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Thanks for supporting Brazilian bank workers



Thanks for your support for our Brazilian union affiliate CONTRAF and their members!



We helped support bank workers in Brazil by sending over 300 letters to Brazilian bankers to demand workers be allowed the right to bargain for wages and strike.



Confederaçao Nacional dos Trabalhadores no Ramo Financeiro (CONTRAF) informs us that the strike has been called off as the employers have made a proposal. Negotiations have now taken place and for the private banks the members have agreed to a 6% wages rise, extension of maternity leave up to 180 days and other matters. Public banks are still in negotiations.



“We feel stronger with your solidarity and today, we can see the positive result in our fight” says Carlos Cordeiro President, CONTRAF





This is great news for bank workers across the world. Bank workers have been hit from all angles as a result of the financial crisis.



Bank workers have been pressured and abused by their employer to sell, sell, sell rather than advise. Then they are hit by massive job cuts and put out of work.



Bank workers are abused by customers of banks for the terrible mess the Banks have made of peoples financial situations.



Bank workers are consumers too and have also been hit financially by the crisis.



Be proud of supporting the Brazilian bank workers and visit our UNI website to continue supporting workers.





UNI Finance Global Union is the global union federation for finance workers. We represent 3 million finance workers in 237 trade unions across the world.





What was the strike about…



Our affiliate CONTRAF informed us that the Brazilian bank workers are confronted daily with anti-union practices imposed by the financial institutions operating in the country. These institutions are suppressing the legitimate actions of workers in their national wage campaign.



Banks are distorting a legal instrument which guarantees the right of properly owners to circumvent the right of bank workers to strike and have been frequent actions in banks around the country. It is our understanding that even before workers began the strike, Fenaban (the bank employers association) met with the command of the military police to draw joint action against the strike movement.



Every day the workers are surprised by the police’s actions, including the attempt to arrest union leaders. One of the union leaders was violently taken to the district police during an attempt by lawyers to forcefully open the bank branches of Grupo Santander in Brazil.



We wrote to the head of Fenaban, who is also the head of Santander Brazil to tell him to call off the police and bargain with workers. Now they have negotiated and the Union and its members have a great outcome!