LatinNews Daily Report - 23 August 2012

POLITICS | Rousseff makes “an example” of striking police officers.  On 22 August Justice Minister José Eduardo Cardozo announced that the government intended to open investigations and take possible legal action against striking federal traffic police (PRF), accusing them of abusing their positions and breaking the law in an effort to pressure for wage increases.  According to the daily O Globo, some striking officers erected placards permitting ‘the free transit of drugs and arms” on the Via Dutra, one the city’s main arteries. The federal police (PF) held a 24-hour strike in early August and the PRF began a separate strike in 12 states on Tuesday (21 August) in demand of the harmonisation of their salaries with the PF. Cardozo also gave notice that the government intended to dock R$20.6m (US$10.2m) in pay for some 11,500 of the estimated 350,000 striking public sector workers, including workers from the national statistics institute (Ibge). The government led by President Dilma Rousseff last week made a final offer to 18 of the 36 striking public sector unions, based on a 15.8% pay rise staggered over 2013-2015. A deal must be agreed by 31 August so as to adjust the 2013 draft budget.

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