Brazil

Testimonial by Sergio da Silva, former Nestle worker This has completely changed our lives

Repetitive Strain Injuries (RSIs) and the socio-economic context in which they are produced, clearly demonstrate the clash between two opposed interest groups: the companies - in this case the Nestlé factory in Araras, São Paulo State, Brazil, with its morally enslaving and physically devastating working conditions - and the workers - victims of their own belief in the social order, where "a wolf" uses its influence "to eat them better," betrayed, damaged, but finally pulling together and fighting to get their rights recognised and to help prevent others suffering as they have.

To enter the world of RSIs we must extend our field of sensitivity, we must control our anger and work together using the power of this indignation to fuel a positive movement.

Sergio da Silva,

34 years-old, married, 3 children.

Bborn in Araras.

I worked for Nestlé from May 1989 to June 2003. When I started I was 19 years old and it was like a dream come true, because I had heard such good things about the company, a serious, solid multinational. I fought to get in there. I started as a helper doing quantity control on long-life products. I also had to put all of this into boxes and stack the boxes on pallets. Then I was promoted to the packaging section where I stayed for a year and then I went to the packing room. There I had to feed the machine with packaging materials like reels and tapes. At that time all of this was done manually with no mechanical aid. I don't remember how much the reels weighed, but they had 4,500 laminated packets on them. I also put various products into boxes manually. Both tasks implied repetitive movements. Several years later I became a machine operator, but by then I almost never had an assistant to help me and I had to do both functions at the same time. Defective packages had to be taken off the line and emptied into 50 litre drums so that the contents could be recycled. To do this you had to bang the package on the edge of the drum and squeeze it so the contents would come out fast. You had to keep an eye on the machine at the same time or the work got disorganised and the bosses would come and ask for explanations. Between 1,200 and 1,500 packages would break each day. These accounted for so many jolts on the hand, wrist, arm and shoulder. There were other things that had to be dealt with on the machine, one of those was going up a small staircase to make a check, but this had to be done in fractions of a second. You could not drop below 97% of production standards because the bosses bullied and threatened. They had reduced the staffing on other machines so much that some colleagues couldn't cope, and we tended to help each other out when we could.

About six years ago I started feeling pain in my arms and ribs, but due to pressures both within in the factory and outside -due to high unemployment- I avoided going to the doctor because I knew the company did not accept any illness that had no visible symptoms. Only you are aware of how much pain you are in. I took painkillers and shortly after the pain would ease off for the rest of the shift, but it would start over again the next day. In my section we had almost daily meetings, some during working hours and some not. Not attending them was seen as a sign of disinterest from the staff, by the company. In the meetings there was great pressure on productivity, competitiveness in the market, quality, and it always came back to the same point: "If you are not prepared to make the effort, the streets are full of people who would kill to work for Nestlé." This gets into your head, you think of your family, your children, and you say you will do anything to keep your job, even working on with the pain. And the days kept on passing, until the time came that I found the pain impossible to bear. I went to a doctor outside of working hours and took along the x-rays of my back. I told him the back pain ran up to my shoulders, and that when I went to the reading room at break time I couldn't hold the newspaper because my arms hurt so much. I asked him to do a scan because I had never had such severe pain. But the doctor had already seen Nestlé workers with the same problem, and as with all of them, instead of doing a scan he ordered another x-ray and a blood test for uric acid. I did everything he said and he prescribed me two drugs to take daily. One of these had something that upset my stomach, but I carried on working all the same. One Thursday I decided to go to the doctor instead of going to work. I told him what was happening to me and he told me to reduce the dosage, but nothing about a scan nor physiotherapy. He gave me a sick certificate for two days, Thursday and Friday, but I also asked for the Saturday because I didn't feel well and I really wanted to get better. Also, I had holiday booked from the Monday of the following week and it seemed better to give my body a long rest. He answered that due to a company request, neither he nor any other doctor in Araras working under agreement with Nestlé could give more than two days' sick leave. He passed me on to a Nestlé doctor for him to decide. The following day I went to the company, saw the doctor who could not give me an extra day either and he sent me back to the first doctor. He explained to me that one of the bosses, called Leandro had called all the doctors together to give them the instruction: no more than two days' sick leave. I decided to speak to the boss of my section and I explained the situation to him, and he agreed with me that I could stay home. During the holidays I saw another doctor who ordered 10 physiotherapy sessions for me which led to only partial improvement. On my return I was assigned to another section where I spent a week unloading sugar wagons. I was in a lot of pain but I managed to finish the week. Then I returned to my normal section, but barely two days later I was called into the office of one of the bosses and he asked me about the trouble I was causing because even the personnel department had heard about it. I answered that there had been no trouble and told him what had happened just like I am now, and I added that I had done everything according to the rules, as I always had done in the company. It was he who had authorised me to take the Saturday off. He said nothing, he just opened a drawer in his desk, took out an envelope and gave it to me saying: "Look, now you have got yourself the sack."

