Imperatriz cuts salaries of striking teachers.
On strike for almost 70 days, teachers in Imperatriz have had their salaries cut and have no means of dialogue with the city hall; a court decision forced the city hall to inform the reason for the cut within 72 hours; according to the teachers' union, the deadline would end today (10) and the city hall has not responded; the teachers are asking for a 13% salary increase, a food voucher of R$ 230 and the career plan, which has been out of date for more than ten years.
Mariana Tokarnia, from Agência Brasil - On strike for almost 70 days, teachers in Imperatriz, Maranhão, have had their salaries cut and have no means of dialogue with the city hall. By court order, the city hall had 72 hours to inform why the cut was made. According to the Union of Workers in Educational Establishments in Imperatriz (Steei), the deadline would end today (10) and the city hall has not responded.
According to Steei, the strike affects 55% of the workforce. The main demand is a salary increase. In addition to municipal education teachers, who primarily work in elementary school, security guards, cafeteria workers, janitors, and other education workers are also on strike. After two months of strike action, the city government cut the salaries of over a thousand workers, who have not been paid since the 1st of this month.
To help the workers, Steei started a campaign to collect donations. So far, 40 basic food baskets have been collected, along with enough food to make up ten more, plus R$ 1, which will also be used to buy food. The donations are sent to those most in need.
"If you imagine that a security guard, a caretaker earns R$ 680 per month, after salary deductions, to get through the month, if they go a month without receiving their pay, they can't pay their bills. There are workers who are going hungry," said the president of Steei, Wilas Nascimento.
The union managed to get the 2nd Labor Court of São Luís to accept a writ of mandamus filed by Steei itself, ordering the workers' salaries to be paid. The court decision stipulated that the city hall must justify the suspension of salary payments within a 72-hour period, a deadline that expires today.
Agência Brasil tried to contact the Imperatriz city hall by phone and by...emails available on the municipality's website, but no response had been received by the time of publication.
According to the union, only one meeting was held with the city hall, where the city proved inflexible regarding any increase. After that, no further channels of dialogue were established. The workers are demanding a 13% salary increase, a food voucher of R$ 230, and a career plan, which has been outdated for over ten years.