The “work of care” at the female domestic workers’ union in Pelotas, Southern Brazil.

Abstract

The aim of this article is to think over the daily practices observed at the Domestic Workers` Union of Pelotas city, Southern Brazil. Based on an ethnographic perspective, we highlight issues poorly explored so far in the unionism bibliography in the scope of domestic work: the extent to which interactions, attendances and assemblies are often pervaded by carrying relationships between female union directors and those women who seek assistance over there. In these profuse interactions, the militants' historical trajectory, as well as gender, class and race experiences lived by the union members themselves, make both the dramatic moment of contractual terminations and other disputes with bosses exceed the bureaucratic mode and not being restricted to the formal processes, which usually are inherent to the union's purposes. Thus, we propose that the union's ultimate purpose of protecting and providing the domestic workers enlightenment for contracts and rights, is permeated by an intense and invisible `work of care` and resistance practices. Both the work of care and the resistance practices emerge from the skills of the female directors that find opportunities even being in a context of exclusion and restricted access to legal rights already rightfully achieved by the category in Brazil.