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Brazil's Telecom Unions Confront the Future: Privatization, Technological Change, and Globalization1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 November 2007

Sonia M.K. Guimarães
Sonia M.K. Guimarães
Affiliation:
Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
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Abstract

The article presents a narrative of technological change, privatization, and globalization as they have affected Brazil's telecommunications industry. It is divided into three parts: A) A brief account of process of privatization in the telecom industry in Brazil; B) An analysis of the changes in work and employment relations in the industry; and C) A discussion of the implications of these changes for unions, focusing on problems they face and the strategies they are adopting to overcome their difficulties. A final section presents the implications of the article's findings, which are based on semistructured interviews with industry managers and workers and published company and union documents.

Type
Research Article
Information
International Labor and Working-Class History , Volume 72 , Issue 1 , Fall 2007 , pp. 42 - 62
Copyright
Copyright © The International Labor and Working-Class History Society 2007

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References

NOTES

1. An earlier version of this article was presented at the Mini-Conference on Labor and Globalization, sponsored by the Latin American Studies Association, Las Vegas, October, 2004. I would like to thank Peter Winn and Joel Stillerman for their helpful comments on previous versions of this article. I would also like to express my thanks for help in collecting and organizing data to the members the research team: Ph.D. student Daniel G. Mocelin; M.A. student Mauricio Rombaldi; research assistant Simone Santos; and undergraduate students Elvis da Silva, Maria Salas, Regis Barcelos, and Fagner Moura. I gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the National Scientific & Technological Development Council (CNPq).

2. Professor of Sociology at Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil, and researcher, level 1, National Scientific & Technological Development Council (CNPq).

3. Martin Fransman, “Evolution of the Telecommunications Industry into the Internet Age,” 2001, 1–55: http://www.telecomvisions.com/articles.pdf/FrasmanTelecom_History.pdf; Jean-Luc Gaffard and Jackie Krafft, “Telecommunications: Understanding the Dynamics of the Organization of the Industry,” 2000, 1–37: http://www.telecomvisions.com/articles.pdf/jackie.pdf.

4. The research team conducted ten semistructured interviews with Human Resources and Strategic Planning managers in a privatized phone company, Tele Sao Paulo (Telefonica de España), in 2005; with the Human Resources manager in one subcontractor (Oemtel, Porto Alegre, RS, subsidiary of Ericsson), in 2006; and with union leaders from the two largest telecommunications unions, Sindicato dos Trabalhadores em Empresas de Telecomunicações e de Operadores de Mesas Telefonicas do Estado de São Paulo (Sintetel-SP), in 2006 and 2007, and Sindicato dos Trabalhadores em Empresas Telecomunicações do Rio de Janeiro (Sinttel-RJ), in 2004, 2005, 2006. We also conducted eight interviews with workers in the subcontractor firm, totalling approximately twelve hours. We reviewed printed sources such as company annual reports, government statistics, specialized periodicals, reports and bulletins edited by professional associations and unions, union contracts, and the websites of Sintetel-SP and Union Network International (UNI).

5. These comments on Brazil's privatization program draw on: Armando Castelar Pinheiro, “A experiência brasileira de privatização:o que vem a seguir?” Textos para Discussão 87, Banco Nacional de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (BNDES), Rio de Janeiro, 2000, 1–35; Licínio Velasco Júnior, “Políticas reformistas no presidencialismo de coalizão brasileiro” Textos para Discussão 105, BNDES, Rio de Janeiro, 2005, 1–97.

6. The value of privatized assets in all OECD countries, as of 1997, was US$153.5 billion: Nestor, S., and Mahboodi, L., “Privatization of Public Utilities: The OECD Experience,” in Pinheiro, Armando Castelar and Fukasaku, Kiichiro, eds. Privatization in Brazil: the Case of Public Utilities (Rio de Janeiro, 2000)Google Scholar, cited by Armando Castelar Pinheiro, “A experiência brasileira de privatização: o que vem a seguir?,” 31.

7. Armando Castelar Pinheiro, “A experiência brasileira de privatização: o que vem a seguir?,” 30–31.

8. For a detailed account of that process in several countries, see Katz, Harry, ed. Telecommunications. Restructuring Work and Employment Relations Worldwide (Ithaca, NY, 1997)Google Scholar.

9. In 1994, Telebras was ranked tenth in “services revenues” among the world's top ten telecom companies. Revenue per employee in Telebras was US$79,945 or forty percent of the revenue per employee in the Spanish system, ranked ninth: Financial Times, October 3 1995, cited by Robin Mansell and Puay Tong, “Technological and Regulatory Changes Affecting Multinational Enterprises,” in “Telecommunications: Aspects of the Impact on the Workforce,” Working Paper no. 78, International Labour Organization (Geneva, 1996), 8.

