20 May, 2010Workers at Renault, Bosch, Volvo and Volkswagen assembly plants in Greater Curitiba demand a bigger share of company profits.
BRAZIL: Metalworkers at Renault, in Sao José dos Pinhais, went on strike on May 14 in support of demands for a bigger share of company profits. The strike ended on May 19 after they accepted the company's proposal to pay a minimum of $R 7,500 (US$4,100) and a maximum of $R 9,000 (US$4,900) if all production targets are achieved. The first payment (R$ 4,750) will be made during May and the rest in February 2011.
The company initially offered approximately R$ 6,000 as the minimum and set production targets of 197,000 vehicles and five per cent of the national market. The metalworkers considered this to be unrealistic and impossible to achieve and therefore rejected the proposal. The strike involved 8,000 workers, including directly employed workers (assembly plant and administration) and subcontracted workers and halted production of 700 vehicles a day.
Meanwhile, workers at Volkswagen, also in Sao José dos Pinhais, gave the company 48 hours to make the same offer on profit-sharing made to Volkswagen workers at Sao Bernardo do Campo in Sao Paulo. The company agreed and the first payment of R$ 3,800 (US$2,070) will be made at the end of May. The amount of the second payment will be discussed halfway through this year.
Workers at the Volvo plant in the industrial centre of Curitiba, who also gave a 48 hour ultimatum to the company on the issue of profit-sharing, won the payment of R$ 9,000 (US$4,900) as a minimum but only after going on strike. The company will pay the 2,800 workers R$ 5,000 at the end of the month and the second part in February 2011.
Meanwhile, metalworkers on the first and second shifts at the Bosch plant in the industrial centre of Curitiba decided on May 17 to go on an indefinite strike until the company meets its demands on profit-sharing. At the time of writing, the metalworkers were meeting to decide on how to take the dispute forward.