From “pipes” to operators: a new social existence in the factory under workers` management

Introduction  this essay deals with the changes in the subjective sphere of a segment of the working class, in their experience of self-management at Flaskô, the longest-running factory under workers’ control in Brazil.

Objective  to analyze the perspective of workers’ subjectivity as protagonists and arrangers of a real utopia of work transformation.

Methods  the essay approach is based in oral history methodology, focused on the social construction of the memory of its actors, based on the testimonies and life stories of four workers.

Results  a new way of producing, made possible by the democratization of the social relations of production, has led to an increment in the professional genre and an increase in workers’ power to act, as the main factor in human self-realization, preservation of the quality of work, and workers’ health.

Conclusion  the Flaskô experience was a powerful articulation of anti-capitalist strategies, within the order, which, by aiming to maintain jobs through the nationalization of the factory under workers’ management, transformed the destructive elements of capitalist management modes that kill and sicken workers, enabling a new form of social existence for its workers, through the democratization of the social relations of production.

Companies Recovered by Workers; Clinic of Activity; Self-management; Organizational Change; Industry; Occupational Health