Precarious and super-exploited labor: the neo-barbarism announced at the Jirau Hydroelectric Power Plant (RO)

Abstract

This paper analyzes the precarization and exploitation of work at the Jirau Hydroelectric Plant, in the state of Rondônia, understanding it in the context of the development of Brazilian capitalism under the New Developmentalism, in which the Brazilian Amazon is consolidated as the hydroenergetic frontier national. The methodology was based on a bibliographical review, documentary research, interviews with labor auditors, trade unionists and workers at the Jirau. The exploitation of the labor force by capital found in the working conditions in Jirau was verified in the mechanisms for extracting more work, through processes of expanding working hours, intensifying production, subcontracting, outsourcing, increasing productivity and production targets. The forms of work control on construction spaces can also be seen in the context of work reproduction, in unhealthy accommodation, poor food, types of coercion, surveillance, harassment and capture of subjectivity.