Railway workers’ strike affects four local train lines in São Paulo

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The São Paulo railroad workers have been on strike since midnight Thursday, July 15. According to Companhia Paulista de Trens Metropolitanos (CPTM), lines 7-Rubi, 8-Diamante, 9-Esmeralda and 10-Turquesa are affected this morning. The 11-Coral, 12-Safira, and 13-Jade lines are operating normally. The strike announcement was made by the labor union the night before.

The trains on the 8-Diamante line are running between the Palmeiras-Barra Funda and Barueri stations. The 7-Rubi line is running between the Palmeiras-Barra Funda and Caieiras stations. The 10-Turquesa and 9-Esmeralda lines are completely stopped. There is no forecast for the end of the strike.

On Twitter, CPTM informed users that the Support Plan between Companies in Emergency Situations (Paese) would not be triggered. The system offers alternative transportation to passengers when there is an interruption in bus, subway, or train lines. “There is no provision for Paese in cases of a strike,” the company wrote on the social network. During the subway workers’ strike in São Paulo about two months ago, however, the system was activated.

Since March, the union claims that it has been trying to negotiate with CPTM, which proposed a 0% wage readjustment for this year 2021 and showed itself to be “intransigent” during a meeting on Wednesday afternoon at the Regional Labor Court. Eluiz Alves de Matos, president of the union, also said that the company has not complied with a previous agreement to pay the fine for lateness in paying the Profit Sharing Program. The installments were due in March and June of this year.

“We worked all over a pandemic, we lost several coworkers to Covid-19, and we have been without a readjustment since last year. We are waiting for the state government to be sensible and to attend to our mininal demands,” says Matos.

The decision to strike was made during an assembly on July 6, and a new meeting is scheduled for this Thursday afternoon. In addition to the Union of Railroad Workers of São Paulo, the Union of Railroad Workers of Zona Sorocabana and the Union of Engineers of São Paulo joined the strike.

In a note posted on its social networks, CPTM says it regrets the strike and says it has a decision from the Labor Court that requires the maintenance of 80% of professionals of the category during peak hours and 60% in other hours, under penalty of R$ 100,000 per hour. “The company will also operate with a contingency plan to meet all who need transport, especially those who work in essential services,” says the text.