LABOR AND DEMOCRACY

justice and no social regression

Abstract

The capital-labor relationship is increasingly complex. From the hierarchical factory to the pulverized, technological and digital production system, the concentration of economic power produces a serious negative externality: the decentralization of labor and its social value. The concentration of capital increasingly discards the worker in his human condition and in the broader sense of citizenship. Based on the theme of the Habermas Colloquium, it is possible to identify the weakening of the State as a promoter and guarantor of workers' fundamental rights, affecting union membership as a form of working class loyalty, or in other words class consciousness or solidarity among workers. Consequently, labor unions operate with a deficit of legitimacy and representation, as is the case with the structure of a single labor union per professional category. In this context, we reflect on the effects of this complex and tense relationship, at the time of reconstruction or restoration of the participatory and deliberative democratic order, aiming to prevent social regression of workers. We anchored the study in the Federal Constitution, in principles of Labor Law, in Habermasian reflections on the topic. We situated our research from 2017, when the Labor Reform took place. With this approach, we propose a dialogue beyond positive law, since the social value of work and the entrepreneur's free initiative crosses several social structures that compete for space with the various segments of the Brazilian State.