Brazil GM Workers Protest 802 Layoffs With Brief Work Stoppage
13 Januar 2009 - 4:29PM
Dow Jones News
SAO PAULO (AFP)--Workers for General Motors in Brazil on Tuesday
protested the auto manufacturer's sacking of 802 employees because
of the global economic crisis and demanded they be reinstated.
The Metalworkers Union covering GM's Sao Jose dos Campos plant
outside Sao Paulo said the workers downed tools for an hour at the
start of their first shift. They were to hold an assembly later
Tuesday to decide further action.
The stoppage came a day after the company announced it was axing
744 jobs at the factory because of the sudden slowdown in car sales
in Brazil since last September caused by the crisis.
GM last Friday also informed the union it was sacking another 58
workers, bringing the total to 802. Most of those being shed were
on temporary contracts that still had months to run.
The employees were demanding that the company rehire the fired
workers and guarantee employment at the plant and that the
Brazilian government support them, the union said in a
statement.
"It's absurd that the bosses want the workers to pay the price
of a crisis they didn't create," said the union's director, Vivaldo
Moreira Araujo.
"We are going to resist, and call on authorities to take a
position, because up to now they have done nothing to defend
employment," he said.
No comment was immediately available from General Motors Brazil
or its U.S. parent on the worker protests.
The company, which has 24,000 workers in its three plants in
Brazil, late Monday issued a statement saying it was making the job
cuts because of the "new situation" in the market, which has seen
sales and production plummet.
GM recently extended by three weeks mandatory vacation imposed
on 5,200 workers at its factory in the southern city of Rio Grande
do Sul.
There are fears in Brazil that mass sackings could ravage the
automobile sector as it copes with abrupt downturn.
The country is both the biggest market and the biggest producer
of vehicles in Latin America.
Other carmakers present include Ford Motor Co. (F), Fiat SpA
(F.MI), Volkswagen AG (VLKAY) and PSA Peugeot-Citroen (12150.FR),
all of which have put thousands of workers on leave to idle
plants.
Brazil's government, concerned at the central place the flagging
sector has in the economy, in November announced $3.5 billion in
aid, mostly to prompt reluctant car-buyers to sign up for auto
finance.
Click here to go to Dow Jones NewsPlus, a web front
page of today's most important business and market news, analysis
and commentary. You can use this link on the day this article is
published and the following day.