Brazil bank workers to strike nationwide over pay

Brazil’s bank workers will begin an unlimited nationwide strike from Wednesday after voting on Tuesday night to reject an inflation-based 4.3 percent salary increase, a union leader said.

Bank workers are demanding an increase of 11 percent, improved profit sharing and other benefits and voted to strike after the National Bank Federation (Fenaban) failed to improve on its pay offer as the Bank Workers’ Union had asked.

“The bankers directors have pushed bank workers into striking,” said Juvandia Moreira, chairman of branch of the Bank Workers’ Union that covers the city of Sao Paulo.

“The financial institutions did not present a salary increase above the inflation rate, in spite of the country’s economic growth and their excellent results,” Moreira said in a statement.

A press officer for the same Sao Paulo branch of the union said the stoppage would take place nationwide.

The website of the National Confederation of Financial Sector Workers, Contraf, published a long list of union branches and federations from around the country that voted in favor of striking. All major cities and states were listed.

“Fenaban has to make an offer which is in line with the demands of the union and the banks’ (financial) results,” Moreira said.

The statement said there were 460,000 bank workers in Brazil, 130,000 of which worked in Sao Paulo, the country’s most wealthy state.

Major banks in Brazil include state-owned banks Banco do Brasil and Caixa Economica, Spain’s Santander, Itau-Unibanco, Bradesco, Caixa Economica, HSBC and Citibank.