CNM Internacional
Confederação Nacional dos Metalúrgicos da CUT ( Brasil) October, 16 2001

Brazil's Auto Makers Resume Wage Talks; Strikes Suspended

Auto makers in Brazil's industrial hub of Sao Paulo agreed Monday to resume wage talks with metal workers, leading local labor unions to suspend walkouts planned for the rest of the week after six days of protest.
The move follows a wave of two-hour and day-long stoppages that had been slowing production in the region's plants since last Monday, as some 60,000 assembly-line workers demand an immediate pay raise of 7%.
Following a meeting of chief executives earlier Monday, the local units of Volkswagen AG (G.VOW), Ford Motor Co. (F), Scania AB (SCVB), Toyota Motor Corp. (TM) and Daimler Chrysler's Mercedes Benz (DCX) agreed to go back to the negotiation table with union representatives Tuesday at 1600 GMT.
Even though car makers' parking lots are packed with unsold vehicles due to the economic slowdown, some companies were getting worried about missing deadlines for key orders.

Organized by Brazil's most powerful labor union - Sindicato dos Metalurgicos do ABC - metal workers with the region's carmakers are demanding a pay raise of at least 7% this year, which is higher than the rate of inflation over the past 12 months.
But companies had said they could go only go as far as 5% as sales continue to plummet amid sluggish consumer demand.

Adi Lima, president of the Metal Workers' Division with the Central Unica dos Trabalhadores umbrella group, said the rotating walkouts will continue at autopart makers' plants, as they refuse to offer a better pay-raise proposal. Autopart makers are offering slightly less than 5%.

Car makers nationwide have recently trimmed their 2001 production goal by 100,000 units to 1.8 million, citing sluggish consumer demand, and the crisis is already hitting the job market.
Most of the companies were forced to send workers home for at least 10 days while Volkswagen, the biggest auto marker in Brazil, said it plans to lay off 4,000 of its 20,000-odd workforce here.

Of the group of carmakers with large, long-dated operations in Brazil, only General Motors Corp (GM) and Fiat Spa (FIA) aren't affected by the metal workers' strikes. Fiat is based in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais while GM, though located in metropolitan Sao Paulo, has its assembly-line workers represented by another labor union.
Brazil is expected to grow 1.6% this year, after posting 4.5% growth in 2000. The original 2001 forecast was 4.5%, but a host of regional and international worries as well as a home-brewed energy crisis have dimmed the country's short-term outlook.

(By Adriana Arai, Dow Jones Newswires)

Home	LabourNet Germany: http://www.labournet.de/ LabourNet Germany: Treffpunkt für Ungehorsame, mit und ohne Job, basisnah, gesellschaftskritisch The virtual meeting place of the left in the unions and in the workplace
	Datei:
	Datum: