Labor relations and the new solidarity in the post-pandemic era.

Labor and employment relations, along with the measures adopted by governments worldwide amid the Covid-19 pandemic, are at the heart of the debate on how to overcome the abrupt changes required by social isolation. 

It's not a new phenomenon that the organization of the means of production determines social relations and the struggle for hegemony across the globe. 

Considering this, we cast a critical lens on those who haven't even come close to occupying the top 5 news and "tweets," but have been frontally attacked by the speed of the pandemic and the inefficiency of the "minimal" state.

Healthcare professionals, cleaners, security guards, public transport drivers, garbage collectors, street sweepers, and bank employees are examples of professionals who continued to be found on the empty streets of Brazil during social isolation. At some point, they also encounter cyclists and motorcyclists working for ride-hailing apps, always rushing to meet delivery deadlines for food, drinks, groceries, and even medicine for those who were able to comply with the "stay at home" order. 

These are the professionals who occupy the streets and continue to ensure the "functioning" of life, while thousands try to comply with the guidelines of the World Health Organization (WHO) for containing the spread of Covid-19 in Brazil.

But what do they have in common?

To answer this simple question, we need to consider the economic and social measures being adopted by the Brazilian (mis)government in the face of the blatant economic and social crisis that Brazil is experiencing and which is devastating the Brazilian people, especially the poorest and the working class.

According to data released by the National Household Sample Survey (PNAD) on November 19, 2019, by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), 1 in 4 young people between 18 and 24 years of age are unemployed - 25% of the population in this age group, contributing to maintaining an unemployment rate of 11,8% of the Brazilian population, or 12,5 million Brazilians in the last quarter of 2019 alone.

For the first quarter of 2020, following the austerity policies and deregulation of labor and employment relations that the Minister of Economy's administration has been adopting, IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) announced on April 31 that unemployment in Brazil reached 12,2%, meaning almost 13 million unemployed Brazilians.

From this reality we can draw some truths. First, it was not the arrival of Covid-19 that instigated the economic, financial and social crisis in the country, since, from Brazil having full employment in 2014, with an unemployment rate below 5%, we were quickly thrown into the situation of millions of Brazilians who had their employment contracts terminated, left to their own devices and abandoned by the State.

Secondly, it was not enough that, even in November of last year, more than 12 million workers were unemployed, for the Bolsonaro and Guedes government to present Provisional Measure 905 - MP 905/2019, under the slogan "it is necessary to sacrifice rights to guarantee jobs," which carried out a new and more bloody attack on labor rights by creating the "green and yellow work card," restricting workers' rights, such as access to the 40% fine related to FGTS (Severance Indemnity Fund) in cases of dismissal without just cause, and guaranteeing, of course, privileges to employers in the signing of contracts.

But if it's still not clear what those glorious professionals have in common, let's get straight to the point: they, and thousands of others – also invisible – are daily attacked by the genocidal policy that has been taking hold in Brazilian labor legislation since the labor and social security counter-reforms. Why? We'll explain briefly.

The so-called labor reform, also known as Law 13.467/2017, introduced to Brazilians something that hasn't been done so easily since the promulgation of the Citizen Constitution of 1988: to brand, with fire and iron, the features of neoliberalism into our labor and employment relations. Let me explain.

It was in the labor reform that we saw the rules for entering into employment contracts made more flexible, making outsourcing for core activities, teleworking, the primacy of negotiated agreements over legislation, the possibility of individual agreements overriding collective agreements, and the elimination of mandatory union dues—to name just a few—written norms. These points were merely the prelude to what was to come and what we are experiencing today in the world of work in Brazil.

With the diagnosis of the first cases of Covid-19 contamination, and given the need to implement social isolation to contain the rapidly spreading contamination around the world, the first emergency measures were also taken in response to the declaration of a state of public calamity in Brazil through Decree No. 6 of 2020.

This measure led to the closure of commerce, banks, industries, universities, and schools, among other sectors. Basic education, however, deserves special mention in the isolation measures, given the closure of more than 181.939 basic education schools, according to the 2018 School Census, protecting millions of teachers and students and preventing the spread of the virus among their families and communities. Emphasis is placed on the importance of maintaining the suspension of in-person classes during this delicate time.

But it wasn't long before sectors of the industrial and financial business community began a fervent campaign demanding new measures to finance companies: "the economy couldn't stop," they chanted. Thus, numerous Provisional Measures have already been enacted to meet the demands of employers, but none have addressed the demands of workers and the unemployed.

Thus, we highlight Provisional Measures 927 and 936, as a new motto emerges from them: "lives must be sacrificed to guarantee jobs".

It is through these regulations that we see authorization for reduced working hours with reduced wages, the anticipation of forced vacations, the suspension of employment contracts, teleworking, and the worker's responsibility for production costs, the supreme and unrestricted possibility of any individual agreement being made without the need to comply with labor laws, constitutional principles, and largely dispensing with the presence of unions.

As a result, we are witnessing various categories of workers suffering from instability in labor relations and migrating from the ranks of precariously employed workers to those of the helpless unemployed during these almost 60 days of the pandemic. Contrary to the global trend, the Brazilian government adopts a "laissez-faire" approach and a minimal state for the people, while interventionism benefits private banks and companies.

For the workers who managed to keep their jobs, what remained was exposure to the invisible enemy, living with the invisibility of their roles and working to the point of exhaustion.

Then, we talk about healthcare professionals who work double shifts, the category with the highest rate of Covid-19 infection. We also talk about delivery app workers, those already discouraged by underemployment or unemployment who work an average of 12 hours a day, who are not even recognized as having any employment relationship with the "startups," unprotected by the law, but ready to fulfill our chance to stay home.

Finally, it is impossible to ignore the 804.538 new unemployment insurance claims between March and April 2020, about 150 more than in the same period of 2019. Nor is it possible to conceive that the glaring reality of need faced by the more than 90 million Brazilians who applied for the emergency aid of R$ 600,00 is not being discussed, many of whom did not even have access to the first installment.

There are thousands of José, João, Maria, Consuelo, Antônio, and Inácio who have suffered for many years from subordination in labor relations, rendered invisible in their roles, and who now live with the threat of unemployment and precarious work pointed at their chests.

We are witnessing attacks on workers' rights disguised as pandemic containment measures, with the relaxation of important agendas for workers. We only need to look at the number of categories of workers subjected to working from home during this period.

Will it be possible to return to workplaces considered spaces for socialization and worker organization? How can we counter the transition to working from home in the post-pandemic era and return to teaching in schools and working in banks, for example? How will we resume demanding that employers take responsibility for production costs? Will we be able to establish relationships and norms that guarantee rights in the post-pandemic period? These are pertinent questions.

If we are in a time of contesting the hegemony of ideas and have the opportunity to explore new social, economic, and labor relations in the world, let us begin by building solidarity among workers. Only the solidarity and unity of workers will allow us to advance against the failed individualistic rationality – the essence of neoliberalism. Workers of Brazil, let us unite!