Rural unions lead INSS transfers and rural retirees were most affected

Entities linked to farmers and rural workers are among those that received the most discounts on retirees' monthly fees on the list of representative associations investigated by Operation No Discount . The Federal Police report indicates that retirees from the rural sector were the most affected, with 67% of unauthorized contributions charged, compared to 33% of urban retirees.

Together, the National Confederation of Agricultural Workers (Contag) and the National Confederation of Rural Family Farmers (Conafer) received 27% of the total collected by the 19 main entities mentioned in a report by the Comptroller General of the Union (CGU), which subsidized the PF operation.

In the case of Contag , payments transferred by the INSS increased from R$336.7 million in 2016 to R$446.5 million in 2024, according to the Transparency Portal. In the case of Conafer, the amounts jumped from R$400 thousand in 2019 to R$202.3 million in 2023 and R$277.1 million in 2024, according to an estimate contained in a CGU report.

“None of this is a coincidence,” says Hélio Zylberstajn, senior professor at the School of Economics at the University of São Paulo (FEA-USP). “It’s no coincidence that Contag is one of the organizations behind this. I’m not saying that the organization has no justification or that it doesn’t offer services to workers, but that there is a close relationship with rural union dues.”

According to him, the expansion of rural unionism occurred with the emergence of thousands of associations linked to Contag from the 1960s onwards, but gained momentum with the 1988 Constitution.

The new constitutional text determined that the base value of any social security benefit would be one minimum wage. The change, apparently technical, led to a redesign of the representation of the rural environment.

Until then, rural workers – almost always informal, without a formal employment contract – had access to, at most, an old-age pension worth half the minimum wage. Furthermore, the legislation allowed only one benefit per household, meaning that if the husband received a pension, the wife could not receive another.

With the new Constitution, this scenario was reversed. It became possible for more than one family member to receive benefits, each worth a minimum wage. “Suddenly, this quadrupled the income of the rural retiree’s family,” says Zylberstajn. “The impacts on the economy and the proliferation of unions were immediate.”

Rural unions offered certificates and membership

To access the new rural retirement pension, it was necessary to prove that one had worked as a rural worker, a difficult task in a sector marked by informality. The most common way was to contact the local union to prove that one had worked in the activity.

“So he [the worker] would go to the union and ask for a statement or a certificate that he had been a rural worker,” explains the professor. “And in exchange for that, the union would ask him to join.”

As a result, rural membership exploded. In 1963, there were around 400 rural unions in Brazil. In the 1990s, this number had already surpassed 3,000, according to publications by Contag itself. The movement contrasted with the decline in urban union membership that was occurring in Brazil and around the world.

“We were the only country that saw an increase in unionization rates in rural areas in the 1990s,” says Zylberstajn. “This was caused by this unplanned incentive. This habit of appropriating contributions originated in this context.”

In addition to the traditional mandatory union dues, these organizations have begun to seek other sources of revenue linked to the granting of social security benefits, expanding their activities beyond labor representation. “This is what we are seeing with this greater incidence of organizations among rural workers,” he says.

How rural unionism strengthened the PT

Rural unions were one of the pillars for the consolidation and expansion of the Workers' Party. Through the organized base of rural workers, aligned with its proposal for social transformation and income redistribution, the PT managed to establish its influence beyond the major centers and become a national political force.

The union network provided infrastructure and reach for political mobilization. Unions acted as defenders of rural workers' rights and also served as spaces for political education and community articulation. Workers' leaders migrated to institutional politics, joining the PT and holding elected positions, especially in the Northeast, South and Central-West regions.

The alliance with Contag and other rural social movements, such as the Landless Workers' Movement (MST), further consolidated this bond. Although Contag historically maintained a moderate position, a large part of its base came closer to the PT's discourse after the redemocratization.

At the same time, the MST, which emerged in 1984 with strong support from unions and the Catholic Church, became one of the PT's main political allies in the struggle for agrarian reform and social justice in the countryside.

Entities explain discounts for retirees

When contacted by Gazeta do Povo , Contag forwarded a document stating that any monthly membership fee is only counted by workers who have effectively authorized the discount.

“We constantly update the procedures required by the INSS and the control bodies. We also strictly follow the legal and regulatory requirements so that the associative discounts on benefits can be processed,” says the president, Vânia Marques Pinto.

The note also emphasizes the work of the Confederation. "Over the course of six decades, many of the public policies aimed at family farming originated from proposals by Contag, FETAGs and Unions. They have ensured countless achievements through struggle, such as rural social security, the Family Farming Law, Pronaf, the Food Acquisition Program, the National School Feeding Program, Garantia Safra, agrarian reform, rural housing, Luz para Todos, Água para Todos, Pronera, the Child Labor Eradication Program, among others."

Also sought, Conafer, which had two operators as targets of the second phase of Operation Sem Desconto on Wednesday (14), informed, by email, that it "did not have access to the reports mentioned in the news reports". The confederation informed that it will make a statement "only after the audit contracted by the entity is concluded, when we will be able to provide the requested information satisfactorily".