The article aims to analyze the role of the Chemical Workers Trade Union of São Paulo and its relations with the rank-and-file during the Civil-Military Dictatorship. It seeks to understand the impact of the coup d'état in 1964 as well as the changes in the labour movement. The trajectory of the Chemical Workers Trade Union, which is considered one of the most important in the country, enables an investigation of the strategies used by the authoritarian regime to control labour organizations. It also allows an examination of the role of trade unionists called "pelegos", as well as the workers' struggle to resist and to reclaim the trade union again.
labour movement; chemical workers; Civil-Military dictatorship