28-Day Postal Strike Ends in Brazil: Daily

By Gregory Scruggs, Contributing Reporter

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Brazilian postal workers were ordered by the Supreme Labor Court (TST) to return to work at midnight on Thursday, October 13th, ending a 28-day strike that severely hampered correspondence across the country. The Court intervened after negotiations failed between the Correios, Brazil’s national postal system, and the postal workers union.

The terms of the ruling included a 6.7 percent salary adjustment, retroactive as of August 1st, and an increase of R$80 as of October 1st.

Their daily lunch stipend (vale refeição) will increase from R$23 to R$25 and their monthly grocery stipend benefit (vale cesta) is now increased to R$140. In addition, workers who were hired before July of this year will receive a bonus in December of R$563.50.

Meanwhile, there are an estimated 180 million pieces of mail whose delivery was delayed, which has frustrated consumers and affected businesses across all industry.

Rogério Ubine, the national director for the postal union, believes that the backlog will be dealt with quickly. “The strike only aggravated a situation that was already bad, given a lack of qualified staff, but I believe that 10 days will be enough to straighten things out,” he said.

In other news, the eighteen-day bank workers strike may be coming to an end on Monday, with a new proposal presented by the National Federation of Banks (Fenaban). The banks offered a 9 percent wage increase for workers.

Read more (in Portuguese).

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