Fw: Strike Alert: VW Brasil

["Nello Margiotta" <animarg at tin.it>]

From: Praxis1871 at aol.com
Date: Wed, 14 Nov 2001 21:19:26 EST
Subject: Strike Alert: VW Brasil
To: niagara at tao.ca
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CNM Internacional
Confederação Nacional dos Metalúrgicos da CUT ( Brasil) November, 09 2001

We need your solidarity !
VW Brazil lays off 3,000, workers threaten strike

SAO PAULO, Brazil, Nov 8 (Reuters) - Some 16,000 workers at a Brazilian
factory of Germany's Volkswagen AG vowed on Thursday to go on strike after
the automaker announced it would cut 11 percent of its staff in the country
during a downturn in the car industry.
Luiz Marinho, president of the ABC Metalworkers Union that represents auto
workers on the outskirts of Sao Paulo, said the strike was scheduled to
begin on Monday -- although the union was still open to negotiations if the
layoffs were suspended.
"This strike will occur. The way, don't ask me," Marinho told reporters in
Sao Bernardo dos Campos, one of the three "ABC" cities outside Sao Paulo
where much of Brazil's car industry is centered. "I foresee a long fight."
VW, Brazil's largest car manufacturer, said earlier that it would cut 3,000
jobs, also as of Monday, at its 50-year-old Anchieta factory in Sao
Bernardo, where 16,000 of VW's 26,800 employees in Brazil work. The company
sent job termination letters out on Wednesday to the 3,000 employees' homes.
The collective dismissal would be one of the largest in recent years in
Brazil and comes as a slowing economy, high interest rates and a weak
currency have thrown the country's auto industry -- Latin America's largest
-- into idle.
Two weeks of talks between management and the ABC Union fell apart on
Tuesday after workers at the Sao Bernardo plant rejected VW's proposal to
cut salaries and work hours by 15 percent to avoid slashing 4,000 jobs.
That proposal had already been softened by VW from 20 percent.
Marinho said the main sticking point in negotiations had been a VW proposal
that would have cut future wages by up to 30 percent.

ALTERNATIVES REJECTED
Herbert Demel, president of VW Brazil, told reporters in Rio de Janeiro
that the union had rejected all VW proposals.
"No one could have expected us to accept this rejection without doing
something," he said.
VW issued a statement in Germany saying it had saved 30,000 jobs in 1994
through a similar solution of introducing a shorter work week.
"We had no other choice if we wanted to leave the company healthy for the
long term," Demel said.
Just northeast of Sao Paulo in the city of Taubate, VW managed to strike a
deal with local union leaders to cut wages and work hours by 12 percent to
save 1,000 of 7,000 jobs. The agreement must be voted on by workers
Wednesday.
Despite a strong start this year, Brazilian auto sales and production have
plunged since July, as the turbulent economy quashed consumers' confidence
and kept them out of showrooms.
Sales dipped 15 percent in October from a year earlier, while auto
production fell 13 percent. Year-to-date, however, both sales and output
are still about 9 percent higher than in 2000.
"In May we produced 160,000 cars and in September 100,000. We can't keep
all the jobs with that decline," Demel said.
VW said in its statement that the use of modern manufacturing technology to
make its new Polo model in Sao Bernardo had also made workers redundant.
Although built in the 1950s, the Sao Bernardo plant has been continually
modernized and recently received about $780 million in investments. It
could receive another $1 billion as the company prepares the Polo model.
"The modernization of plants is always a factor when it comes to cutting
workers, but that becomes an even bigger factor when production falls,"
said Fabio Silveira, an economist with Sao Paulo's MB Associados business
consultants.
The ABC Union is one of Brazil's largest and best organized and its massive
protests in the late 1970s helped lead Brazil back to democracy. But in
recent years, labor relations have been peaceful in the ABC and strikes
have been few and far between.
Union leaders have called a meeting at the factory's gates for Monday to
decide on the form of the strike.
(Additional reporting by Denise Luna in Rio de Janeiro and Carlos DeJuana
in Sao Paulo) (Copyright © 2001 Reuters Limited.)


CNM Internacional
Confederação Nacional dos Metalúrgicos da CUT ( Brasil) November 08, 2001

Brazilian union set to fight VW cost-cutting
By Thierry Ogier in São Paulo
Volkswagen and the steelworkers' trade union in São Paulo are heading for a
clash this week after staff at two of the German carmaker's plants rejected
a modernisation plan that includes a relaxation of traditional labour rules.
The conflict may spread out to other companies in this traditional union
bastion as manufacturers face tough opposition in their bid to cut costs
and upgrade some ageing plants.
Volkswagen intends to cut wages and working time by 15 per cent to preserve
nearly 20 per cent of jobs at two plants in the country's industrial
heartland.
The rejection of its proposal may lead to 4,000 redundancies, including
3,000 redundancies at its 42-year old Anchieta factory in greater São
Paulo, which currently employs 16,000 workers.
"Work stoppage will start as soon as the first sacking is announced," said
Luiz Marinho, president of the steel workers union in São Bernardo do
Campo, who accused VW of "blackmail".
The German company is planning to invest R$2bn ($769m) in the Anchieta
plant to refurbish it and start producing a new range of models there by
the end of next year. But it says it needs to reduce payroll costs to
remain competitive.
As part of the plan, VW wants to bring wages at its São Paulo plants in
line with its other Brazilian units. Company officials say that the average
salary of a steel worker in São Paulo is R1,600 a month as opposed to R730
in the south of the country, where VW and Audi launched a plant almost
three years ago.
Most carmakers have recently opted to invest outside the São Paulo area.
The German company, whose leadership in the Brazilian automotive market is
being challenged by Fiat, signalled its readiness to confront the union,
whose strength has declined over the past 20 years.
"Volkswagen will analyse the situation and will take the necessary measures
while trying to minimise the social impact," said the company.
Declining sales and a looming recession have increased stocks to the
equivalent of more than a month's output, which means that a strike might
prove ineffective.
But Mr Marinho has not ruled out picketing car dealers if the conflict
intensifies. (©Fionancial Times, November 08, 2001)
VW Brazil workers refuse company`s new offer
Union says that plan does not address the workers' demand for a job
guarantee.