On Tuesday (04/10), São Paulo metro workers went on strike along with those from São Paulo Metropolitan Trains Company (CPTM) and São Paulo State Sanitation Company (Sabesp) to try to force the state government to back down on privatization projects. The São Paulo government called the strike “illegal” and announced that it does not intend to back down from privatization plans.
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Chaos
The strike lasted for 24 hours and paralyzed metro lines 1-blue, 2-green, 3-red and 15-silver. At 05:00, line 11-coral restarted operations, with restricted circulation between Itaquera and Luz stations. At CPTM, all lines managed by the public service stopped early, in the morning.
As a result of the interruption in public transport services, São Paulo had a peak of 286 km of slow traffic, more than 30 Km above the average. The problem was greater in the west zone, where traffic was 32% above the average. Many workers slept outside their homes, close to their work, so that on the day of the strike they could arrive at work. State schools suspend classes in the capital and the metropolitan region.
City and state governments had to adopt a special operation for the bus system to compensate for the lack of trains and metro. 100% of the bus fleet remained operational with no reductions outside the peak hours, which is a regular procedure on normal days. The city hall also removed the restrictions imposed on the circulation of vehicles according to the number of their license plate and authorized all vehicles to be used.
Demands
Workers protest against the privatization plans of the three companies, announced by the Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicans) administration, and call for the cancellation of all concession processes. They also ask for an official plebiscite to be held on the privatization of services.
The Governor of São Paulo said that the strike has a political nature, being, therefore, illegal. He added that the movement will not prevent the government from continuing studies on privatization. The labor union answered by stating that privatizations threaten employment and workers’ rights, thus, this strike also had labor motivation.
Sabotage
During the strike, an already privatized line, 9-emerald, had a failure in its electric system. On Tuesday (05/10), a police report was registered by the company that manages the line. According to the record, a train passed through Vila Olímpia station, heading towards Cidade Jardim, tearing out the entire overhead electricity network. The network whipped from Vila Olímpia to the USP station, damaged the entire network. Employees reported that strange objects were found in the section where the problem was verified, including control boxes found destroyed and on the floor. The Civil Police are investigating whether there was vandalism or sabotage on line 9.
In just over a year under the administration of ViaMobilidade, lines 8-diamond and 9-emerald accumulated 166 failures, that is, an average of one every three days.
Two Strikes Within Less than a Year
Tuesday’s strike is the second in public transport faced by Tarcísio de Freitas (Republicans) in less than ten months at the head of the São Paulo government. The first of them, lasting 34 hours, occurred six months ago, in March, and stopped the subway lines under public management. The main demand was for salary readjustment.
Analysis:
São Paulo is an important national business hub, which aggregates large fluxes of people, and cargo. It is also the most populous city in the country. Therefore, mobility is a central issue with which local authorities have to deal daily, even when there is no social turmoil. Labor unions connected to the sector know that and they will likely continue to use their great mobilization capacity in order to pressure the government, which is aligned with ideas opposed to the unions. Thus, new strikes are expected to occur this year, especially if the government continues to push the privatization plan.
