On Monday, September 28, most of the 60,000 metalworkers in Sao Paulo, on strike for ten days, obtained a 6.53% wage increase, i.e. a real 2% increase after removing inflation, and a bonus amounting to 1,500 reals (€567). 85% of car subcontractors, employing almost all of the region’s metalworkers, signed the agreement. For the remaining 15%, the agreement should be ratified some time next week. The collective agreement landed by auto manufacturing workers on September 12 (see our dispatch No. 090850) setting a 6.53% wage increase was used as a basis for this new agreement. According to the metalworkers’ union, wage equality is temporarily maintained between different categories of metalworkers. In detail, wage equality isn’t the rule everywhere. Thus, the 19,000 workers of General Motors in Sao Paulo, unhappy with the 6.53% obtained, got an 8.3% increase last week, like the 3,500 workers of the Volkswagen-Audi factory (Curitiba) who, after 17 days on strike, got an 8.3% increase in December as well as a bonus of 2,900 reals (€1,080) paid in October. However, in other branches of the sector, tension is continuing and strikes are maintained in several factories. Steel workers were offered a 4.44% increase which, once inflation is removed, means no actual increase. The region’s metalworkers’ union, affiliated with the Central Unica dos Trabalhadores (CUT, largest union in Brazil), rejected this proposition.
g and strikes are maintained in several factories. Steel workers were offered a 4.44% increase which, once inflation is removed, means no actual increase. The region’s metalworkers’ union, affiliated with the Central Unica dos Trabalhadores (CUT, largest union in Brazil), rejected this proposition.
Planet Labor, October 1, 2009, No. 090889 – www.planetlabor.com
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