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Brazil's National Confederation of Agricultural Workers (CONTAG) gathers 27
federations and 4,242 trade unions. Its rank-and-file members include farmers,
rural wage laborers and landless peasants. Luiz Facco, advisor to CONTAG
president Alberto Broch, spoke with Sirel
about the situations of these rural workers, and gave his assessment of the
Second Conference of Mercosur Meat Industry Workers.
-What are the
main problems faced by your sector's workers today?
-The most
complicated issue we face is the situation with what in Brazil is called
“integrated producers”1, small
farmers who supply both the dairy, poultry and pork industries. This is a very
serious problem, because transnational corporations are growing steadily, they
are expanding more and more, but they're doing so on the basis of the work and
sacrifice of these people who produce at very low costs. These are small
producers who work around the clock and all year round, without vacation, and
who have to be there at all times to tend to their animals.
In the case of the poultry
industry, for example, they supply their chickens to SADIA or other large
companies for an insignificant price, a meager price.
In Brazil
we have thousands of producers who are legalized white slaves, plain and simple,
and who have been reduced to that state by this “integrated” system.
-Why do they
agree to continue working like that if they're paid so meagerly?
-They say it's
the only thing they know how to do, that they have no other option because they
come from a long line of poultry and pig raisers and that's all they've ever
known how to do. But their fathers worked in a different time, when production
conditions were different.
For example, in Santa Catarina
there were more than 150 poultry processing plants, and today only Friboi and a
few others remain.
Now these large companies come to them to offer them work under contracts with
unfair terms and conditions, and they're forced to sign them because if they
refuse they won't have anyone to sell their production to. If they do sing, then
one day a truck with chicks, feed and other inputs arrives, and that's where the
large company's part ends; from then on the responsibility falls on the small
producer. The contract includes the whole technological package, which dictates
how the animals are to be fed and cared for, how temperature is to be
controlled, etc. The truck then comes back to take the chickens away and
transports them to the plant.
But even if these small farmers produce well and plenty, in the end they are
left with nothing.
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In Brazil
we have thousands of producers who are nothing more than legalized
white slaves, plain and simple, and who have been reduced to that
state by this “integrated” system. |
-How can you
address this situation?
-We still have
no solutions. We've had lengthy discussions with state governments and federal
bodies to find solutions for these producers, proposals we could present to them
and policies that could be implemented, but we still haven't come up with
anything concrete.
The government
wants to deregulate work relations, but it provides no real solution to this
problem.
We should
gather every poultry producer and organize a demonstration in front of the
offices of the transnational corporations, to let the world know what these
people are going through. But many of these producers are afraid to do that,
they're afraid to break their relationship with the corporations.
-Does this
happen with producers of other types of meat?
-The same thing
happens with “integrated” pork producers. The dairy sector is different. It's in
a better situation than it was five or six years ago, because one of the
components of the government's social policy is the distribution of large
volumes of powdered milk, and that puts the dairy industry in slightly better
conditions and means producers receive a little more.
But, there are
pork and poultry producers who, even with their entire family working and with
enormous efforts, barely make enough to get by. And compared to all the
infrastructure they contribute and the efforts of their entire family, the
result is disproportionate and is just not enough.
As I said,
breaking this scheme is very difficult. A working group is being formed in
southern Brazil, covering the states of Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina,
Paraná and Mato Grosso do Sul, to try to promote the creation of a coordinating
body of pork and poultry producers.
-How are you
combating slave work?
-This
is a problem that shames all of Brazil and that is often found in livestock
production; it's quite widespread in the country's northern region, in
particular in the state of Pará.
CONTAG
is working hard to combat it, but it is difficult to identify the people who are
working under such conditions, and to reach them. The Labor Ministry would need
to have more inspectors to monitor rural areas and find out where this heinous
practice is being implemented, towards eradicating it.
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We have to
reflect on what kind of agroindustrial development we want and what
kind of primary sector development we want. |
-What is
CONTAG's opinion of the coordinating body created for Mercosur meat industry
workers?
-We think this
coordinating body is key, it has a crucial role, and we want to congratulate the
IUF for having the initiative of bringing us all together to discuss
these problems, which are serious and complex. The coordinating body is
necessary, and we hope that whoever is in charge of organizing and systematizing
it is successful in implementing an effort that must be ongoing, that must exist
as long as cattle, pork and poultry production exists.
The goal is to
improve the working conditions of small meat producers, rural laborers and
meatpacking workers, ensure they have better health care, transportation and
housing, and enhance their quality of life, because the situation right now is
very harsh.
In addition, we
have to launch a broader debate regarding the kind of model we want for our
country, the kind of economic development we want our children to have in the
future. Which is why discussions have to go beyond the meatpacking plant, beyond
pork or poultry processing plants, it must also focus on the conditions of
family farming.
We have to
reflect on what kind of agroindustrial development we want and what kind of
primary sector development we want.
This is key because it has to do
with people's lives, with nature, with the environment and with our children's
future. It is a political discussion that involves the correlation of forces
that exists in our countries, the power relations between workers and small
farmers, on the one hand, and industrial capitalists, which are expanding and
concentrating, on the other.
These are new
and huge challenges. Our organizations are facing new paradigms that pose
unprecedented questions, and which demand, more than ever, that we organize and
coordinate efforts better, in order to address this situation.
I hope we have
the clarity of mind to find solutions, to devise concrete proposals for work and
for action that will enable us to achieve better working and living conditions
for our fellow workers.
I'm hopeful that if we work hard enough and give these coordinating efforts our
all, we will succeed in our struggle.
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