10. Wohlers, Márcio, “A reforma do modelo de telecomunicações: o menu internacional e a opção brasileira,” in Tapia, Jorge Ruben Biton and Rallet, Allain, eds., Telecomunicações, desregulamentação e convergência tecnológica. Uma análise comparada (Campinas, 1999), 43–73Google Scholar. Those goals would explain “the absence of restrictions for foreign capital participation in the privatization process of telecommunications” in most Latin-American countries, with few exceptions, such as Mexico.

11. The privatization of Telebras raised US$18,971 billion or fifty-one percent of the National Privatization Program's proceeds by the end of 1999. Maria Hermínia Tavares de Almeida, “La política de la privatización de las telecomunicaciones en Brasil,” Revista de Economia Política, 21:2:82 (abr–jun, 2001): 43–61.

12. Hobday, Michael, Telecommunications in Developing Countries. The Challenge From Brazil (London, 1990)Google Scholar.

13. Filho, José Eduardo Pereira, “A Embratel: da era da intervenção ao tempo da competição,” Revista de Sociologia e Politica 18 (Jun. 2002): 33–47CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

14. Ibid., 35.

15. Maria Hermínia Tavares de Almeida, “La política de la privatización de las telecomunicaciones en Brasil,” 46.

16. Licínio Velasco Júnior, “Políticas reformistas no presidencialismo de coalizão brasileiro,” 41.

17. Novaes, Ana, “Privatização do setor de telecomunicações no Brasil,” in Pinheiro, Armando Castelar and Fuhasaku, Kiichiro, eds., A privatização no Brasil: O caso dos serviços de utilidade pública. (Brasília, 2000), 154Google Scholar.

18. Agencia Nacional de Telecomunicações, ANATEL, “Perspectivas para Ampliação e Modernização do Setor de Telecomunicações,” (PASTE), Brasília, 2000, 18: http://www.anatel.gov.br.

19. Licínio Velasco Júnior, “Políticas reformistas no presidencialismo de coalizão brasileiro,” 55.

20. For a detailed description of the process, see Armando Castelar Pinheiro, “A experiência brasileira de privatização,” 24–25.

21. Telecomunicações, Privatização, BNDES: http://www.bndes.gov.br.

22. ANATEL, 2006 Annual Report: http://www.anatel.gov.br.

23. The level of education of the workforce in telecommunications, in Brazil, is significantly higher than the average in other industries: in 2000, 88.6 percent of the workers in telecommunications had more than eight years of education, while for other industries the average was forty-nine percent.

24. The lowest annual wage and the highest are approximately US$3,000 and $150,000, respectively.

25. Osterman, Paul, Securing Prosperity. The American Labor Market: How It Has Changed And What To Do About It (Princeton, NJ, 1999), 104–105Google Scholar.

26. Interview with Luis Antonio da Silva, head of Sinttel-RJ, Rio de Janeiro, 2005.

27. Interview with Joseval da Silva, director of Union Relations, Sintetel-SP, São Paulo, February 2006.

28. Interview with Joseval da Silva, director of Union Relations, Sintetel-SP, São Paulo, February 2006; interview with Mauro Brito and Jose C. Guicho, São Paulo, April 2007; report by UNI, http://www.union-network.org.

29. Mocelin, Daniel, “Qualidade do emprego em contexto de mudança tecnológica: o caso das operadoras de telefonia móvel celular” (M.A. thesis, Sociology, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, 2006), 1–211Google Scholar.

30. Interview with Joseval da Silva, director of Union Relations, São Paulo, February 2006.

31. Telefonica de España has expanded its global activities and now includes subsidiaries in the United Kingdom and the Czech Republic, among others. The new European partners are demanding a change in the Group's denomination so that they are represented too.

32. These standards include freedom of association, the right to collectively bargain and represent workers, limits to the working day based on national laws, prohibitions on employment discrimination, maintaining safe workplaces, offering training programs, and providing employment stability whenever possible.

33. http://www.telefonica.es/informeanual/esp/pdf/06Empleados.pdf.

34. It is interesting to observe the different results in Brazil in the same firm: the collective agreement between Sintetel-SP and Telefonica, included a clause that automatically affiliates all the employees (unless an individual asks not to join) in Atento, the largest call center in the country, and part of the Telefonica group. In July, 2005, the firm employed 40,971 workers in Brazil.

35. UNI report on the GITT January 2007 meeting, http://www.union-network.org.