Tendências e impactos da mecanização do corte da cana sobre os canavieiros em Alagoas

Abstract

This work aims to analyze the process of mechanization of sugarcane cutting in Alagoas. We take the year 2008 as a historical starting point, in which the sugarcane agroindustrial sector of Alagoas intensifies its investments in the area of mechanization of the sugarcane harvest and, thus, significantly increases the number of mechanical harvesters in the sugarcane, in order to cheapen the price and Increase the profit. This is a phenomenon that stems more from inter-capitalist competition and external market pressure rather than from restrictive environmental concerns at the national level. However, the use of this technology significantly modifies the labor and employment relationships in this sector. Hence, we seek to examine the contours of the process of mechanization of sugarcane cutting and how they directly affect the workforce. Thus, we ask: what is the profile of the sugarcane workers that lost their jobs with the introduction of mechanized cutting? For what functions were they relocated or not? What happens to those who kept their jobs? Who are the new subjects of work in the universe of mechanized cutting? These questions guide our analysis and seek to measure the impact of this process on the sugar cane labor market. For this purpose, a field research was carried out in the southern part of the Zona da Mata, using semi-structured questionnaires in order to understand what occurs with the subjects of the work in front of the mechanization of their work task. In addition, we elaborate a profile of the new subjects inserted in the mechanized sugarcane cutting. Finally, we delimit our theoretical-conceptual apparatus in the lines of the dialectical historical materialism, as an attempt to surpass the simple level of appearances and to grasp the bonds that link the particular movement to the general. That is, from the simple appearance to the essence.