SINDICATO DOS METALÚRGICOS DO RIO DE JANEIRO
Location: Rua Ana Nerí, 152, São Cristovão, Rio de Janeiro, RJ.
Themes: Unions and Workers
Translated from the Portuguese by Daniel Snyder
The Metalworkers’ Union of Rio de Janeiro, or the “Metalworkers’ Palace”, as it came to be known since its conception, hosted several notable events in Brazilian history. It can be argued that the metalworkers’ division was the group of organized labor most affected by military police repression during the dictatorship. The metalworkers of Rio de Janeiro were among the most sought after groups, since they were one of the most organized and active divisions of the trade union movement on the national level. The union headquarters were invaded, and its facilities were not only ransacked d, but were also destroyed in search of documents that could prove the “subversive” nature of the organization. Along with the seizure and destruction of documents that other institutions suffered, this raid greatly affected the way history and memory are constructed in Brazil.
As early as April 1964, minister of Labor Arnaldo Sussekind, appointed by the general president Castelo Branco, formalized the interventions in hundreds of unions, including the metalworkers of Rio de Janeiro. While the board of the directors, headed by president José Lellis da Costa, was overthrown, persecuted, and imprisoned, a junta of interveners was appointed to “normalize” the activities of the union. Unionized metalworkers were the target of investigations about Communist activities, assembled in a Military Police Inquiry (IPM), and the union headquarters were used as a location for interrogations. The loss of labor rights, imprisonment, and exile marked the period.
Founded in 1917, the Metalworkers’ Union of Rio de Janeiro represents one of the most important workers’ institutions in the political and social history of Brazil. After the decline of the Estado Novo (1937-1945), the metalworkers exerted strong influence on the trade union movement at a regional and national level. In the late 1940s, the union had to fight against repression sparked by the Dutra administration, during which the Ministry of Labor invaded the board of directors, which was led by organizers from the Brazilian Communist Party (PCB) [05] and of the Brazilian Labor Party (PTB). In the 1950s, leaders in the metalworker movement managed to navigate state control while acting within the union structure.
Throughout the 1950s and the first half of the 1960s, the organization mobilized workers from other union divisions, organized strikes, and fought for higher pay and better working conditions. In this period, under the leadership of communist and labor activists, the number of unionized metalworkers soared, thanks not only to the industrial expansion that took place during Brazil’s developmentalist phase, but also to the union’s growing capacity to mobilize workers and represent their interests. Thus, the Metalworkers’ Union of Rio de Janeiro progressively developed a base of support, having adopted the strategy of connecting with company union councils to organize politically within factories j. The basic work accomplished by the union delegates in the manufacturing units proved to be fundamental in securing the division workers’ participation in the campaign to build the entity headquarters – the “Metalworkers Palace”.
The Metalworkers’ Union of Rio de Janeiro headquarters, inaugurated on May 1 after a long and conflicted push for its construction, became an object of pride for its members. The tallest building in the São Cristovão neighborhood at the time, the headquarters was a modern six-floor facility. It had space for a theater, cafeteria, classrooms, and even a print shop, in addition to two elevators and bathrooms for men and women on every floor. With the accelerated process of urbanization that developed in the following decades, the headquarters lost its impressiveness. However, its importance extends to today. In the early 1960s, the metalworkers of Rio de Janeiro were one of the few groups that had their own headquarters. After years of struggle, the union board of directors finally managed to construct a space that represented the significance of this union division for organized labor (Jordan, 2004, p.163). On December 29th, 1999, the headquarters was named a Rio de Janeiro state historical and cultural heritage site by Municipal Law No. 3.336.
