Subway staff vote on strike ahead of World Cup kick off
In a statement on the union’s website, leaders said they would hold a vote today to determine if their strike would resume tomorrow — the day the tournament’s first match, Brazil v Croatia, will be played in Sao Paulo.
The paralysing subway strike was temporarily suspended, though union officials warn that if their pay demands aren’t met they will call workers off the job again.
In an assembly, union members voted to temporarily suspend the strike they began last week, but also decided they would take a new vote to determine whether to restart the work stoppage.
Meanwhile, a union representing subway workers in Rio de Janeiro said members were to vote last night on whether they would go on strike.
The actions are a severe threat for World Cup fans because the subways in both cities are being counted on as the main way for spectators to get to the stadiums.
Union officials in Sao Paulo met with the state government on Monday afternoon but the parties could not come to agreement on the size of a raise for subway workers, who went on strike last Thursday and threw already congested traffic into chaos for the country’s biggest city.
Sao Paulo union members clashed with police earlier on Monday when they tried to hold a rally in a central station in the city. Officers used tear gas and brute force to push the strikers out of the station.
Altino Prazeres, president of the union leading the strike, said almost all of the 8,000 subway employees had been off the job. Marching along with workers on a central street, he said they were not interested in disrupting the World Cup.
“I love soccer! I support our national team. The point is not to stop the Cup,” he said. “We want to resolve this today and all are willing to negotiate.”
Prazeres said workers were willing to negotiate a lower raise than the 12% increase originally demanded if the state-run subway company offered more benefits, but managers have refused. A labour court ruled that the salary rise should be 8.7%.
Sao Paulo state’s transport secretary, Jurandir Fernandes, told local reporters that 60 striking workers had been fired.
Bruno Everton, who sells tickets at a subway station and is one of the union’s regional leaders, received a letter saying he had been dismissed.
“It’s an embarrassment that Brazil is depriving the workers of their rights,” Everton said. “This is an illegal firing. The government is trying to provoke us. They are threatening us.”
A Sao Paulo labour court over the weekend fined the union €130,000) for the first four days of the strike and said it would add €162,000) for each additional day the work stoppage continued.
Other groups have supported the strike, saying workers deserve a fair raise and the government ought to invest more in public transportation. But some people are angry because commutes are taking much longer in the city of 11m.
Adriana Silva, who works at a jewellery store downtown, said it had taken three hours to get to work from the eastern tip of the city where the World Cup will kick off.
“Why do this now? Why so close to the Cup?” she said. “Who they end up hurting more is us. This has to stop.”
The subway strike was the latest unrest to hit Brazil in the run-up to the World Cup. Teachers remain on strike in Rio and routinely block streets with rallies. Police in several cities have gone on strike, but are back at work now.
The work stoppages are in addition to a steady drumbeat of anti-government protests that began a year ago with huge demonstrations in dozens of Brazilian cities.
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