Brazil: Workers from IMBEL of Itabujá-MG on indefinite strike

Urgent solidarity needed

Workers from the State Industry of War Material of Brazil (IMBEL) from Itabujá-MG went on strike indefinitely on Monday, 14h of April.

More than 60% of the 970 workers joined the strike.

IMBEL from Itabujá-MG has 60% of the workers from all business units across the country and is responsible for the production of the new IA2 rifles, pistol, loaders and all weapons sold by the company.

The category struggle for 15% increase in wages, plus bonuses and a review of the Plan of Posts and Wages (PCS).

Last week, there were two stoppages of 4 hours but the management of the company and the federal government did not have the willingness to negotiate for real with the workers.

After the strike started, IMBEL submitted a proposal that only updates the adjustments for inflation (IPCA) of the period that was 6.15%.

Workers of all IMBEL’s units over the country are stopped

Due to the intransigence of the management of the company and the federal government to negotiate for real, workers of 4 units of IMBEL – Juíz de Fora-MG, Rio de Janeiro (RJ), Magé (RJ) e Piquete (SP) – just followed the example of the workers of Itabujá-MG and also ended up going on strike indefinitely.

Solidarity for IMBEL workers strike

But for the strike of the workers of IMBEL to be victorious, it’s necessary the support of all workers, all social movements and parties on the side of workers.

The management of the company, following the instructions of Dilma’s government, has reaffirmed that it will not submit any proposal of pay rise above inflation. This same speech was reaffirmed in the negotiation (stalling) who took place this Tuesday (15/4).

This positioning of IMBEL is in line with the economic policy of the federal government that provides for this year, a fiscal adjustment of 44 billion reais. Of these, 3.5 billion reais will be cut of the Ministry of Defence, to which is subject IMBEL. This whole policy has one goal only: guarantee the profits of the creditors of Brazilian public debt.

Furthermore, it is unacceptable that a government that spends 30 billion reais on stadiums and other pharaonic works for the World Cup, claims not to be able to meet the list of demands of IMBEL workers.

LSR and the strike of the workers of IMBEL Itabujá-MG

LSR has been playing an important role in the workers strike of IMBEL Itabujá-MG. We have comrades who are in the leadership and grass-root workers of the Metalworkers Union of Itabujá-MG, affiliated to CSP-Conlutas.

Because we have several comrades, besides being union leaders, are employees of the company, we were able to accomplish a good ground work in preparation for the strike.

The comrade metalworkers from LSR in Itabujá-MG have said in their interventions that the workers strike of IMBEL is correct, for the garis of Rio de Janeiro showed, that struggle is the only way for the category to win.

In addition, we’ve sought the active solidarity of other social movements and parties on the side of workers, such as PSOL.

Motions demanding that IMBEL meets the list of demands of the workers strike, with a copy to the CSP-Conlutas ([email protected]) should be sent to:

General Secretariat of the Presidency of the Republic: [email protected]

Ministry of Defence: [email protected]

IMBEL: [email protected]

Miguel Leme

National Executive of CSP-Conlutas

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