Postal workers in Brazil this week launched an indefinite strike across most of the country topress demands for higher pay, causing heavy delays to mail and parcel deliveries and forcing
suspension of express deliveries.Union officials claimed that staff had stopped work in 24 of the country’s 27 federal states,and that about 70% of the company’s 110,000 employees were taking industrial action. The strikefollowed 42 days of inconclusive negotiations with the company.
But postal operator Correios said that only 30% of staff on average were on strike. The postaloperator said it is maintaining a mail and parcel delivery service with contingency measures butwarned customers to expect delays. It has suspended its time-definite express services SedEx10 (next-day by 10.00), SedEx Hoje (same-day) and Disque-Coleta.
Company president Wagner Pinheiro called on staff to return to work for the sake of theBrazilian economy and population, and to resume negotiations. Correios said its latest pay offerrepresented a 13% rise for more than 64,000 staff.
Workers are seeking a pay rise of R$400 a month from January 2012 onwards along with a 7.2% riseto compensate for inflation, an additional 25% to compensate for lost purchasing power since 1994and full-time contracts for some 21,000 workers.
The Brazilian government has offered an additional R$50 per month, a 6.9% rise to compensate forinflation, a one-off payment of R$800 and various subsidies for food.
