Since the beginning of the year, a series of strikes and stoppages have expressed a growing rebellion of the working class against the worsening working conditions in schools across Brazil. Although the school year has barely begun, the struggles have already spread to several capitals across the country, in municipal, state and federal education systems.
One of the most significant so far has been a strike by outsourced education workers in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais. Responsible for school meals, janitorial services, maintenance and cleaning of schools, among other functions, the sector demonstrated its strength in crowded assemblies and street demonstrations.
The strike began on February 24, demanding the readjustment of official inflation (4.8 percent) plus a 10 percent real increase in salaries and food vouchers, and a reduction of the workweek to 30 hours with no reduction in salary. The workers’ demands also cover various points concerning better working conditions, such as health insurance, the right to certificates for medical consultations and paid medical leave for some jobs.
Other demands have revealed that the labor practices of companies like the one hired by the Belo Horizonte municipality border on illegality. Workers demanded: transparency and accessibility to the time bank (extra hours worked that can be used to take paid leave); legal deductions [from the payroll] made no later than two months after the event; work-time clock equipment; an additional 70 percent for the first two hours of overtime, and for subsequent hours of an exceptional nature, an additional 100 percent; job stability for the union representatives; and that the company’s medical department not invalidate medical certificates presented by workers.
The city council, led by Álvaro Damião of the right-wing União Brasil party, attacked the workers by denying them pay for the days on strike. Then, on February 27, it offered a 7 percent wage adjustment. “The other points they want we’ll also give because it’s fair. Fifteen or 20 minutes for coffee and a place to rest,” said Damião.
Despite not even covering the main demands, the mayor’s offer was enough for the workers’ union, led by CSP-Conlutas and the pseudo-left and Morenoite parties PSTU, PSOL and MRT, to suspend the strike.
“The suspension of the strike does not mean the end of the struggle. ... If the City Council does not make progress in the negotiations, the workers will be able to resume the strike after the assembly on March 10,” declared the Belo Horizonte Municipal Public Education Workers Union, Sind-REDE/BH, on its website.
The news prompted several comments from workers still outraged by the conditions.
“I agree with the strike, because I’m an outsourced worker, they pay $19.78 [US$3.45] in restaurant vouchers, I want them to show me where I’m going to have lunch or dinner or buy a packed lunch for that amount, not to mention the humiliation. I work in a two-tower condominium with 240 residents for five employees. Is that fair? They earn a lot at our expense,” commented one worker on the day the strike was suspended.
In another comment, on March 1, a worker said: “We just want to have our RIGHTS RECOGNIZED; DIGNITY and RECOGNITION that we are also workers in Education and that we play important roles within the Municipal Schools, our jobs are fundamental parts for the running of the Schools. We are fighting for DIGNITY AND RECOGNITION of our work.”
On March 2, a worker complained about her salary, which is below the national minimum (R$1,518.00, or US$245 a month) because of the questionable deductions the company usually makes to the payroll:
“MGS paid me VA$108.00 and they deducted all the days off work and gave me unjustifiable absences. All this because we decided to ask for dignity, respect and a raise (not a 7 percent handout). So, MGS, why are there so many deductions when we are still paid less than the minimum wage? MPs, please look after us, how much MGS profits, with several employees, and we don’t get dignity, respect, recognition, dignity. SOS”
In the same week, the newspaper O Tempo reported that the salaries of Belo Horizonte’s mayor and councilors would be increased by 27 percent. According to the report, the mayor’s salary would rise from the current R$35,368.66 to R$44,918.19, and that of the councilors from R$18,402.02 to R$23,370.56.”
More than 10 days after having demobilized the outsourced workers, “for the sake of progress in negotiations,” the union organized a new assembly—this one more poorly attended than the previous ones—where the end of the strike was approved.
The union’s Instagram page received a barrage of criticism and, in a move that further exposes its traitorous role, it deleted posts, removing the workers’ comments with them.
