13th and 14th May 2014 Strike by Staff at Brazilian Diplomatic Missions abroad.
12 May, 2014
Read in English belowAi??|Ai??Leia em PortuguA?s aqui
Translated byAi??Graham Douglas
ondastropicais@yahoo.co.uk
TheAi??Association of Local Staff of the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Abroad (AFLEX)Ai??announces a 48-hour strike on the 13thAi??and 14thAi??of May in key Brazilian services in Europe and North America.
Their demands are these:
Immediate negotiations with AFLEXAi??for the readjustment of salaries in posts where they have been frozen for 3 years; review of salaries in posts where they are below the level corresponding to the function exercised. The creation of norms to regulate salary policy.
Approval of the proposed Law PLS 246/2013,Ai??which has been under consideration by the National Congress since July 2013, and which aims to create minimum, decent and fair thresholds for defining contracts. The right to freedom of expression, freedom of political association, and freedom of collective bargaining;Ai??and an immediate end to persecutions, harassment and threats of sackings against AFLEX leaders.
The Government was warned about this crisis in innumerable letters sent by the Association to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MRE) and other Government departments.
AFLEX demonstrated great concern about the degradation of working conditions, due to the possibility that it could escalate into a crisis, which has now been set off by recent events at the Consulate General in Atlanta. Since 2011Ai??AFLEXAi??has tried to make the MRE aware of this situation through a number of channels of dialogue. Since then the MRE has received innumerable requests for salary adjustments from employees in many posts in many countries, supported by the mission heads themselves. In addition to our requests for salary adjustments being ignored, the leaders of our association have suffered persecutions and arbitrary dismissals. However we are aware of our Civil Rights. Article 5 of the Brazilian Magna Carta, accords us the right to freedom of expression and free association.
These are universal rights for everybody, enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. As a result of our strike, consular services for thousands of Brazilians living abroad (the delivery of passports and other documents, and consular assistance), and institutional contacts between Brazilian Diplomatic representations and foreign authorities, will suffer serious restrictions. Also the processing of visa applications will be significantly affected, especially for foreigners who wish to come to Brazil to celebrate the World Cup.
Brazilian diplomatic missions with the greatest demand for consular assistance will be closed or offering only emergency services, among them: the Consulates in New York, Hartford, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston, Atlanta, Toronto and Montreal in North America; and the same in Europe in important centres like Paris, London, Brussels, Frankfurt and Berne.
There will also be demonstrations at many other places, including the Embassy and Consulate in Rome, the Consulates in Milan, Geneva and Rotterdam ai??i?? and the list may be extended on the days of the stoppage.
