Negociações coletivas de trabalho: O caso do comércio varejista de Porto Alegre — 1978-04

Abstract

This paper analyses the outcomes of collective bargaining pertaining to the retail sector in Porto Alegre between 1978 and 2004. These years cover two distinct phases in the recent history of Brazilian trade unions and collective bargaining. In the first phase, which lasted from the late 1970s to the late 1980s, the strengthening of collective bargaining as a method of job regulation marked the path of the national system of industrial relations. In an opposite direction, both a weakening of trade unions and an expansion of the discretionary power of employers characterized the second phase, which covered the 1990s and the early 2000s. These general movements of Brazilian unionism constitute the backcloth for the analysis of bargaining outcomes. In particular, we look at the means for disputes resolution, the bargaining scope and the outcomes of wage bargain.