Post Office Workers Announce Nationwide Strike

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The ‘Correios’ (“Post Office”) workers have decreed a general strike, for an indefinite period of time, as of Tuesday evening, September 10th. The company is still assessing the actual impact of the strike but admits that services have been partially affected. The Interstate Federation of Workers’ Unions and Post Office Workers (FINDECT) assures that this is a nationwide initiative.

“All over the country, this sector has proven it is aware of the seriousness of the situation and has decreed a strike for an indefinite period”, assures FINDECT in a note. According to the organization, the strike was the way that state employees found to counter the federal government’s proposal to privatize the Correios.

The workers are also seeking to pressure the company’s management to negotiate the maintenance of labor rights and current salaries in the future Collective Bargaining Agreement (ACT), which is about to be signed.

Last month, the federal government included Correios in the National Privatization Plan (PND) and launched the study period to fully or partially privatize the company as well as 17 other state-owned companies.

The opening of studies does not necessarily mean that a company will be privatized, leaving the conclusion of partnerships with the private sector as an alternative for the federal companies included in the plan.

According to Martha Seillier, special secretary of the Civil Cabinet’s Investment Partnership Program’s (PPI), the primary aim of studies is to assess the economic feasibility of federal assets (companies, actions, and services) and the potential impact of partnerships with the private sector.

As well as concern over privatization, the union’s representatives fear salary reductions and the loss of benefits. “They want to radically lower salaries and benefits to reduce costs and privatize the Correios,” says FINDECT. “To maintain our Collective Agreement, restore wage losses and keep jobs, we will have to fight.”

Also in a note, Correios’ management claims to have already submitted the figures that show the “real economic situation of the state-owned company” to workers. According to the company’s management, the accumulated operating losses amount to R$3 billion.

Collective bargaining agreement

The negotiation process for the 2019/2020 Collective Bargaining Agreement is now pending at the Superior Labor Court (TST).

Last week, after several attempts to reconcile the interests of employees and employers, the Vice President of the Superior Labor Court, Judge Renato de Lacerda Paiva, decreed the extinction of the mediation procedure and pre-procedural conciliation between the company and the bodies representing the employees.

According to the Court, the Correios’ management was the one that rejected the proposal to extend the collective bargaining agreement so that the negotiation of a new collective bargaining instrument could be continued. Also according to the Court, “the continuation of the mediation would prevent the category strike, scheduled for September 10th.”

In an assembly held last night in São Paulo, the vice president of FINDECT, Elias Cesário de Brito Júnior, said that the union was “pushed” to strike.

“We didn’t want to go on strike. We wanted to continue working as we always have, serving the population and defending our jobs. We have been negotiating for over three months, setting the demand agenda at a national level. The TST had to step in,” Brito Júnior said, pointing out that in addition to trying to prevent the privatization of the Correios, the category is calling for the extension of the collective agreement that expired on July 31st, the replacement of inflationary losses in recent years and the maintenance of food stamps and the health plan.