21 September, 201040,000 metalworkers in the São Paulo region working for Ford, Scania, Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz secure biggest wage increase in history. Elsewhere, Renault, Volvo and Ford workers make significant gains and other Volkswagen workers continue action to support their demands.
BRAZIL: Workers in São Bernardo do Campo and Taubaté, affiliated to CNM/CUT - an IMF affiliate, achieved a 10.28 per cent wage increase on September 19, the biggest wage increase from carmakers on record in Brazil after a series of warning strikes.
Automakers Ford, Scania, Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz agreed on September 19 to the claim made by the workers at their union meeting held the day before. The agreement includes a 10.28 per cent increase and a R$2,200 (US$1,270) bonus. Their demands for the increase to be back-dated to September 1 and made in one payment were also accepted.
With inflation running at 4.29 per cent, the 10.28 per cent increase represented a real increase of 6.26 per cent, the largest real increase ever in the sector in Brazil.
"This achievement is further proof that ABC metalworkers know how to work, but also know how to negotiate and to struggle," said the president of the ABC Metalworkers' Union, Sérgio Nobre. "It is an extraordinary bench-mark, the highest of this category of metalworking and compatible with the good economic times faced by automakers and also for the country," he said.
The same composition of wage increase will go to the workers in São Carlos (CGTB-Volkswagen) and Tatuí (Força-Ford), also represented by a CNM/CUT affiliate at the negotiating table.
Elsewhere, metalworkers at Renault and Volvo stopped work and achieved a 10 per cent increase and R$4,200 bonus (US$2,400). The proposal was accepted at Renault on September 17 and at Volvo on September 20 by the Greater Curitiba Metalworkers' Union, affiliated to the CNTM/FS, also an IMF affiliate.
The allowance will be paid in two parts of R$2,100 - one on September 24 and another on October 8. The wage increase of 10.08 per cent will be applied to wages in September, and embeds a real increase of 5.55 per cent (+4,29 per cent inflation). The average wage for these workers is lower than the auto workers in São Paulo.
The agreement benefits about 4,000 workers and opens the wage campaign in 2010 for the auto workers of the Greater Curitiba Metalworkers.
Metalworkers at Volkswagen in Sao Jose dos Pinhais decreed an indefinite strike on September 19 to demand wage increases. The decision to strike was taken to protest against the company for not proposing a salary increase. The strike at Volkswagen will be held in shifts. According to the Greater Curitiba Metalworkers' Union, the 4,000 directly employed workers and the company's 1,600 subcontracted workers will join the movement.
In Camaari, Bahia, organized by CAMAÇARI, a union not affiliated to the IMF, about 10,000 Ford workers signed an agreement on September 20 with an increase of 9.4 per cent of nominal wages.