LABOUR-BRAZIL: Strikes Aggravate Economic Policy Frictions

By Mario Osava Reprint | | Print |

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Mar 23 2004 (IPS) - Long queues of passengers formed Tuesday at Brazil’s airports as the federal police renewed their protests for higher wages, while the port of Paranaguá saw its fifth day of work stoppage and other strikes erupted elsewhere in the country, aggravating existing political and economic tensions.

Some 5,000 trucks parked along 70 km of highway, and 46 ships anchored out at sea await the end of a strike that is preventing soybean shipments through Paranaguá, in the southern state of Paraná. Normally, around 75,000 tonnes of soy are exported through this port each day.

More than 10,000 workers, represented by a dozen trade unions organised according to their different jobs, demand that the port’s directors be replaced. They are accused of cutting the port workers’ wages, creating worse working conditions and undermining general port operations.

Paranaguá is the main point of departure for Brazilian and Paraguayan soybeans. The lack of movement at the port has driven up soybean prices as a result of the projected delivery delays.

The federal police, meanwhile, began their unique protest 15 days ago. Dubbed "Operation Model", they are being "model" agents, complying with the minutiae of each and every procedure for controlling security at customs and immigration.

They began by targeting international airline passengers, forcing them to wait several hours to have their passports approved and baggage inspected. That action was interrupted last week, but was renewed on Tuesday, and extended to domestic flights, adding more passengers to the long queues.

The Ministry of Agriculture’s health inspectors began their own strike on Mar. 15, also to demand wage hikes – of 30 percent. The government agreed to negotiate, offering a 20-percent increase and achieving a truce that avoided greater harm to Brazil’s farm exports, which require health inspection certification.

Other public employees – such as the staff of the National Social Security Institute (which handles retirement and pension payments), teachers in Paraná state, and public defenders and investigators – have taken part in a wave of strikes that attempt to break the wage freeze imposed by the government several years ago as part of an austerity policy.

"Some sectors, especially in the public arena, are beginning to express their dissatisfaction" with the effects of the current government’s economic policy, says Joao Carlos Gonçalves, secretary general of Brazil’s second largest trade confederation, Força Sindical.

His labour organisation has convened demonstrations to take place Wednesday in 11 state capitals, to protest against high unemployment.

This "national day of struggle" is an effort to "counteract the pressure from the conservatives, from the economists who follow the International Monetary Fund’s line," and who promote policies that are exacerbating unemployment, Gonçalves told IPS.

"Society has to exert pressure from the other side," said the labour leader who goes by the nickname Juruna.

Until now there was an attitude of lenience towards the government of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, leader of the Workers’ Party (PT), he said. But after nearly 15 months since he took office, "the time has come to demand change."

The PT government "has already added 800,000 workers to the 12 million rolls of the unemployed… and its economic policy is leading us into a desperate situation," according to Força Sindical president, Paulo Pereira da Silva.

The wave of strikes is heightening the tensions that the Lula government has been facing since last month, with more and more economic policy criticisms coming from business executives and even PT politicians.

The announcement that Brazil’s gross domestic product (GDP) fell 0.2 percent last year bolstered criticisms of the high interest rates set by the Central Bank and the fiscal adjustments agreed with the IMF, which require a public accounts surplus, without considering interest on the debt.

A scandal that began Feb. 13 added a political crisis to the challenges confronting the Lula administration.

The weekly news magazine Epoca reported on a video showing Waldomiro Diniz, a former presidential aide who served as a parliamentary liaison, soliciting illegal campaign contributions for PT candidates from a gaming magnate accused of running illegal lotteries.

Since then, there have been several clashes between government ministers. Presidential chief of staff José Dirceu, considered Lula’s right hand, was pressured to temporarily leave the government because Diniz was a confidante.

The scandal seems to have affected the government’s management capacity, admitted Luiz Fernando Furlán, minister of development, industry and trade.

Labour tensions are expected to worsen in April, when the government is to decide on adjusting the minimum wage, which is currently 240 reais (82.50 dollars) a month.

There is usually a great deal of pressure from unions to increase wages above what is proposed by the government, which attempts to limit the hikes to avoid deficits in the social security system, in which most monthly pensions are equal to the minimum wage.