Henrique Almeida de Castro is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Zukunftskolleg since 05/2024 and is affiliated with the Department of History and Sociology & Cluster of Excellence "The Politics of Inequality"
Project: Curbing Labor Violations in Hard-to-Reach Places: Brazilian Rural Unions’ Strategic Repertoires within Global Value Chains
The research project explores how labor unions connect workers’ rights violations in hard-to-reach places to corrective measures, using rural unions in Brazil as a case study. Brazil, a significant player in several food value chains, is also a hotspot for violations ranging from irregular contracting to slave-like employment. The country’s several secluded rural workplaces present an extreme case of enforcement difficulty due to limited access and information for authorities. It is known that authorities’ successes have depended on the cooperation of local rural unions, which exist in almost every municipality. Yet, we understand little about these unions, including the conditions they face, the strategies available to them, and why they may behave in specific ways and not others. These gaps hinder our understanding of the challenges involved in protecting worker’s rights in global value chains. The research will draw on fieldwork and interviews to conceptualize and explain unions’ repertoires of organizational tactics.