Civil servants in Porto Alegre will go on strike starting Monday.

Fernanda CanofreSouth 21 - Municipal workers in Porto Alegre approved a strike for the category starting next Monday (18). The vote, which took place on Tuesday night (12), at Casa do Gaúcho, in Parque Harmonia, set the strike in light of the decision made this Wednesday by the college of leaders of the City Council, on how to conduct the voting on the package of bills presented by the government of Nelson Marchezan Júnior (PSDB).

Among the 16 projects presented by the Executive branch, nine affect the careers of municipal public servants. These are the same projects that led to a 40-day strike by the category in the second half of 2017 – the longest in Porto Alegre's history. They were reintroduced this year by the mayor. Some of the projects, which had their urgency status maintained by the City Council, have their 40-day processing period expiring tomorrow and, therefore, should block the agenda starting on the 14th.

“The strike is the last tool for workers to guarantee their rights. We have been trying, since the beginning of the Marchezan administration, to engage in dialogue and unfortunately we haven't succeeded. Now, at the assembly, a letter arrived from the mayor saying that, again, in 2018, we will not have inflation adjustment or any salary increase. We already have a deficit of at least 10% in our payroll over the last two years. The category cannot remain silent,” says Alberto Terres, leader of the Porto Alegre Municipal Workers Union (Simpa).

The official letter delivered to the union during the assembly was signed by the Municipal Attorney General and the Secretary of Finance, Leonardo Busatto. In it, the city hall states that due to the "compromised state of municipal funds and lack of revenue," there would be "an impossibility of granting salary adjustments." The document was read by the union representatives amidst boos from the members.

The reasons listed at the assembly for the strike include: the delay and installment payment of the 13th salary, the re-issuance of bills presented by the Executive branch, the lack of dialogue with the category, and the delay in salary adjustments.

“If the projects are approved, it will end not only the careers of public servants, but their lives. We have a career plan, based on which public servants make commitments, buy houses, apartments, financed, and now their salaries will be cut and they will be in debt. That is what we are trying to convince not only the mayor, but also the councilors, to vote against this project that ends the public service career,” explains Terres.

According to him, a new assembly should be convened every two days to analyze the progress of the strike. The first one has already been approved in a vote for next Tuesday at 14 pm.

Municipal employees are already working with city councilors to convince them to reject the mayor's proposals. So far, 16 councilors have reportedly pledged to vote in favor of the employees.

Also during the assembly, councilman Rodrigo Maroni (Podemos) requested two minutes to speak in order to explain rumors circulating on social media about his position. Maroni stated that, as the son of public employees, he “would never vote against the category.”

“In these four years that I have been in office, I have never voted against the municipal public service and I have never voted against politicians, against the salary increase for council members. Yesterday, I received about 40 messages calling me disgusting, opportunistic, and a scoundrel. (…) I will never vote against public employees, never. Just like with the issue of animals,” he stated.

According to councilwoman Fernanda Melchionna (Psol), the government's intention regarding which projects it wants to see voted on first in plenary is still unclear.

“The thermometer is always the correlation of forces, so it’s important that the category mobilizes now. There is a government policy of wanting to create terror, of threats, of using all possible means to intimidate and create instruments so that the category does not mobilize. I think the category has to rediscover its own strength, as it did last year, when no project was approved thanks to this mobilization,” she assesses.

The first act of the strike is scheduled for Monday at 9 am, in front of the City Hall.