaning that there are no clear or well-defined strategies for
tackling the problem.
Key words: Automotive industry, worker health, labor, trade union.