Home » World » Thousands of workers protest the closure of Ford in Brazil | The most important news and analysis in Latin America | DW

Thousands of workers protest the closure of Ford in Brazil | The most important news and analysis in Latin America | DW

Thousands of Ford workers protested this Tuesday (01.12.2021) against the closure of all the car factories of the North American company in Brazil, surprisingly announced by the American company on Monday.

From early in the morning, some 3,000 workers, wearing protective masks against the coronavirus, gathered in front of the Camaçari factory, in the state of Bahia (northeast), and about 500 in front of the Taubaté (interior of Sao Paulo) ), the two that will close immediately, confirmed AFP photographers.

A third factory in Ceará (northeast) will continue to operate until the last quarter of the year.

“It was shocking news, the worst possible,” Felipe Monteiro, a 34-year-old electronic technician who has worked at the 850-worker Taubaté factory for 16 years, told AFP after an assembly of the Metalworkers Union held in a saddened atmosphere.

“For years we have been giving up various rights and we expected a different position from the company in relation to the investments it needed to continue,” added Monteiro, married with two children and “without any perspective” after Ford’s decision.

The announcement, in the framework of a restructuring of the Detroit group (United States) in South America, fell like a bomb in Brazil, which has record levels of unemployment, which will now be joined by almost 5,000 workers at these plants.

President Jair Bolsonaro said Ford decided to leave Brazil because “he wants subsidies.”

“What does Ford want? Ford failed to tell the truth, right? They want subsidies. Do they want us to continue giving them 20,000 million reais (about 3,600 million dollars) as has been done in recent years? No!” Bolsonaro before supporters in front of the Alvorada Palace, his official residence in Brasilia.

Ford “lost the competition. I’m sorry,” said President Bolsonaro, without giving further explanation about the amounts of the subsidies mentioned.

Ford’s decision raises criticism of Bolsonaro

Ford’s Brazilian market will be supplied from now on from production in Argentina, Uruguay and other sources.

Ford has registered deficits in the region for several years, aggravated by the collapse of the sector in Brazil in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, which has already left more than 203,000 dead in the country.

The sale of new vehicles in Brazil collapsed 26.16% in 2020 under the impact of the pandemic. 2.05 million cars were patented last year, up from 2.787 million in 2019.

The company’s decision multiplied criticism against the government of Jair Bolsonaro for its difficulties in creating a favorable business environment.

In statements released by the G1 news site, the president of the Sindicato de Metalúrmicos da Bahia, Júlio Bonfim, said that the decision shows “the economic instability of the country and economic uncertainty on the part of the federal government,” as well as the impact of the pandemic.

The press widely attributed Ford’s departure to high production costs and the complex tax system in Brazil.

The president of the Chamber of Deputies, Rodrigo Maia, of the DEM party (center-right), affirmed on Monday that “the closure of Ford is a demonstration of the lack of credibility of the Brazilian government, of clear rules, of legal security and of a rational tax system “.

The Ministry of Economy “regretted” Ford’s initiative, which contrasts with the “strong recovery observed in most industrial sectors.”

mg (efe, afp)

– .

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.