One of them, which we saved, read: “So the union can be sure that it will never have a movement like this again, because it is discredited. Because if nobody had stopped, there would have been nothing for the city to negotiate. This is the amount they’ve been offering from the start. As far as I’m concerned, the union is weakened in this struggle, because if what they themselves said, that this was the biggest movement in terms of workers joining, and they didn’t even get 1 percent more, it’s difficult to mobilize people for the next struggle.”
The clear attempt to stifle the workers’ criticism didn’t work, and new posts on the Sind-REDE/BH page received new comments. One person asked: “Where are the main proposals approved [?], reducing the workload was very important.” Others denounced the negotiations: “It seems that you in the union are getting a slice of the pie,” said one of them. And another agreed, concluding: “We have no representatives.”
The actions of the union—the same one that officially represents the teachers—were fundamental in keeping the strike isolated and, consequently, more fragile.
In an article published on its website on February 18, when a strike by outsourced workers was already expected, the Sind-REDE/BH reported that, during a meeting of representatives of permanent workers, “it was discussed whether or not we should strike on the 20th,” together with the outsourced workers. It absurdly claimed that it was decided not to, because a strike by permanent workers could “take the focus off their [outsourced workers’] movement.”
The Sind-REDE/BH also kept the workers isolated from other movements that were already underway. Municipal workers in Poços de Caldas, in the same state, Minas Gerais, went on strike March 5 to demand an 11.8 percent salary increase and an increase in the food voucher from R$700 to R$1,000.
The strike was joined by 79 municipal units, including schools, nurseries and health centers. The movement ended five days later, also in isolation, with a wage increase of just 5 percent and a food voucher of R$780.
Another important movement took place just a month earlier. On February 10, teachers from the municipal network of Niterói, in the metropolitan region of Rio de Janeiro, went on strike against a package of measures by the city government that is expected to have a major impact on their workload and the quality of education offered to the population.
The city has closed classes with fewer than 30 students in EJA (Youth and Adult Education), an indispensable modality for those who work and study. And, in early childhood education, it increased the number of students in classes for 1- and 2-year-olds and put an end to bidocência, a model that guaranteed two teachers in classes for 4- and 5-year-olds.
The workers responded to these measures with a stoppage, and the strike was quickly attacked by the mayor, Rodrigo Neves of the PDT (Democratic Labor Party), who had the help of the courts. The Rio courts declared the strike illegal and ordered an immediate return to work, with the threat of salary deductions for the workers and a daily fine of R$500,000 for the union.
Even without having reversed the attacks, the Niterói State Union of Education Professionals (Sepe) proposed suspending the strike, declaring that the “struggle continues” to “demand the government’s promises.”
In Florianópolis, the capital of Santa Catarina, municipal civil servants, including education workers, are facing a pension reform that foresees an increase in the length of service and contributions. The mayor’s proposal, submitted to the city council on February 12, was met with a massive strike by the workers, which lasted 14 days.
Mayor Topázio Neto, of the PSD (Social Democratic Party), also had help from the courts in attacking the strike. The Santa Catarina Court of Justice ruled that the strike was illegal, with a daily fine of R$200,000 for the union. And the temporary employees were threatened with dismissal by the town hall if they didn’t return to work.
On February 25, the strike was ended after the Florianópolis Municipal Public Service Workers Union (Sintrasem) reached an agreement with the city government, which only postponed the vote on the municipal pension reform until April.
While the movement was winding down in Florianópolis, the state school teachers began a strike in Rio Grande do Norte (RN), where they are demanding compliance with the national pay floor.
The floor was officially adjusted by 6.27 percent at the end of January, but the RN government, led by Fátima Bezerra of the PT (Workers’ Party), proposed to pay the adjustment in installments until the end of the year and refused to pay the amount backdated to January and February. The workers responded with a strike, which began on February 25 and is still ongoing.
Broader sectors of education workers are still due to strike this month.
This week, workers at federal educational institutions across the country staged a national strike, called by the Federation of Unions of Technical and Administrative Workers at Public Higher Education Institutions in Brazil (FASUBRA).
The main demand is full compliance with the strike agreement signed with the federal government in 2024 and the approval of the 2025 Annual Budget Law (LOA), “necessary to make salary readjustments possible.” The vote to release the budget is scheduled for March 17.