Sao Paulo subway on strike
June 7, 2014
Maria Figaro, spokesperson for the subway workers union, told the Associated Press news agency that the wage proposals haven't changed "so the strike will most likely continue until our demands are met."
The union reduced its initial demand from 16 to a 12.2 percent wage increase; however the company says it can only afford an 8.7 percent rise.
Police were forced to use tear gas and batons to disperse striking transit workers on Friday as commuters tried to enter one of the main subway stations in Brazil's largest city.
The latest strike to hit Brazil in the run-up to the World Cup caused havoc for football fans trying to travel to and from Sao Paulo's Morumbi Stadium, where the national team won 1-0 in a friendly against Serbia on Friday night. With many of the subway system's users turning to their cars as an alternative, bumper-to-bumper traffic snarled the city's main thoroughfares.
The transit strike in Sao Paulo is just the latest work stoppage to hit Brazil in the months leading up to the World Cup. Bus drivers, teachers and police have all staged walkouts of their own to demand higher wages. In some cases the tactic has worked, with federal police and garbage collectors in Rio de Janeiro winning pay rises.
The chaos that gripped Sao Paulo is precisely what organizers are keen to avoid during the World Cup, which kicks off with Brazil hosting Croatia on Thursday. A protest against rising public transit fares in Sao Paulo during last year's Confederations Cup, a dress rehearsal for the World Cup, grew into nationwide demonstrations against the reported $11 billion (8 billion euros) that the Brazilian government is spending to host the tournament. On one night alone last year, an estimated 1 million Brazilians took to the streets to protest, with many demanding that the government put more money into social services, such as hospitals and schools.
jlw, pfd/dr (AP, AFP)