RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The elite public service plans to strike in early 2022 in an attempt to negotiate a pay raise to offset losses to inflation. The calendar of assemblies and strikes was set at a meeting held Wednesday, December 29, by the Permanent National Forum of State Careers (FONACATE), which represents 37 associations and unions totaling 200,000 public servants.
With salaries frozen since 2017, servants of bodies such as the Office of the Comptroller General (CGU), the Federal Revenue and the Federal Treasury plan to step up protests in January to pressure the government. The first national strike is scheduled for January 18.
Also in the first two weeks of January, FONACATE intends to submit its demands to the relevant agencies to “demonstrate that attempts to negotiate have been frustrated.” The plan is to then publish assembly calls in the Federal Gazette, to be held between January 10 and 14.
In this same period, servants plan to surrender commissioned positions in public bodies and promote demonstrations of various categories, according to the disclosed calendar.
On January 25 and 26, national mobilizations will return. Public servants will meet in the first week of February to hold new assemblies to decide on a potential general strike.
They argue that they have suffered inflationary losses of around 27.2%, based on the Extended National Consumer Price Index (IPCA). According to FONACATE calculations, it is estimated that this wage loss due to inflation will reach 26.3% during the Bolsonaro government.