Brazilian Public Employees Demand Wage Increases Amid Inflation

On Tuesday, thousands of public employees staged protests across Brazil to demand President Jair Bolsonaro index their salaries according to the current inflation rate.

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Over 200,000 workers gathered in the Permanent National Forum of State Careers (FONACATE) ask that the salary increase not be less than 28 percent. Besides still being in a critical situation, the Brazilian economy closed 2021 with increases in interest rates, unemployment, and inflation.

The FONACATE President Rudinei Marques recalled that the last salary increase for public workers happened in January 2017. Since then, the citizens' purchasing power has eroded a lot given that the current National Consumer Price Index is located at 27.2 percent.

Among the workers demanding changes in the Bolsonaro Administration's policies are the officials of the Central Bank of Brazil. From 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. local time, they carried out a partial strike to demand salary increases. This came after the far-right President said that he would support salary increases for the security forces.

“We are no longer going to accept the mistreatment that the Bolsonaro government has given to public employees,” the FONACATE President stressed.

The energy generated with the Central Bank strike "has spread and other public unions decided to join the demonstration in solidarity," Brian Mier, teleSUR correspondent reported.

"On Friday, workers will stage a general strike against the neoliberal policies of Jair Bolsonaro and his Finance Minister Paulo Guedes, a Chicago Boy who sank the Brazilian economy since taking office three years ago by applying austerity policies during a recession," he added.