Brazil’s unions stage nationwide protests

SAO PAULO: Striking workers blocked highways and staged mainly peaceful marches across Brazil Thursday in a day of industrial action called by unions to demand better work conditions and tougher measures to contain rising inflation.
The “National Day of Struggle” was called by the country’s top five labor federations during last month’s nationwide street protests for better public services and an end to endemic corruption.
Thursday’s protests drew only a fraction of the numbers seen during the huge rallies last month, which on one day alone drew more than a million people out onto the streets across the vast South American powerhouse.
The unions are demanding better wages, shorter working hours, job security, improved public transport, steps to bring down inflation and more investment in public health and education.
Demonstrators blocked around 40 highways in 18 of the country’s 26 states, as well as access to several ports, including Santos, Latin America’s biggest.
In Rio de Janeiro, demonstrators tried to break into a government building but were dispersed by elite military police using stun grenades and teargas.
Although the protests were largely peaceful during the day, after dark in Rio de Janeiro, black-clad, masked protesters threw Molotov cocktails and flares at police, who pushed them back with tear gas.
The masked group sparked the clashes in a side street and then took refuge in a peaceful march in which union leaders called for calm and sang the national anthem.