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Economic and Social Upgrading in Global Value Chains pp 259–285Cite as

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Economic and Social Upgrading in Global Value Chains: The Automotive Industry in Brazil

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Abstract

For over 20 years, the Brazilian economy has faced enormous challenges as a result of neoliberal structural reforms, economic stagnation and external crises, particularly after the Latin American crisis of the late 1990s to early 2000s and after 2014. Deep economic structural changes and fluctuations in the pace of growth profoundly affected Brazilian production and consumption, various sectors of activity, and the social and working conditions of the population. One of the largest and most historically significant industrial sectors in Brazil is the automotive industry. While working conditions in the industry have greatly improved since the beginning of the 2000s, with worsening macroeconomic conditions since 2014 the Brazilian labour movement’s ability to continue achieving an upwards trajectory for workers seems to be under threat. This analysis focuses on the automotive industry as a point of reference to better understand Brazil’s economic development since the late 1990s, the challenges inherent to integration in global value chains (GVCs) and how all of these factors influence working conditions and the ability of organised labour to achieve improvements.

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Fig. 10.1

Source IBGE, 2018. Authors’ elaboration

Fig. 10.2

Source RAIS/MTE (2019). Authors’ elaboration

Fig. 10.3

Source RAIS/MTE (2019). Authors’ elaboration

Fig. 10.4

Source RAIS/MTE (2019). Authors’ elaboration

Notes

  1. 1.

    The Value of Industrial Transformation (VIT) per employed person is as a proxy for value added per person.

  2. 2.

    For example, in a 2018 meeting of the Women’s Collective of the National Confederation of Metalworkers (CNM) of the Trade Union Central (CUT) female trade unionists issued “letters of commitment” to candidates in the 2018 presidential elections on two issues that directly impact women: paternity leave and the quality of public day care. The CNM/CUT Women’s Collective, in addition to the demand of equal pay, highlighted that although the Early Childhood Legal Framework delivered progress in allowing male workers from benefitting from 20-day paternity leave, “the abyss remains latent between the mother and father's responsibilities with the child. (…) Our society lacks a more egalitarian human education; our children deserve the paternal presence and its teachings, and women can no longer carry the responsibility for the creation of their children alone. Men need to develop their role as caregivers and the state cannot escape its own role. That is why we demand a real paternity leave and the right to quality public day-care” (FEM/CUT/SP, 2018).

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Acknowledgements

This chapter is a result of the research project “Global Value Chains - Economic and Social Upgrading”, co-coordinated by Christina Teipen, Hansjörg Herr, Petra Dünhaupt und Fabian Mehl from the Berlin School of Economics and Law. We thank the enormous collaboration of the Berlin coordination team and the other colleagues participating in the aforementioned project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Economics, University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Campinas, Brazil

    Anselmo Luis dos Santos, José Dari Krein, Denis Maracci Gimenez & Hugo Dias

  2. Centre for Studies in Trade Unionism and Labour Economics, CESIT/IE/UNICAMP), Campinas, Brazil

    Anselmo Luis dos Santos, José Dari Krein, Denis Maracci Gimenez & Hugo Dias

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  1. Anselmo Luis dos Santos
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  3. Denis Maracci Gimenez
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  4. Hugo Dias
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Correspondence to Anselmo Luis dos Santos .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. HWR Berlin (Berlin School of Economics and Law), Berlin, Germany

    Christina Teipen

  2. HWR Berlin (Berlin School of Economics and Law), Berlin, Germany

    Petra Dünhaupt

  3. HWR Berlin (Berlin School of Economics and Law), Berlin, Germany

    Hansjörg Herr

  4. HWR Berlin (Berlin School of Economics and Law), Berlin, Germany

    Fabian Mehl

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dos Santos, A.L., Krein, J.D., Gimenez, D.M., Dias, H. (2022). Economic and Social Upgrading in Global Value Chains: The Automotive Industry in Brazil. In: Teipen, C., Dünhaupt, P., Herr, H., Mehl, F. (eds) Economic and Social Upgrading in Global Value Chains. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-87320-2_10

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