O tempo da fábrica - o disciplinamento dos trabalhadores na indústria pesqueira, Belém, Pa: um estudo comparativo

Abstract

Time and discipline have been imposed in all instances of workers' lives, since the eighteenth century with the establishment of the Industrial Revolution in England. This paper intends to contribute to the analysis of this process, unveiling the role of time as one of the mechanisms of disciplining the labor force in the fishing industry in Belém. For this I will use Thompson (1984), who gives us the notion of "Disciplined Time", typical of urban and industrial societies. Based on the direct observation method, open interviews were conducted with workers and visits were made to two factories in the years 1996 and 1997. The Parque Pesqueiro Paraense is concentrated on the margins of the Guajará Bay, along the Arthur Bernardes Highway in the axis that connects Belém to the Industrial District of Icoaraci. The factories still maintain the Fordist model of mass production, involving rhythm, coordination, and economy with precision. Absences and delays are defense mechanisms of the workers against the loss of control of their time, and are severely punished by the bosses. In the factory, production (shrimp and fish) is geared toward the external market, taking place in two moments: sea (capture) and land (processing). The discipline inside the processing hall is stricter than in the capture, and the labor force used in this hall is predominantly female. It was observed from the data analysis that the discipline required for the workers (catching and processing) and the disciplinary norms are similar, varying only in degree, despite some differences with regard to hierarchy, work routine, and administrative structure of the factory.