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26 March, 2003The over 10 per cent cost-of-living increase awarded last November has already been eroded.
BRAZIL: To push their wage demands, 23,000 members of the Sao Paulo metalworkers' union, affiliated to Forca Sindical, Brazil's second largest union confederation, began an indefinite strike on March 26. This is the first large-scale industrial action in Brazil since the former metalworker and trade union leader Luiz Inácio da Silva -- "Lula" -- took office as the country's president on January 1.
The union says the decision for the stoppage, which has hit 40 plants in Sao Paulo's metal sector, is due to the intransigence of companies to negotiate a readjustment for cost-of-living losses. Although workers had obtained a 10.26 per cent pay hike in November 2002 for consumer price increases, a union spokesperson says that this has already been eroded so they are demanding an upward pay adjustment of 10 per cent.
Normally the Forca Sindical metalworkers of Sao Paulo renegotiate wages every November but, stated the union, "with this kind of inflation we couldn't wait."
Brazil is currently struggling against high rates of inflation and unemployment.