“This victory shows that the workers must get behind their unions. We can win if we remain united,” said Fernando Lopes.
The National Confederation of Metalworkers at Volvo Brazil have successfully ended the longest strike in the company’s history with an agreement on pay and job security that was called in response to company threats to dismiss workers.
Members of the Curitiba Metalworkers’ Union (SMC), affiliated to the National Confederation of Metalworkers (CNTM), in turn affiliated to IndustriALL Global Union, voted to strike on 8 May because of Volvo Brazil management’s threat to fire workers.
Volvo’s Curitiba plant employs 3,500 workers. On 7 May, the company reached an agreement with the Ministry of Labor establishing a 15-day period for negotiations with the union to seek an alternative to the dismissals. However, on the same day, the company began to inform workers that it would be dismissing 600 workers.
The union walked off, although Sergio Butka, union president, said from the start that he was open to negotiations to discuss options for Volvo to guarantee job security.
However, on 12 May, Volvo organized a secret ballot on a proposal to make a 50% reduction in payments due this year under Volvo’s profit-sharing scheme. It also proposed changes of rights in the pay agreement. Workers 77% to 23% rejected the proposal.
With no response from Volvo, the workers continued the strike until the company was ready to negotiate. Finally, on 1 June, Volvo agreed to sit down with the union at the negotiating table and presented another proposal on profit sharing. It proposed an increase of R$5,000-8,000 for the first installment and a ceiling of R$30,000, depending on production levels. Finally, it negotiated the possibility of a voluntary redundancy plan, in which employees accepting redundancy would receive their pay plus other rights.
Fernando Lopes, Assistant General Secretary of IndustriALL Global Union said, “This victory shows that the workers must get behind their unions. We can win if we remain united.”