From 1955-1963, during the presidency of unionist Benedicto Cerqueira, the union gained influence in the organized labor movement by connecting with interunion entities. A Nationalist and member of the national-reformist division of the PTB, Cerqueira maintained close relations with president Goulart, representing what academic analyses typically call “populist relations.” Before Cerqueira, still in the 1940s, the union actively participated in the formation of the Unifying Laborers’ Movement (MUT). The group became part of the Interunion Commission Against Integral Assiduity (CISCAI) and the Permanent Commission of Union Organizations (CPOS) in the next decade. However, it was in the early 1960s that the organization reached the apex of its political engagement at the national level by joining the General Command of Workers (CGT) alongside the country’s strongest, most organized unions. The creation of the CGT made it possible to organize a more cohesive trade union movement that would seek to break with the vertical, corporatist structure controlled by the State. Through CGT, the organized metalworkers of Rio de Janeiro actively participated in general strikes that demanded better work conditions and wage increases while also addressing the political demands aimed at preserving the democratic regime, such as the 1961 campaign upholding the legality of João Goulart’s claim to the presidency.
In 1963, Cerqueira was elected a federal deputy. The union board of directors then passed to Communist leaders’ control. In the short period when the Communists led the entity before 1964, the union headquarters was the stage for several political and ideological clashes. In the midst of heavy political-ideological polarization, the “Metalworkers’ Palace” became a reference point not only for the union division, but also for the entire workers movement in Rio de Janeiro and leftist activists more broadly. In its spacious auditorium, as it was considered at the time, it hosted various meetings facilitated by partisan nationalist and leftist leaders. Hundreds of assemblies, public functions, parties, dances, tournaments, campaigns, congresses, and dozens of other activities took place in the building.
However, one of the most notable events held in the “Palace” was, without a doubt, the celebration organized by the Sailors and Marines Association. It was held during the leadership of sailor José Anselmo dos Santos, “o cabo Anselmo”, who would later be known as one of the most important collaborators with the dictatorial regime. On March 25, 1964, the metalworkers gave the sailors the headquarters for the commemoration of their second anniversary. In the midst of heavy political tension between the opposition and support for the Goulart administration, Anselmo gave what the mainstream press considered a passionate speech in defense of the broad-based reforms. The event caught the attention of the Armed Forces, since the sailor leadership had already criticized minister admiral Sylvio Motta in the past. The expectation was that the movement’s leadership would be arrested. It was then that the participants decided to stay at the union headquarters in a permanent assembly until their demands were met. They called for there to be no punishment whatsoever until the board of directors of the Association were set free and its demands to end the punishments were met. Though the union board of directors tried to dissuade the sailors, they would only leave after three days of occupation.
Even in a turbulent political climate, the March 31 coup took a large part of the metalworker leadership by surprise. Even though the directors of PCB [05] had considered the possibility of a right-wing coup, the central committee of the party believed that the left-leaning members of the military would resist. The secretary-general of the union, Ulisses Lopes, confirms this version by revealing that even he himself became aware of the coup only when military troops invaded the union headquarters, which he directed at the time (Testimony of Ulisses Lopes given to Marco Aurélio Santana and José Ricardo Ramalho on August 29th, 1988).
Throughout the dictatorial regime, metalworkers tried to resist in factories without the efforts of the union, which had been taken over by “fat cat” boards of directors. Inspired by the “new unionism” movement led by the metalworkers in the ABC region of São Paulo, the Rio de Janeiro metalworkers initiated a new phase in Brazil’s redemocratization struggle in the late 1970s. Metalworkers in the region involved themselves in the fight for union autonomy and freedom alongside social movements emerging on the national stage in this period. During the 1990s, like the majority of workers throughout the entire country, the metalworkers suffered under the neoliberal agenda implemented during the Fernando Collor de Mello administration, later maintained during the Fernando Henrique Cardoso administration. The dismantling of the naval industry profoundly impacted the entity and its stocks: the tightening of wages, mass layoffs, and a high cost-of-living index decimated the sector n. Currently, the union focuses its struggle on the recovery of the Rio de Janeiro naval sector, considered fundamental to restoring regional development and generating employment.