Social Report Brazil 2009

Ethical Sugar - Tuesday 24 March 2009

The origin of sugar cane workers can be traced back through the history of slavery. At the transition of pre-industrial slavery to industrial slavery (1888) workers were likely to stay with their owner to continue to work.

The category of the so-called “rural worker” would appear much later (1950-1960), when the replacement of such workers began by way of modern technologies. At that time, rural workers extended their services to the best paying job offer(5).

They became known as “fleeting” or “temporary” workers. With time, their identity would surface as they started to fight for their rights and for better work conditions.

Social Report Brazil 2009 - pdf 854 kb - English