Abstract
In 1947 Ferreira de Castro publishes The wool and the snow, a novel that tells the life of Horacio, a bucolic sheepherder who chooses to be a weaver in an industrial city; in this novel, the author frames Covilhã as a utopian city based upon harmonious relations between employers and employees in the wool industry, and both the characters and the narrator testify in loco that a more dignified life for the working class is already beginning under the practical effects of two laws promulgated by the Estado Novo in the 1930s: the National Labour Statute and the Collective Labour Agreement. Ferreira de Castro describes the exemplary way all wool mills enforce the new employment standard laws covering issues in work and rest hours, ages of admission, hygiene and safety, career advancement, protection of female workers, housing affordability, unemployment and incapacity. In a country town, an industrial utopia emerges as an alternative model to the pandemonium of a post-war hopeless Europe: the factory work was increasing, and wages were duly paid. There was order in a quiet nation, free of strikes and seditious Unions, much in line with the strategy outlined by António Ferro, mentor of Salazar’s fascist regime, for their tentacular propaganda machine.
Original language | Portuguese |
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Title of host publication | História do Movimento Operário e Conflitos Sociais em Portugal |
Subtitle of host publication | Atas do IV Congresso de História do Movimento Operário e dos Conflitos Sociais em Portugal e III Conferência do Observatório para as Condições de Trabalho e Vida |
Editors | Pamela Cabreira, Raquel Varela |
Place of Publication | Lisbon |
Publisher | IHC-Instituto de História Contemporânea |
Chapter | 11 |
Pages | 413-430 |
Number of pages | 18 |
ISBN (Electronic) | 978-989-8956-20-0 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2020 |
Event | IV Congresso de História do Trabalho, do Movimento Operário e dos Movimentos Sociais em Portugal e III Congresso do Observatório para as Condições de Trabalho e Vida: “Tempos Modernos, Jornadas Antigas“ - FCSH/UNL -ISCTE/IUL, Lisboa, Portugal Duration: 15 Nov 2019 → 16 Nov 2019 Conference number: IV & III https://historiamovimentooperario.wordpress.com |
Publication series
Name | E-IHC |
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Number | 2 |
Other
Other | IV Congresso de História do Trabalho, do Movimento Operário e dos Movimentos Sociais em Portugal e III Congresso do Observatório para as Condições de Trabalho e Vida |
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Country | Portugal |
City | Lisboa |
Period | 15/11/19 → 16/11/19 |
Internet address |
Keywords
- Ferreira de Castro
- Labour policy
- Estado Novo