WSWS : Workers Struggles Around the World, The Americas

WSWS 2 April 2003

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Latin America

Lula government faces massive strike by Brazilian metalworkers.

Over 20,000 Sao Paulo metal workers are entering the second week of their strike to demand a 10 percent wage increase to offset the impact of inflation. The strike is affecting 40 more factories each day. The strikers’ unions, associated with the Forca Sindical (FS) federation, suspended the job action against 76 plants that have signed preliminary “me too” agreements to accept the increase. The FS has expanded the strike to other plants. In some cases—auto parts manufacturers and foundries—the labor federation has declared a truce, pending negotiations, in part to contradict charges that it is being “too radical,” according to FS sources. Another federation, the Central Workers Union (CUT), has indicated that it will not call its members out on strike. Average wages for metal workers are a paltry $250 a month. The Brazilian minimum wage is about $120 a month.

However, observers warn that those employers that cannot increase prices to pay for the wage increases are reticent to settle. Since new firms are added every day, the strike could involve the bulk of Sao Paulo’s 280,000 workers by the end of the week. Consumer prices have increased by more than 9 percent since last November, and 16 percent throughout the year, following a 35 percent devaluation of the Brazilian Real.

Union leader Eleno Jose Bezerra said, “Our goal is to achieve wage increases at 1,200 factories and we are prepared to stay out for a month, if necessary.”

This is the largest strike since President Lula—a former metal worker who led strikes in the 1970s and 1980s—took office promising to improve conditions of the Brazilian working class and to create jobs. The reformist party he leads—the Workers Party, known by its Spanish acronym as the PT—has agreed to implement the demands of the International Monetary Fund and is increasingly coming into conflict with the working class.

Brazilian unemployment increases to 11.6 percent

The same week that the World Bank and other international financial institutions congratulated the government of President Luis Ignacio da Silva Lula for exceeding the austerity goals imposed by the International Monetary Fund, unemployment leapt up in Brazil.

The Brazilian Institute of Statistics and Geography reports that 11.6 percent of the labor force is unemployed, up from 11.2 percent last month, raising fears that Brazil is sliding back into economic recession. Unemployment statistics had shown gradual improvement since February 2002, when the rate was 12.5 percent.