A gente tem que colaborar: quando coerção e persuasão definem o discurso de operários fabris

Abstract

This paper aims at analyzing the way workers of industries established in regions with recent industrial history perceive and incorporate enterprise's discourse on the need of productivity. Twenty-nine current workers and former workers form five industries located in a small city in Ceará State were interviewed. In the workers discourse, expressions like "we must produce", "we have to collaborate", and "the industry needs" were frequently heard. These statements mean that the enterprise's discourse is characterized by being based on coercion, more than convincingness of workers. At a subject level, convincingness and coercion overlap, although workers seem to have the need of feeling that they are being persuaded, rather than coerced.