Domination and subordination in work relationships in the suites of Ituiutaba, Minas Gerais, Brazil

Abstract

The article aims to characterize the profile of workers involved in the sugarcane agricultural culture and to investigate their working conditions in the cutting of sugarcane in the micro-region of Ituiutaba, MG. The territorial cut is justified by the fact that the micro-region of Ituiutaba faced in the last decades an intense modernizing movement of its rural territories due to the investments of the sugarcane agribusiness directed to the production of agricultural commodities for export, based on the overexploitation of the workforce and natural resources. The methodology used for the development of the research starts from the bibliographic review to understand the dynamics of the phenomenon to be studied, and also to construct a theoretical framework. Another stage of the methodology refers to the collection of data from primary sources, which was done through field work whose objective was to identify the social subjects involved in the cutting of sugarcane. At that moment, we asked about periods when the migrant workers had free time to participate in the interviews, with priority for holidays and weekends. It is noteworthy that signatures on a consent form authorized the interviews as well as the identification of the subjects and the use of their speeches. We consider that, through the data obtained, workers, mostly migrants, to be hired are evaluated according to their production capacity, their physical resistance and their subordination to superiors. The production wage implies overexploitation of the workforce, which has an impact on workers' health and working conditions, as well as on not always long-term work relationships that reinforce local stereotypes and seasonal migrations in Brazil.