Truck drivers call government credit line a 'handout'
The federal government announced, this Tuesday (16), a series of measures to try to avoid a new national strike by the category; up to R$ 30 will be allocated to each self-employed truck driver through institutions such as Banco do Brasil and Caixa; however, truck drivers who participated in the 2018 strike criticized the measures, classifying them as "handouts" from the Bolsonaro government.
247 - The federal government announced, this Tuesday (16), a series of measures to try to avoid a new national strike by the category. Among them are R$ 2 billion in road works and the launch of a credit line for self-employed truck drivers, by BNDES, which will reach R$ 500 million. Up to R$ 30 will be allocated to each self-employed truck driver through institutions such as Banco do Brasil and Caixa. However, truck drivers who participated in the 2018 strike criticized the measures, as pointed out by reporter From the Folha de S.Paulo newspaper.
"Nothing that the Minister of Infrastructure announced helps us. Is it progress to be able to get money from BNDES at a low cost? Yes. But today, more than half of the truck drivers have their names on the Serasa blacklist. Are we going to be able to get this credit?", asks Wanderlei Dias, known as Dedéco, from Curitiba (PR).
He says he doesn't represent the entire class. "I have the truckers who are with me. And I'm part of a group with other friends, who have other truckers with them. That makes a network of more than a million truckers."
According to Dias, the drivers are unable to pay the installments on their trucks and, as a result, have their names tarnished.
Ariovaldo Junior Almeida, director of the Truck Drivers Union of Ourinhos, in the interior of São Paulo, called the offered credit a "pittance".
"It's better than nothing, but it's a pittance. Thirty thousand reais isn't enough for 15 tires," he points out.