Brazil truckers threaten nationwide strike if government does not meet their demands

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Once again, truck drivers are considering paralyzing the country. The teamsters have been said to be in a “state of strike” since last Saturday, and over the weekend, leaders of the sector’s entities have criticized President Jair Bolsonaro.

This Monday, 18, the associations promise to deliver a list of demands to the government. According to the entities, positive signals are necessary to avoid a nationwide strike on November 1. The government, however, minimizes the mobilization.

On the truckers’ agenda is compliance by owners with the minimum payment for road haulage, an early retirement age for truckers (after 25 years of work), and the change in Petrobras’ pricing policy for fuels to reduce diesel fluctuation.

However, according to the Estadão newspaper, the federal government sees the mobilization as a threat that has been made before – and will not be fulfilled this time either. According to a source, there have been 16 unsuccessful strike attempts since 2018, four of them this year. According to the report, changing fuel prices through a stroke of the pen is also not possible. However, officially the government has not commented on this issue.

The strategy of the leaders of the truckers has been to raise the level of threat. “I will be the first (to stop on November 1)”, said the president of the Brazilian Association of Drivers of Motor Vehicles (Abrava), Wallace Landim, known as Chorão, one of the organizers of the movement.

The document demanding delivery to the government will be signed by Abrava, the National Council of Road Transportation of Cargo (CNTRC), and the National Confederation of Transport and Logistics Workers (CNTTL). According to the entities, it is the first time since 2018 that the three associations have acted together in the same movement.

“Our agenda is the same since the acts of February 1. It is not a new issue for the government or for the STF or the Legislature, which know our demands,” said CNTTL director Carlos Alberto Litti Dahmer. “Now, either the government sits down with the category to do a job, calls the parties involved – Petrobras, STF, Congress – or we stop the country,” added the president of CNTRC, Plínio Dias, about the movement that occurred in 2018, during the Michel Temer presidency.

The truck drivers’ leaders do not rule out flexibility in meeting all the demands made to the government. However, the leaders say they want to see direction around concrete measures. “We are tired of meetings. We try to articulate, but the workers can’t take it anymore,” said Chorão.

BREAKING?

Asked by the report about a break with the government of President Jair Bolsonaro, the representatives rule out a formal rupture and say that the movement is non-partisan, despite the strong presence of teamsters in the mobilization called on September 7 by the president. “The movement is not for or against this administration. Many truck drivers believe in the Bolsonaro government. Others do not agree with the administration,” said Chorão.

“We are not raising a partisan agenda. The agenda is the survival of the workers. If the government wants to help the truck drivers of Brazil, we will support the measures,” replied Dias, from CNTRC. However, Litti of the CNTTL spoke of a “Bolsonaro misgovernment” in a statement yesterday.

Considered part of Bolsonaro’s electoral base, truckers express dissatisfaction with the accumulation of measures announced and not fulfilled. “It’s three years of government, and nothing has been done for our members, only fallacies and promises,” said Dias.

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