Modernização e condições de labuta na Amazônia setentrional: força de trabalho, acidentes e doenças tropicais na gênese de um projeto de extração mineral no Amapá (1948-1956)

Abstract

The relevance of this work originates from the systematic analysis of the profile of the labor force of Indústria e Comércio de Minérios S.A. between 1948 and 1956, as well as an investigation about accidents and diseases of work, thus revealing to us the living and working conditions to which these labors were historically submitted. Through the employee’s records and files, the articles of the magazine Icomi-Notícias and the newspaper Amapá, the photographs related to Icomi and through the other administrative sources of the company and the government of the Território Federal do Amapá, it was possible to establish a relationship between the mineral exploration project headed by Icomi with the political and economic guidelines of the Território Federal do Amapá and the federal government. Similarly, the thousands of employee’s records (and a few dozen files) analyzed here quantitatively indicated that the icomian workforce corresponded to the profile of a construction workforce: male, volatile, young, single and migrant. Through the photographs, we observed that the company's workers performed their labor with clothes and equipment inadequate to the service. In addition, we noticed, through photographs, records and employee records, that the company's workers performed their work on long journeys, which could generate fatigue, cause accidents and increase the chance of contracting diseases such as malaria and TB. Thus, we conclude that the Icomi project, between 1948 and 1956, was marked by the poor working conditions during the first experience of industrial work of free labor capitalism in Amapá.