Brazil: Mercedes-Benz freezes pay to save jobs

3,000 surplus jobs kept.  The metalworkers’ union in the ABC area (the name given to the Sao Paulo metropolitan zone), affiliated with the Unified Workers’ Central (CUT), and Mercedez-Benz management signed, on Wednesday, September 12, an agreement to stabilize employment at the Sao Bernardo do Campo truck factory.  To clear up the uncertainty caused by the drop in sales and production, the German company promised not to lay anyone off and to keep its 12,000 employees until January 31, 2013.  In return, the union agreed to a pay freeze over the same period and production halts suspending work for three days with no pay cut.  These measures will save 3,000 jobs considered as “surplus.”  The agreement also extends, until December 17 the temporary contract suspensions, which started on June 18 and affects permanent contracts.  The text was based on workers’ proposals.  For the union, the fact that the management signed this agreement means that production is going to pick up.  New wage negotiations will start in February 2013.
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until December 17 the temporary contract suspensions, which started on June 18 and affects permanent contracts. The text was based on workers’ proposals. For the union, the fact that the management signed this agreement means that production is going to pick up. New wage negotiations will start in February 2013.

Tax cuts and new funding programs to boost truck sales. Until August, trucks sales in Brazil in 2012 had dropped by 19.3 percent. This can be explained by the decline of the Brazili

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