LABOUR-BRAZIL: Workers Rekindle Fires of Wage Fight

By Mario Osava Reprint | | Print |

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Oct 23 2000 (IPS) - Trade unionists began a 1,000-km march Monday in Sao Paulo to demand a minimum monthly wage the equivalent of 95 dollars, underscoring the expanding pressure for higher salaries throughout numerous sectors in Brazil, including the military.

The march, begun by some 200 people and scheduled to arrive in Brasilia in early December, is a call for lawmakers to support the bill before parliament to raise the minimum wage from the current 151 reais (80 dollars), one of the lowest minimums in the world, to 180 reais (95 dollars) as of Jan 1, 2001.

The demonstration, organised by the ‘Força Sindical’ union, is one of several actions that indicate the revitalisation of the labour struggle, prompted by slight economic growth and the consequent reduction in unemployment, coupled with the salary cuts suffered in recent years.

Under such circumstances, the military police in the northeastern state of Pernambuco began a strike last Thursday, which justice authorities declared illegal, and on Monday 4,000 of the soldiers gathered outside the state government building, where they plan to remain until their demands are answered.

Army troops from the local barracks were mobilised to take charge of public safety in Pernambuco’s cities.

The Association of Sergeants, Soldiers and Fire-fighters, which is leading the movement, reported that the strike has spread to 80 percent of the 18,000 members of the state’s military police, though government sources indicate that less than 30 percent of the force is participating.

Governor Jarbas Vasconcelos threatened to fire those who continued to strike Monday, stressing that it is illegal for the troops to suspend the essential services they provide in maintaining the public order.

But the strikers charge that the government is guilty of illegal actions because it pays them only half the national minimum wage. The police receive small additional sums for time in service and other benefits, but they are demanding the immediate correction of the pay scale.

For years, military officers have also been pressing for better salaries, arguing that they earn much less than any civilian with similar training and experience. But strikes or other forms of protest are off-limits to them.

Defence Minister Geraldo Quintao is seeking a solution through the “restructuring, but not an increase” of salaries as part of a modernisation programme in the armed forces.

Amid the discontent of public employees arising from the salary cuts imposed by fiscal adjustment policies, Brazilian unions are attempting to end the labour movement’s slump of the last few years that resulted from economic crises and deepening unemployment.

The country’s largest union centrals decided to unite in strikes and other forms of protest beginning in November to support workers who are negotiating salary adjustments in the final months of the year – including Sao Paulo’s banking, petroleum and metal workers.

Their goal is to obtain higher wage increases than what the companies are offering, taking advantage of favourable economic circumstances to recover losses accumulated over the last few years.

Workers at the state-run oil giant Petrobrás are seeking an ambitious 62.8-percent wage hike.

Economic growth this year is evident in the improved performance of industry, the sector that was hardest hit by the international financial crisis originating in Asia in 1997.

Employment levels in industry last August were 1.3 percent higher than in August 1999, reported the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics on Monday.

The Labour Ministry, meanwhile, recorded a 3.77 percent increase in the number of jobs in industry from January to August.

But the salaries in the sector do not reflect the new trend. In the last 12 months, they were 4.1 percent below the wage average of the previous year, says the statistics institute.

Salary cuts were felt most in the public sector as a result of the sharp fiscal adjustment implemented in late 1998.

Employees of the central government, in general, have not seen a salary correction in the last five years. Now certain sectors, such as the armed forces, are seeking compensation.

The situation threatens to spawn institutional conflicts. Some courts have granted an 11.98 percent increase to certain government employees in order to make up for losses caused by the inflation-control plan of 1994, when Brazil changed its currency.

Minister of Planning Martus Tavares called the court rulings unconstitutional, even though the Judiciary is autonomous, because, he said, they generate additional costs without providing new sources of fiscal income to cover them.

The campaign for a higher minimum wage unites several sectors of society and puts the government of President Fernando Henrique Cardoso in a difficult spot. Raising the salary floor to the equivalent of 100 dollars per month is a promise the president made the first time he was elected in 1994.

Finance Minister Pedro Malán stresses that any increase would mean deepening the deficit of Brazil’s social security system, the principal cause of the country’s fiscal imbalance.

Since early this year, the president of the Senate, Antonio Carlos Magalhaes, a powerful Cardoso ally, has taken up the banner of a 95-dollar minimum wage, joining ranks with his left-leaning political rivals and unionists.

The national budget for 2001 outlines a salary correction, which traditionally takes effect on May 1, of just 5.3 percent, the equivalent of inflation over the previous 12 months.

The union and parliamentary movement demands no less than a 19.2 percent rise as a means to reduce Brazil’s widespread poverty.