The Rio Grande industrial park begins the recovery of jobs.

On the 21 - The environmental license sign for the Rio Grande Shipyard has been adapted to reflect the city's new reality: "resumes for the Naval Hub". A notice from the FGTAS/Sine agency in the municipality warns about the resumption of contracts in the shipbuilding industry. One of the main ocean construction companies located in the city, Ecovix, has a thousand job openings. The expectation is that demand will increase in the coming months.

The projection was announced this week by the mayor of Rio Grande, Alexandre Lindenmeyer, and is due to the collective efforts of politicians, workers, business owners, and merchants in the southern region of the state. "We all know how much this policy has generated jobs in our municipality. We've had a decrease in the number of jobs, especially in the last year, but we can affirm that new positions are being created," he said this week at an event at the Rio Grande Chamber of Industry, Commerce and Services.

The event brought together representatives of workers, business owners who make up local production clusters, and national and international investors, including Chinese, Japanese, and Italian industries.

"We are fully confident. There is no crisis in this sector, especially with Brazil's projected growth for the second half of this year and in the coming years. We have already acquired a 9-hectare area in the city and are in the final stages of preparing the land. Once everything is in order, we will immediately begin the factory project. We will start with 1,000 square meters and it should reach 10,000 square meters. We will produce 360 ​​megawatts at the factory's peak," projects Fabio Vicenzi, representative of the Ital Puff and Power Group in Brazil.

The representative from the Italian solar panel factory sees Rio Grande's potential beyond the shipbuilding industry. "Rio Grande has been developing a renewable energy cluster. Wind energy needs photovoltaic energy for wind measurement and analysis. Logistical and port issues for transporting production to other states or countries, municipal and state government incentives, and also the Oceantec Technology Park with two federal universities here were fundamental to our decision," explains Vicenzi.

The Rio Grande Naval Hub is responsible for 30% of Petrobras' orders, having delivered the P-55, P-58, and P-63 platforms in 2013. By the second half of last year, the order book totaled US$7 billion, including the P-74 platform – EBR's first project in São José do Norte – and the P-75 and P-77 platforms – to be built by the company QGI.

Complaints threatened companies and cut jobs.

With the corruption allegations at Petrobras, companies began to back down and some even suspended contracts. Four companies that manage the shipyards at the Port of Rio Grande are being investigated in Operation Lava Jato. The number of workers has already fallen from 24 in 2013 to 6,5.

“The economic crisis isn’t just affecting the Naval Hub because of what some people did at Petrobras. There are a series of layoffs in commerce and other sectors. Behind each company, there are 10 jobs. This can’t end overnight. That’s why we’re pressuring the government for guarantees regarding investments here. That they punish the corrupt and keep the company moving forward,” says the president of the Metalworkers Union, Benito Oliveira.

The mayor of Rio Grande, Alexandre Lindenmeyer, approached the federal government back in February and obtained assurances from President Dilma Rousseff that 'investments in the shipbuilding industry are not temporary'. “The municipal administration has a duty to defend what this investment means not only for Rio Grande, but for São José do Norte and all the municipalities in the southern region of the state. We made a statement with all the mayors of the region and took it to the federal government to reaffirm the strategic importance of the Rio Grande do Sul shipbuilding industry for the state and Brazil,” says the mayor.

On February 12th, workers and business owners united in defense of jobs and ongoing businesses in the region. “For the first time, business owners lowered their curtains and joined the protest. The working class joined with the employers to defend jobs. Everyone came to show what would happen if the city of Rio Grande came to a standstill. We know that in the midst of the crisis, some business owners threatened layoffs in order to force the union into action, but we accepted the proposal to defend the workers,” says the union president, Benito Oliveira.

Agreements and guarantees ensured the resumption.

With the leniency agreements foreseen in the anti-corruption package launched by the federal government on March 18, companies involved in Operation Lava Jato were able to resume hiring. QGI, which had threatened to halt operations, is already negotiating contracts to begin work on Petrobras' two platforms in the city and generate 2,5 new jobs.

“The shipbuilding industry has many characteristics, such as its survival through contracts, which generates seasonal demand for labor. We had a one-year gap without projects when the P-55 was built. What we need to do is increase the number of contracts and tenders to avoid this discontinuity. And also strengthen the shipbuilding production chain by attracting other industries, such as industrial blasting, air conditioning, and others, that can supply the shipbuilding hub and other locations around the world,” analyzes Mayor Lindemeyer.

In a meeting with the Secretary-General of the Presidency of the Republic, Miguel Rossetto, the mayor requested support from the federal government in authorizing lines of financing from federal public banks to preserve the investments of Ecovix, which has already completed 70% of the planned works, and Estaleiro Brasil (EBR), which has already invested R$ 400 million in the city.

“We don’t have a crisis of industrial closures in our municipality. The energy hub, with two wind farms we have in the city and another under construction, plus the chemical and logistics hub with our port, and others such as fishing, food, and tourism, demonstrate the potential we have to attract new investments and diversify development in the region. I am very optimistic,” assesses the mayor.