UMA ANÁLISE PSICOSSOCIAL DAS RELAÇÕES DE TRABALHO DOS CATADORES DE MATERIAL RECICLÁVEL ORGANIZADOS EM COOPERATIVAS DE RECICLAGEM.

Abstract

The relationship between the scavengers of recycleable materials and the recycling organizations was the theme of this research, whose aim was to investigate the perception of the scavengers concerning their labor relations, the conditions in which they perform their functions and the labor practices in the recycling cooperatives, trying to reflect about the processes of social inclusion-exclusion of these workers. This is a descriptive and exploratory case study, whose research instruments were the semi-structured interview and documentary analysis. The technique for studying the results was Lane s graphic analysis of the speech. The interviews were carried out individually with ten participants from two garbage recycling cooperatives that operate in the municipality of Goiania. The recycling of urban garbage appears as an emerging activity, and is an integral part of the green market, that is, it is within the activities that are of an environmental nature that have arisen along with the environmentalist movements and those of environmental preservation. The recycling of recyclable materials is a complex productive chain that involves several participants and while it generates indisputable environmental advantages for society in general, the economic aspects stand out. The hunting and collecting of recyclable materials, the first step in the process of recycling, constitutes for many workers the only way to guarantee their survival and the possibility of social inclusion in a labor market more and more exclusive. By means of graphic analysis of the speech the participants in this study perceived the intense exploitation to which they, the scavengers, are submitted. They who carry out a job of undeniable importance, neither obtaining recognition from society nor improvements in their working conditions even though they are part of a highly lucrative chain of production. In this way the results obtained from this study suggest that the labor relations are precarious and informal between the scavengers and the recycling organizations. The work of scavenging occurs by necessity not by choice, and the scavengers are informally inserted into the official circuit of recycling. It is a job that exposes the worker to various kinds of health risks, makes them victims of prejudice, humiliation, and negative stigmas and excludes them from some social situations. The data also revealed that some organizations, under the allegation of using cooperative principles, in bad faith subcontract for cheap labor so that the scavengers carry on their activities in precarious and alienating conditions. In opposition to this exploiting and alienating character, the organization of the scavengers in cooperatives that adopt genuine cooperative principles can take the form of a possibility to search for better working and living conditions, for something beyond survival.