Padrão estrutural da relação dos sindicatos com os fundos de pensão no Brasil: as experiências da PREVI e PETROS

Abstract

The research investigates the relationship between unions and pension funds, defending the thesis that there is a structural pattern in which unions strengthen the political program of capital for pension funds, legitimizing it as a program of struggle of the working class against the capital. This pattern is constituted from four contradictions, which constitute the dimensions of empirical analysis and support the defended thesis: the double contradictory interest, the claim to the monopoly of legitimacy, the ability to contest capital as a requirement to participate in capital and transformism . In empirical terms, the relationship between unions and pension funds in Brazil is investigated, from 1980 to 2006, in the Banco do Brasil workers' pension fund (PREVI) and in the Petrobras workers' pension fund (PETROS), The main data collection procedures were documentary research and interviews. As a result, it was found that the main unions in these categories formulated a political program that considers pension funds to be a great achievement and asset of workers, and should be managed by the workers themselves through the election of pension fund managers.The unions led the fight against their employers to obtain this right. They articulate slates from the trade union movement, arguing that they are the most politically qualified to defend the interests of workers, claiming the ability to be managers who would provide greater profitability and benefits than managers appointed by employers. When as managers elected by workers in pension funds, they reproduce and legitimize the logic of capital accumulation that is harmful to the working class as a whole, as the political commitment to maximizing capital is beneficial to the growth of pension fund assets imposes itself. The entire process can be characterized as transformism, since we have workers' organizations and leaders defending the capital's program for the pension funds as a program of workers' struggle against capital. Elements were observed that indicate that this practice is not restricted to the PREVI and PETROS cases, supporting the argument that this is a pattern that structures the relationship between all unions and pension funds in Brazil.