Uma empresa, duas regiões : o uso vantajoso do território - uma análise comparativa da percepção dos trabalhadores sobre desenvolvimento.

Abstract

With the globalization process, Brazilian companies looked for growth opportunities by several ways. Through the tax incentives, the State’s governments intended to attract investments, creating competition with other States. This practice is well-known as tax war. Some companies, using this resource, installed new plants or even moved to distant regions, with poor socioeconomic conditions and poor skills of workforce. This study seeks to examine the use of territory, from the case of a shoe company, installed in two different regions of Brazil – one in the South and the other in Northeast – with different human development indexes. From a comparative analysis of the perception of 658 emploees, we measured the impact caused by the industry installation in town, and its impact on people working at the headquarters of the company. We also verified the socioeconomic growth of Nova Petrópolis, in Rio Grande do Sul and Russas, in Ceará, during the decade from 1997 to 2007. The analysis identified differences between workers of the South and Northeast plants of the Company, on education, wages, family income, union affiliation, first job, and others. Concerning quality of life, the workers’ satisfaction levels before the job and after they have been hired, were different in both plants. However, there are some aspects with the same kind of answer, which refer to material purchasing, professional activities and ambition level.