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Rio's Police announces strikes four days to Pan Am Games |
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08:49, July 10, 2007 |
Cops of Rio de Janeiro's Civil Police announced that they went on a 48-hour strike on Monday, four days to the beginning of the XV Pan American Games, to be held in the capital city of the state.
Detectives and forensic specialists joined the movement. They are fighting for the restitution of a bonus that has been removed from their monthly wages to pay chiefs, military policemen and the fire brigade. The bonus represented 60 percent of the total salary paid to civil cops, who currently earn an average of 1,200 reais (635 U.S. dollars) per month.
The vice president of the policemen's union, Natalicio Ferreira, said that only 30 percent of the agents will be working in some essential areas during the protest, which is expected to last until they reach an agreement with the government. He added that the union has been struggling for better working conditions since 2001, but the government never responded positively.
According to the organizers of the movement, the cops will also carry out a "slowdown operation" during the Games. They will follow all the procedures that the Brazilian law determines for each operation, which are very discrepant from what is actually done by the agents. For instance, if they work "by the book," a Police Chief will need to show up at all the crime scenes in the state of Rio, and that will definitely reduce the pace of investigations.
Ferreira stressed that the slowdown operation will be "permanent," up until the government fulfills the demands from the workers.
Rio's State Secretary of Managing and Planning Sergio Ruy told the union's leaders earlier on Monday that the state government does not rely on resources enough to raise the civil policemen's wages. However, Secretary of Public Security Jose Mariano Beltrame said that he talked to Governor Sergio Cabral on the possibility of awarding a pay rise.
Additionally, the protesters organized a rally downtown Rio on Monday. They blocked the access to the Instituto Medico-Legal (IML), Rio's city morgue, which they request to be inspected by the sanitarian authorities.
Sao Paulo's State Police also announced it will go on a 24-hour strike, starting on Thursday morning. There, they are struggling for a 48 percent rise in their wages, while the government offered an elevation that ranges from three percent to 23 percent.
Source: Xinhua
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