“Ciganos da construção”: a divulgação de acidentes de trabalho na construção civil pela imprensa durante a ditadura militar brasileira

Abstract

Based on the conception that occupational accidents and diseases represent the culmination of the capitalist exploitation process and thus have the potential to revealthe living and working conditions prevailing in the studied conjunctures, the present article discusses how the official indices of labour casualties elaborated by Social Security and other issues related, were dealt with by the press in the early 1970s, especially by the newspapers O Estado de São Paulo, Opinião and Movimento. In addition, some official sources linked to the Ministry of Labour will also be mentioned, since they convey the official position of the government in the field of labour claims. With a focus on the "gypsies of construction", as workers in the construction industry were called, and bearing in mind the remarkable expansion faced by that sector during the period, we will point out some aspects that reveal much about the model of exclusive development adopted by the military dictatorship, based on the super- exploitation of the labour force and favouring the big capital: migration, informality, supervision of working environments, extension of working hours, pressure to meet deadlines, disrespect for hygiene and safety at work, disposability of workers' lives - both in small-scale construction and in major catastrophes, such as the Gameleira and the Rio-Niterói bridge.