Rescued from wineries in the South rebuild their lives in Bahia – 7/2/2023 – Training

Mason Genivaldo de Jesus, 49, raises its roof, brick by brick. In the house, which is almost ready, he invests compensation money for the labor exploitation he suffered in the first months of the year.

Genivaldo is back in Umburanas, rural area of ​​Monte Santo (BA), 296 km from Salvador. He is one of the 194 Bahians rescued in February, in the operation against work analogous to slavery in wineries in Rio Grande do Sul. There were 45 exhausting days, from 5:00 am to 8:00 pm, not counting the hours spent traveling from the accommodation to the farms.

Some worked in bottling the wine and others in the grape harvest, the heaviest task. The situation was aggravated by precarious food, mistreatment and undue charges.

“I’ve already run a stretch around the world, but I’ve never seen a situation like we’ve been through. The worst thing is to leave your place to be deceived”, says Genivaldo.

Back in the sertão, where he says he shouldn’t have left, he rebuilds his life together with his colleagues, also victims of the adventure in the South. “We all here help each other.”

Two or three times a month they meet. At the meeting, they talk about bureaucratic issues, are informed of the stage of the process at the Social Assistance Reference Center (Cras) and receive medical and psychological care through the Specialized Social Assistance Reference Center (Caps).

The group from Monte Santo (BA) fell for the offer to work at wineries in Rio Grande do Sul because a colleague from Barreiras (BA) had gone there last season and said the money was good.

Contact was made by a recruitment company in Valente (BA), 136 km away. The promise was a 60-day contract with an income of BRL 4,000 for each worker, in addition to food, accommodation and travel.

The workers learned that the wineries paid an average of R$ 300 per day for each man to the outsourced company that took them.

Manoel Pinheiro Nascimento, 42, realized that things were not going well when the first payment, of R$ 2,000, did not come after the first month.

Manoel, who is a mason, worked in the grape harvest until he became ill. “If he missed a day, he was discounted a thousand reais, even with a certificate. Either dying or living, he had to work”.

He recounts that one day he signed the paper point stating the true time of his departure, “late at night”. The person in charge tore up the sheet and forced him to sign another one.

The journey, which included filling 40 boxes with grapes from the harvest, wasn’t even the biggest problem, according to him. “If we go out to work, we have to work.” Hunger was the biggest problem. In the 45 days in the South, Manoel says he lost 22 kilos. “The shorts had to be tied up with ribbon.”

Upon returning to his community, Fazenda Poço do Umbuzeiro, Manoel immediately organized a barbecue. He wanted to celebrate with his daughters and eat his fill.

The physical marks of the experience lasted for weeks. The neck, injured on the strap of the box used in the harvest, was healed with “roasted” (powder made from herbs and wood bark), he says.

Some scars are not physical. Next to Manoel, his brother Regivaldo, 33, gets emotional when he tells what he saw: instruments to intimidate workers, ranging from stun guns to shotguns, including cameras in the bathroom. Regivaldo also witnessed, in the fields, the risk of workers exposed to bees and poisonous snakes, without any protective equipment.

“Now, we’re here with the family. It’s good to live here, everyone eats together. I don’t even want to hear about Rio Grande do Sul”, he says.

Cousins ​​Alan Lima Rios, 19, and Charles da Silva Nascimento, 21, are the youngest of the group rescued in the South. They had previous work experiences in Minas and São Paulo. They say they have never faced such a difficult situation as in this case in February.

“Our minds were a bit disturbed. Sometimes we didn’t even sleep well, there were more than 200 people in the same place”, says Charles.

Now, he wants to work in his hometown. “It’s going on with life. Working and doing what we know how to do. Staying at home with my family, seeing what to do around here.”

The hope of a fairer service passes through the “Vida Pós Resgate” project, which settles victims of enslavement on goat farms in municipalities in Bahia.

The Monte Santo team is already in contact with the Public Ministry of Labor, which implements the settlements. One of the workers has even traveled to see examples of settlers from another case of rescue.

At 52, José Pereira da Silva is the oldest of the group. When he was away, he talked to his daughters every day on the phone, describing his difficulties and longing. Today, he is rooting for the project to succeed. Leaving Bahia is no longer an option, he says.

“The greatest joy is being at home. Now, it’s working and investing in the fields, always in the fields. I’m going to find a way to stay right here”.