A indústria calçadista gaúcha: um estudo das relações produtivas e dos aspectos sociais do espaço industrial das hortênsias

Abstract

This work intends to analyze and investigate the formation process of the footwear pole, the industrial organization, and the social changes that happened in Rio Grande do Sul since the 50s, having as main focus Hortênsia and Encosta da Serras regions. Picada Café city, in Rio Grande do Sul, has the footwear industry as its main economic activity, being one of the largest shoes producing centers in the state. From the 1950s onwards, the process of industrialization and internalization of the sector took place, with the implementation of modern production techniques, aimed at increasing productivity and improving the relationship between employee and company. These transformations resulted in a significant population growth, resulting from a long process of migration and decentralization of productive units. Therefore, a new type of worker emerges, the worker-colonist, who appears as a new form of job recruitment in these peri urban areas, and therefore becomes the main subject of this investigation. To carry out this research, was analyze several historiographical sources that will help us understand the footwear industry evolution in Rio Grande do Sul and its microregions, allowing us to figure out the constitution of the market and the workforce in this sector, exploring the sociological and economic issues that were decisive for its formation and dictated this activity today. Oral history was used and will bring us more information on the issue of labor force of the settler worker. This investigation will be carried out through interviews with former and current factory workers, who shared their time in the countryside with the footwear industry.