The two biggest labour federations in Brazil, CUT and Força Sindical, have announced that they will call Volkswagen workers out on ‘warning strikes’ to oppose the automaker’s restructuring plan.
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The plan, announced in the beginning of this month, will reduce production capacity and cut thousands of jobs in VW’s local plants.
According to the labour federations, a series of stoppages will start on 22 May at VW’s five plants in Brazil to protest layoffs.
The workers plans to paralyse the assembly line of each factory on different days as a warning that they disagree with the automaker intention to cut jobs. The labour federations said that Volkswagen will fire 5,773 employees.
The workers also want to have a meeting with the board of the Brazilian Development Bank (BNDES), a federal public company that is associated with the country’s ministry of development, industry and foreign trade.
A Few days before Volkswagen announced the restructuring plan, the BNDES approved a grant of about $US232m to the automaker to support Fox and CrossFox production expansion and update the designs of some of its Brazilian-made models.
The labour federations are trying to convince the BNDES to only give the money to Volkswagen if it doesn’t cut jobs.
Rogério Louro
