Despite Bolsonaro’s Appeal, Truckers Maintain Strike

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – “We will protest within the law. We have the right to raise awareness about the category. We are a democratic country and the right to freely protest is enshrined in the Constitution,” said the chairman of the National Council of Road Freight Transport Carriers (CNTRC).

Despite President Jair Bolsonaro’s appeals, the strike of independent truckers (teamsters) starting Monday, February 1st, will be maintained, said CNTRC chairman Plínio Dias, adding that the duration of the protest is “indefinite” and that truckers from 22 states are part of the council.

Dias said that the reduction or cancellation of the PIS/Cofins federal taxes on diesel, considered by the government, would not be enough to put an end to the strike, because the main issue is the policy of parity to international prices adopted by Petrobras.

“The one to blame for the country’s supply shortages, should the protest last 3, 4, 5 days, as was the case at the time of President Michel Temer, when it lasted 11 days, is not truckers, it is whoever is in charge of the ministry. If the President asks to talk on the first day and solve the problem, everyone will go back to work the next day. Until now there has been no dialogue with the National Council or with the workers.”

On Saturday, January 30th, Bolsonaro urged the teamsters not to strike and said that everyone would lose if this were to occur, “the whole of Brazil”. Asked about the President’s appeal, Dias said he understands that the President cannot encourage strikes, but complained that “nothing has reached the independent truck drivers” in the first two years of government. “We can’t let this year pass, next year there’s an election, otherwise truckers will remain in the underworld.”

The CNTRC chairman also said that the teamsters will not block the roads, leaving lanes free. “We will protest within the law. We have the right to raise awareness about the workers. We are a democratic country and the right to freely protest is enshrined in the Constitution.”

An injunction granted by the Rio Federal Court on Saturday bans truckers on strike from blocking, even partially, the BR-101 highway that runs along the country’s coastine. The decision applies to the entire stretch of the BR-101 highway in the state of Rio. An injunction by the São Paulo Court of Justice, granted on Friday, January 29th, had already banned roadblocks on the Presidente Dutra Highway, a toll road connecting São Paulo to Rio.

In addition to the end of the Petrobras policy of parity to international fuel prices, the list of the workers’ association demands includes nine other points. An urgent matter, according to Dias, is the amendment to draft Bill 4199/2020, the ‘BR do Mar’, which, according to the striking leader, provides an advantage for foreign companies in cabotage (coastal shipping) favoring the hiring of maritime companies to carry freight rather than independent truckers.

“Truckers are worried about losing their jobs,” he says, arguing that the bill’s social impact was not assessed, nor were the working conditions in the country’s ports, which are “out in the open”.

The list also petitions for special retirement for teamsters, compliance with the minimum freight rate established in 2018 after the 11-day strike, observance of the permissible working hours and increased inspection by the National Agency of Land Transport (ANTT), among other claims.