La lucha de los zafreros de la empresa AGROCATSA por la transformación de condiciones laborales, Catamayo (2008-2021)

Abstract

The sugar cane worker, called zafrero, is a social actor, academically invisibilized as an object of study. Research has focused on the workplace itself, which is the sugar mill from the economic, administrative, and productive perspectives, but not the worker as a subject. For this reason, this project analyzes the factors that influenced the transformation of the working conditions of the sugar cane workers in the Catamayo canton, province of Loja, 2008-2021. This research addresses part of their labor history and organization, so that they remain not only in the collective memory, but recorded in an academic study. For this purpose, a qualitative methodology is used. Depth interviews of the zafrero informants, who detail their motives to fight to transform their working conditions, are considered a primary source. Also, the documents of the workers' union provided by the informants, and other bibliographic documents supported this study. Through the analysis of the information mentioned, it has been possible to identify the reasons for the struggle of the zafreros while facing a precarious labor context due to casual labor modalities, for which they had to rely on the laws to create a union organization and transform their working conditions