SAO PAULO (AP) — A subway strike in Sao Paulo that
threatened to disrupt the opening of the World Cup was averted Wednesday
night even as airport workers in Rio de Janeiro declared a 24-hour work
stoppage in the main destination for soccer fans traveling to Brazil.
Some
1,500 subway workers in Sao Paulo voted against going back on strike in
a pay dispute. They had suspended the walkout Monday amid a popular
backlash and government pressure to end the transportation chaos in
Brazil’s biggest city.
"We thought that right now it’s better to
wait," union president Altino Prazeres said, but added that he wouldn’t
rule out resuming the strike sometime during the monthlong soccer
tournament. "We get the feeling that maybe we aren’t as prepared for a
full confrontation with police on the day the World Cup starts."
The
union said its members would hold a march Thursday morning demanding
that 42 workers fired during the five-day work stoppage are rehired.
World
Cup organizers are counting on Sao Paulo’s subway system to carry tens
of thousands of fans Thursday to Itaquerao stadium, where Brazil will
play Croatia in the tournament’s first game far from the hotel areas
where most tourists are staying.
Even as tensions eased in Sao
Paulo, labor conflicts heated up in Rio, where fans were arriving ahead
of Sunday’s match between Argentina and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
On
Wednesday, check-in counter clerks, baggage handlers and janitorial
staff who have been demanding raises of at least 5.6 percent for several
months voted to strike starting at midnight. The work stoppage will
affect the city’s Galeao international airport as well as the Santos
Dumont airport that connects Rio to other Brazilian destinations
A
union representative said only 20 percent of workers would stay off the
job for 24 hours, abiding by a labor court order that threatened to
fine unions more than $22,000 if staffing fell below 80 percent of
normal levels. The official agreed to discuss specifics of the walkout
only if not quoted by name because he wasn’t authorized to speak
publicly.
The airport workers’ strike is the latest unrest to hit
Brazil as workers battered by several years of high inflation take
advantage of the spotlight from the World Cup to pressure for pay raises
from employers and the government.
In the northern city of Natal,
where the United States plays its first game Monday against Ghana, bus
drivers will stay home Thursday for at least 24 hours to press their
demands for a 16 percent pay increase.
Teachers remain on strike
in Rio and routinely block streets with rallies, and subway workers in
that city briefly threatened a walkout. Police in several cities have
also gone on strike in recent weeks, but are back at work now.
There
also has been a steady drumbeat of anti-government protests across
Brazil criticizing the billions spent on hosting the World Cup and
demanding improvements in public services. The protests that began last
year have diminished in size but not in frequency, and they also have
disrupted traffic at times.
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Associated Press writers Stan Lehman in Sao Paulo and Bradley Brooks in Rio de Janeiro contributed to
this report.