Workers continue strike at Arena Pernambuco
The strike began last Tuesday (1), after reports of mistreatment suffered by workers. Odebrecht says that the union has been spreading distorted and false news and assures that the mobilization has not had any effect on the pace of the work.
Julliana Araújo_247 - Workers at the Arena Pernambuco construction site, in São Lourenço da Mata, in the Metropolitan Region of Recife (RMR), continue their strike indefinitely. According to the Union of Workers in Road Construction, Paving and Earthmoving of Pernambuco (Sintepav-PE), the workers were prevented from participating, this Friday (4), in an assembly outside the construction site. The president of the union, Aldo Amaral, will travel next Monday (7) to Rio de Janeiro to discuss the workers' situation with the management of Odebrecht, the company responsible for the construction of the World Cup City.
“The bus that transports the workers drops them off inside the construction site, and the Riot Police isolated the work area, which prevented the workers from leaving for the assembly that was supposed to be held today, but due to a lack of quorum we couldn't,” said Leodelson Bastos, advisor to the president of Sintepav-PE. According to Bastos, even inside the construction site, the workers remain on strike.
The strike began last Tuesday (1), after reports of mistreatment suffered by workers at the construction site and the dismissal of two “CIPA members”. In a statement sent to the press this Friday (4), Odebrecht reported that “Sintepav – recklessly – has been spreading distorted and false news in order to try to legitimize a totally abusive strike, the assessment of which has already been submitted by the company to the Honorable Regional Labor Court of the 6th Region.”
The company also stated that "the two employees who were members of the CIPA (Internal Accident Prevention Commission) were dismissed for just cause, for committing a flagrant act of indiscipline, when, on October 31st, they incited their colleagues to paralyze the construction of the World Cup Arena, without any plausible reason. They managed to gather around fifty workers who, with them, left the construction site for an external meeting with representatives of the Professional Union."
According to the company, "the attempted mutiny was ineffective and the work continued as normal. The other accusation, entirely unfounded, concerns alleged acts of violence that would have been committed by the person responsible for the company's security program, Eduardo Fonseca."
Odebrecht reiterates that “there was no incident that could be classified as harassment, violence, or bullying on the part of these employees. Such allegations by representatives of Sintepav, besides being untrue, constitute the crimes of insult, defamation, and slander, which will be the subject of legal and police action by the victims. It is worth noting that the aforementioned employees have been in their positions for almost a year and, until the outbreak of the abusive strike, no irregularities had ever been reported by Sintepav-PE or the workers.”
Construction
The Construction and Heavy Workers Union (Marreta) decided to end the category's strike, which had already lasted four days. Marreta and the employers' union reached an agreement on Thursday evening (3), during a meeting, which set the category's salary readjustment at 12%, the initial request was for 15%. It was also agreed that the days of the strike will not be deducted.
According to the president of Marreta, Dulcilene Morais, the result of the negotiations was positive for the workers. “We had an increase above inflation and we managed to maintain the gains from previous years,” she said. The workers promised to return to the construction sites this Friday (4). The strike began last Monday (October 31), when it mobilized almost 70,000 construction workers in the state.