Automakers recover number of employees after 20 years
O Estado de S. Paulo
It took 20 years for the Brazilian car industry to recover its level of jobs and come to this month with 135.3 thousand direct employees. In the period, Brazil gained 11 new plants and saw a revolution in the productive method, with several of its activities being outsourced and assembly lines with more indirect than direct employees. At the Volkswagen/MAN trucks plant in Resende (Rio de Janeiro), only 894 workers hired by the maker. The other 5 thousand are hired by seven auto parts suppliers operating in the so-called modular system of production. In January 1991, the automakers employed 136 thousand people. By the end of that year they were 124.8 thousand producing 960.2 thousand vehicles. This year, until October, 3 million units have already been made. The number of direct employees would be greater weren't for the imports, which this year may exceed 600 thousand units, says the President of the Union of the Steelworkers of the ABC region, Sérgio Nobre.
According to calculations made by the Inter Trade Union Department of Statistics and Socio-Economic Studies (Dieese), if that fleet were produced here, more than 15 thousand direct jobs would be generated in the makers and, throughout the productive chain, another 75 thousand indirect jobs. "We are generating jobs in other countries", says the President of the National Association of Vehicle Manufacturers (Anfavea), Cledorvino Belini. Nobre defends an industrial policy that favors local production. "For the maker, it makes no difference to produce here or at its headquarters, but the country needs to think about its future and make high-tech products here, instead of bringing boxes from abroad with components that are merely assembled here", he says.
Brazil is the sixth largest manufacturer and the fourth largest automobile consumer market. In the 90s, each worker produced an average of eight cars a year. Today, according to data of the Union of Steelworkers of the ABC region, they are 29. Having a job at an automaker is one of the most desired jobs, because the average salary is higher than in other areas. José Pastore, Professor of labor relations at the FEA-USP (College of Economics and Administration of the University of São Paulo), emphasizes they are "high-quality, good-salary jobs with high qualification, stability and chances of making a career". He points out, however, that the outsourcing process and technological advance takes place at all sectors and around the world. The Anfavea calculates the makers, suppliers (including raw materials such as steel) and dealerships employ, together, nearly 1.5 million people. Including the entire chain, which goes through sectors such as gas stations, insurance companies, finance companies, etc, the number can get to 5 million.