I could not accept that we had to work ill, that we could only bow our heads and keep quiet. I I refused to sign my dismissal, he called two witnesses who signed in my place and that was the end of it.

I thought I would work in that company until retirement, or that I would at least get to be someone in there, I always did everything right, but in the blink of an eye they had sacked me.

Before I went home I visited the doctor who had prescribed the physiotherapy and I asked him for a scan, and by the end of the day I had the diagnosis of tendonopathy in the shoulders. I took this result back to the previous doctor to show him that they had given me the sack because he had refused to give one day extra sick leave. He unhappily told me that he too is a Nestlé employee because he depends on the agreement with the company.

Then I found out about doctors in Sorocaba who treated us with respect. I was quickly given a diagnosis of RSI, and they gave me a letter for the INSS where another doctor authorised sick benefits for me.

At present I am still on sick benefits, doing physiotherapy, and right now as we speak I am in quite a lot of pain because on damp days like today, the pain is more intense.

I know I am going to have great difficulty finding a new job, because I have to get through a three-month trial period in any company, and you have to kill yourself to get the job. But the problem is I can't do that, because I am not physically able, and if I do it by using drugs, then I will make my illness worse. I have put this problem to everyone I know, and no one can resolve it. In fact, I think I will never be able to work again.

I often feel like going out for a walk with my youngest son, who is one and a half, but we can't carry him because my wife, a former Nestlé employee, also has RSI. And if we make an effort and do it, there are people who accuse us of faking the illness, and of shamelessness. All this has had a great emotional impact, you tend to remain isolated, talk less, we are more sensitive and confrontational. We stay at home, but we can't even do much there, I can't mend a curtain, clean or do the garden… we have to pay for everything. So economic difficulties build up. Living together becomes problematic. There are even times when you consider doing something stupid.

At this point Sergio couldn't talk about himself any more. Twenty minutes later we were able to start discussing his wife's case.

María was also a Nestlé employee from 1986, where she always worked in the printing section, which is a madhouse because of the intensity of the work. She always came home tired, anxious, obsessed by reaching productivity targets. In mid-1996 she was in so much pain that she could no longer work. She had some tests and found she had RSI. At that time no one yet knew what that illness was. Elder, the company doctor, prescribed her several drugs and told her she could continue to work. There were nights that María cried with the pain in her arms and shoulders. Time passed like that until she couldn't stand any more, she was moved to office work on the doctor's recommendation. But after a time they wanted to send her back to the machine, also because of pressure from some colleagues who were envious of her situation as they believed she was not sick. For a long time she suffered persecution from some of the bosses, until she was sacked without notice in February 2001. But she had an appointment with a gynaecologist around then as her period was overdue. The doctor confirmed the pregnancy. María went back to the company and told them she was pregnant, and when they saw they had committed a double error, dismissing her while she was being treated for RSI and, moreover, pregnant, they reinstated her. From then she was on maternity leave and then leave for RSI. In December 2003 she should have gone for evaluation at the INSS, but the doctors are still on strike now. So we don't know what will happen with her either.

All this has caused María to change completely. She was a woman who was always happy, and now…

Shaken, deeply moved, Sergio could not say any more about his life, his wife and his children.

Carlos Amorín

Testimony extracted of the “Silent Massacre” book,

published and produced by Rel-UITA

April 28, 2006

Illustrations: Álvaro Santos