Essay On The History Of The Union Organization Of Workers In Education In Brazil (1983-1991)

Abstract

In this essay of educational-historical interpretation, we aim to reflect on the union organization of education workers in Brazil, which underwent an intense process of transformation – even metamorphosis – between the fall of the civil-military dictatorship and the establishment of a democratic-electoral political regime. The manuscript focuses on the national organization of public basic education workers, centering its analytical concerns on the historical period from 1983 to 1991. This era of profound institutional changes coincided with a transition in the political-organizational locus and the substantial transformation of the Confederation of Teachers of Brazil (CPB), which notably renamed itself the National Confederation of Education Workers (CNTE). The text investigates and analyzes key social episodes and changes that influenced political trajectories, marked the transition, and shaped the struggle for hegemony within the national entity. It also highlights the CNTE’s interventions in the National Education Conferences, the creation of the National Forum in Defense of Public Schools (1987), and the debates preceding the National Constituent Assembly (1988). In our historical-educational interpretation, the CNTE emerged under the influence of a new model of class-based union organization, characterized by workplace representation, social confrontation, and opposition to collaboration with governments—a model known as “new unionism.” Unlike other union organizations, this shift occurred within the former CPB, advocating politically and socially for the unity of the category.