ABSTRACT
This chapter describes general trends in the growth of the industrial working class, and compares the patterns of strike actions in terms of both the regional distribution and changing composition of the labor force. It examines the impact of industrial growth on the regional and occupational distribution of strike activity. The influence of the rise of the modern sector on the transformation of the Brazilian labor movement has been a largely unexplored question. The similarity in the sectorial pattern of service strikes was also the result of the changing structure of the Brazilian economy, though the connection between economic development and labor militancy is more complex. The traditional industries of the earlier phases of industrialization gradually gave way in prominence to the modern industries as new markets for durable consumer goods developed. The gap between 1969 and 1978 represents a watershed in the development of the Brazilian labor movement.
