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25 July, 1999Workers at Ford truck plant in São Paulo fear that production will move to Bahia.
BRAZIL: Last week Ford announced the closing of its truck plant in São Paolo, Ford Ipiranga with 1,500 workers, and the transfer of the truck production to its São Bernardo plant. The workers decided to go on strike. They fear that after the transfer to São Bernardo, Ford will move the auto production from São Bernardo to the new plant in Bahia.
The workers have got support from other unions. Their goal is that no worker will be laid off. The President of ABC Metalworkers Union, Luiz Marinho, has proposed the following agreement:
1. Immediate opening of tripartite negotiations, starting in the automobile sector, to establish regional incentives leading to the effective generation of jobs and income, without causing prejudice to the existing industrial park;
2. Negotiating a policy of modernisation and reconversion of traditional industrial zones;
3. In relation to Ford, fix a minimum percentage of exports of the vehicles produced in Bahia until the year 2010;
4. Commitment, on the part of Ford, to open negotiations with the unions representing the workers in the plant with a view to working out a national collective agreement establishing, among other things, a floor wage by category, social benefits and daily working hours;
5. In cases like Ford, the BNDES (the Government's Development Bank), will condition financing to companies provided they sustain employment levels in plants located in other regions and they fulfil the employment objectives defined in the project.
The workers have got support from other unions. Their goal is that no worker will be laid off. The President of ABC Metalworkers Union, Luiz Marinho, has proposed the following agreement:
1. Immediate opening of tripartite negotiations, starting in the automobile sector, to establish regional incentives leading to the effective generation of jobs and income, without causing prejudice to the existing industrial park;
2. Negotiating a policy of modernisation and reconversion of traditional industrial zones;
3. In relation to Ford, fix a minimum percentage of exports of the vehicles produced in Bahia until the year 2010;
4. Commitment, on the part of Ford, to open negotiations with the unions representing the workers in the plant with a view to working out a national collective agreement establishing, among other things, a floor wage by category, social benefits and daily working hours;
5. In cases like Ford, the BNDES (the Government's Development Bank), will condition financing to companies provided they sustain employment levels in plants located in other regions and they fulfil the employment objectives defined in the project.