Job cuts at DaimlerChrysler Brazil

BRAZIL: After two months of trying to negotiate a plan by DaimlerChrysler Brazil to get 656 non-production employees (indirect and white-collar) at its Sao Bernardo do Campo plant to "voluntarily" quit their jobs, close to 100 per cent of the workers last week rejected the company's proposals. However, when management began announcing individual dismissals on Friday, August 16, the ABC Metalworkers' Union called out on warning strike all 5,500 non-production workers (out of a total workforce of 9,800). 100 per cent walked off the job and voted unanimously to resist company dismissals. On August 21, 150 workers from the Purchasing Department left their work and walked through the shopfloor in various production buildings. In its restructuring plan, the company aims to discontinue the development of new products, to outsource activities and combine operations between departments. The union says that the deteriorating economic situation in Brazil, due to 8 years of neo-liberal government policies, encourages companies to cut jobs. But with the launch in July 2002 of the DaimlerChrysler World Employee Committee, the union is fully aware that restructuring within the corporation (e.g. the Chrysler division, Freightliner, Evo Bus) is being stretched out over a period of three years, whereas in Brazil the company is trying to accomplish their plan in two months. The ABC Metalworkers are a member of the CNM/CUT, affiliated at international level to the IMF.