During his visit here last week, Brazil’s President, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, underscored that his government works with unionised workers and that through collective bargaining some 80 per cent in that group were able to secure agreements higher than the current inflation.
“Eighty per cent of the organised working [class] had managed to get its collective bargaining agreements that are above inflation and we are restoring all the social inclusion policies that were successful in our first two terms,” Lula said during a joint press conference with President Irfaan Ali at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC) in Liliendaal last Thursday, following bilaterals.
Lula’s comments came at a particularly awkward moment for Ali whose government was facing down a strike by teachers who have been pressing for constitutionally enshrined collective bargaining.