LABOUR-BRAZIL: Truck Strike Continues Despite Gov’t Concessions

By Mario Osava Reprint | | Print |

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, May 4 2000 (IPS) - The Brazilian government made good on some of its promises to truckers, which should have put an end to their strike – now in its fourth day – but the concessions only seem to underscore the power of the truckers’ movement, even when its leadership is divided.

Five government ministers met with union leaders in Brasilia, where they formalised the government’s proposal to make costly highway tolls the responsibility of the companies whose goods the truckers are hauling.

Nelio Botelho, president of the Brazil Truckers Union Movement (MUBC), declared Thursday, however, that the strike would continue and would grow stronger until the sector’s problems are definitively resolved.

He denied the authority of the leaders from the state truckers’ federations – who had accepted the government’s proposals and called for an end to the strike – and asserted that he is the voice of Brazil’s truckers.

The meeting with the ministers was “a coup, a government trick” to divide the movement and impose its “unsatisfactory” measures on the truckers, charged Botelho.

The president of the National Transport Confederation, Clesio Andrade, who accepted the government’s concessions, said the strike is at its end, though he acknowledged that truckers continue to protest in the nation’s south and southeast.

Truckers continued to block roads in Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais, and police arrested 13 protesters who had set up a highway blockade in Rio Grande do Sul.

In the Brazilian north and west, however, the strike had all but ended by Thursday afternoon.

The “toll-voucher” system the government proposed is to go into effect May 11, but until the measure is implemented, the transport vehicles do not have to pay tolls on federal highways, which are under the jurisdiction of the central government.

Transportation minister Eliseu Padilha must now negotiate with the private companies that manage the highways, as they face revenue losses during the next week as truckers are exempt from paying the tolls.

Toll costs, the main thorn of discontent among Brazil’s 1.2 million truckers, escalated when management of the nation’s highways was transferred to private hands. Prior to privatisation, tolls were nearly non-existent, but now average three Brazilian ‘reais’ (1.65 dollars) per axle, taking a bite out of the profits for drivers of multi-axle trucks.

Cutting tolls by one ‘real’ (0.55 dollars) per axle, ridding the police and truck inspector ranks of corruption, and other measures to facilitate the job were the truckers’ principal demands during a strike last July.

That strike lasted for more than a week and Brazil’s larger cities felt the effects as food and fuel supplies dwindled.

The government promised at the time to meet several of the demands, but did not change its stance on central issues, such as the toll costs, arguing it could do nothing about the concession contracts truckers had signed with private companies.

In response to the government’s refusal to act on the toll issue, the MUBC, which also led last year’s strike, gave two weeks notice for this strike, which began Monday.

The Fernando Henrique Cardoso government waited until the strike was in its third day before agreeing to negotiations with the movement’s leaders.

The system of truckers’ unions is complicated because there are numerous autonomous truckers who own the vehicles they drive, others are direct employees of trucking companies, and some are self-employed, contracting out their services to private firms.

In addition, there are those who work in specialised transportation operations for large companies, such as in the petroleum and automobile industries.

The truckers’ traditional unions, state federations and the national confederation – customarily tied to employers’ interests – lost their representational status, allowing a surge in the truckers’ movement and the rise of Botelho, whose ability to mobilise the drivers caught the country and the government by surprise last year.

But this time, the government attempted to play down the importance of the protest, calling it a “failure” on May 1. Though its assessment was somewhat distorted by the fact that Monday was also the celebration of International Labour Day.

Transportation minister Padilha said only 5,000 truckers had stopped work on Tuesday, though the fact that the government called an emergency meeting Wednesday seems to contradict his statement.

The National Confederation of Transport estimated that 500,000 truckers were participating in the strike – nearly half the Brazilian fleet normally in operation.

Botelho, meanwhile, maintains that participation is still increasing on the fourth day of the strike, contrary to the assessments made by the government and by trucking companies.

Rio de Janeiro is the city most threatened by fuel shortages as a result of the strike, say gasoline distribution companies. Truckers strategically blocked a highway to prevent tanker trucks from leaving the Duque de Caxias refinery near Rio Wednesday.

But Botelho met with police officials Thursday and agreed to allow the refinery’s tanker trucks to leave the plant and distribute fuel. He emphasised that the strike continues in full force despite this concession.

Perishable foods are likely to disappear from store shelves in the big cities, as they depend on supplies from other regions. Even agricultural states, such as Mato Grosso do Sul, are dependent on other regions because most of their own production is for export.

The threat of shortages prompted crowds at the gasoline service stations in Rio de Janeiro, where the queues to fill fuel tanks have been steady since Tuesday.

Truckers are now fully aware of their power – and they are using it. In a country with few railroads and limited river barge systems, truckers haul 70 percent of all shipments, making them indispensable for all sectors of Brazil’s economy.

And it takes just a few days of a trucking strike to prove it.

The process of privatising Brazil’s highways did not take into account its impact on transportation costs. Tolls are much more expensive for trucks than for individual cars, and are ultimately a tax on economically productive activity.

The government is now trying to pass these costs on to private companies but attempting to prevent the burden from reaching the final consumer.

Increasing violence and police corruption make the truckers’ jobs more and more difficult. Highway attacks on truckers are on the rise. The results of such problems can be seen in the power of the strikes, which have now become a major concern of the Brazilian people.