STRIKE!!!!!

[benjio]

It's the rainy season here in the State of Pernambuco, Brazil. If you Google Pernambuco's flag, there's a rainbow on it. Because of the morning showers this time of year and their tendency to be "scattered" (leaving holes in the sky for the rising sun to shine through), you will usually see very bright rainbows almost every morning. It has actually started to pour down raining as I'm typing this. I'm about 60 km south of the city of Recife working in an area called Ipojuca. Just down the road from my company's pipe plant, there is a small resort town called Porto de Galhinas (literally Port of Chickens) where the boxer Arturo Gatti died a few years back. I've actually stayed at the hotel where he was killed and the staff gets a kick out of telling guest the story. This once rural sugar cane farming region has experienced a huge economic boom in the last 10 years. As I've mentioned before many times on this forum, the former president of Brazil was from this area. In an attempt stimulate the economy here, he passed legislature to implement significant tax incentives for any company willing to open or move their operations to this area. Anyone that has done business in Brazil knows very well that a tax break can mean the difference between being profitable and failing, so more than a few companies have taken advantage.
 
The State of Pernambuco has a long history of modern day slavery. It's not what most people think of when they hear the word slavery though. Fifteen years ago, the only jobs most of the poorer people living in the rural areas of this state could find were on sugar cane plantations. A man would leave his small village walking, find a plantation that needed labor, then lived and worked there until the season was over. The problem was the plantation owners charged the laborers almost their entire salaries for room and board, food, and anything else they might need while staying there. Most men and women working on those plantations left with just enough money to feed themselves until the next season. Some left with much less or even found themselves in a position where they owed the plantation owner for one thing or another. A very nice older gentleman I met in a local bar told me he once left a plantation after a three month season with only $52 Brazilian Reals and he didn't spend a penny while he was there.
 
Nowadays most of the people that were poor in this area have jobs at the Port of Suape, the ship yard, or as a construction worker at one of the three Petrochemical Plants that Petrobras is building here. By Latin American Standards, these people are doing pretty well. A general day laborer working at the Petrobras Plant earns around $1200 Reais a month. Their health care is paid for, a free lunch is provided by the company, and there are hundreds of charter buses paid for by Petrobras to pick them up from their homes and take them to work every day. I couldn't use the cliché, "Life is good" if I were working here because I'm from the states and the truth is it gets so much better. It's a lot better than it use to be though, and I've seen a lot worse in Latin America.
 
I'm staying at a hotel in Recife now and I ride with the plant's production manager (an American) everyday. On Tuesday about 10 km outside of Recife we ran into traffic. That's actually normal because there's only two ways to get to Ipojuca from the city and the roads are usually filled with the aforementioned charter buses. The difference on Tuesday was it was at a complete standstill. We were convinced it was an car or motorcycle accident. I've passed by two fatal car accidents during previous trips to Recife, and I saw a man lose his arm after running his motorcycle under a bus while I was here in April. Its an everyday thing down here. Unofficial statistics place the estimated number of traffic fatalities in Brazil at 250,000 a year. It tooks us almost 3 more hours to get to the Ipojuca Area, a trip that usually takes us only an hour. When we finally arrived we discovered a road filled with screaming workers from every Petrochemical Plant in the area. It was a union strike. Work usually begins at 7 for them, but that morning the local union leader ordered every man and woman to walk away from the plant and flood the streets...and that's exactly what they did. Many of them were carrying poles, bats, or large wrenches, waving them in the air as they chanted in Portuguese.
 
Driving at a snail's pace, we slowly made our way down a two lane street filled with angry Pernambucanos. It's usually very brisk in the morning here so we'll ride with the windows down. When we got into the heart of the crowd we let them up, but the guy I was riding with had no tint whatsoever. Every single person we passed by took a very good look into the car. I guess they were wondering who would still be driving towards the plants, because everyone was walking or driving in the opposite direction. My colleague and I joked that someone might look into the car and assume we were some type of big wigs from Petrobras; but neither one of us were really joking and I could tell he was [snip]ting his pants too. In a crowd like that, it only takes one idiot to say or do something stupid, and then the mob mentality kicks in. There were only three policemen in the entire area in comparison to approximately 30,000 protestors. They were local Pernambuco Police too, not Brazilian Federal Police; so If something happened they probably would have just watched for fear of the mob's anger being shifted towards them. I really wanted to take a picture, because I've never seen a crowd of people so huge outside of a sporting event or the Rodeo in Houston. But I wouldn't have let my window down even if there was a killer bee hive in the back seat.
 
No one flipped our cars over. No one spit on us. No one said a word to us. We eventually made it to the factory to find most of our plants workers just as shaken up as we were (even though they were use to that sort of thing). I was informed by one of our plant's workers that this is the third strike in just as many months. "They are never satisfied," he told me. "More money, more benefits, more days off...it's never enough." It's actually quite amazing to me. Slavery to this and all they do is complain. The plant manager told me he's convinced they will find any reason not to work. I have no idea why they were on strike and I haven't gotten a chance to read the local paper, but they returned to work today.
 
I've been to some of the worst parts of Latin America. Some places gringos should never even look at on a map. But I will be honest, I've never been more afraid in my life. I've always enjoyed Recife but if I have anything to say about it this is my last trip to this area of Brazil.

[dtibbet]

yeah not a good feeling...be safe......hurry back...

[braziliangirl]

Don't worry Benjio, those guys won't do anything to you. It wouldn't help them in any way... Strikers are usually not that dangerous.
I would be afraid of the Pernambuco Police (probably the military police), MST and, of course, robbers. So many times I had to wait on some isolated road here in the Amazon because some MST (Movimento Sem Terra, Landless movement in english) guys were closing the road. I'm surprised that I've never witnessed something like the Eldorado dos Carajás Massacre (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eldorado_dos_Caraj%C3%A1s_massacre). And a Brazilian guy living in San Diego called me crazy when I told him I crossed the border to Mexico by foot. Tsk, tsk.
 
In the other hands, one of my co-workers (female, from Ecuador) quit because once she was on a boat somewhere in Colombia and some FARC members got into it just to tell her that they knew who she was and what she did. They even cited her daughter's name. And all the women did was working with native people, helping them conserve their lands. Another co-worker (male, native, Brazilian) was in a meeting in Bogotá and decided to take a bus to Cartagena. FARC members stopped the bus in the middle of the way to make questions to everyone. THAT would scare me to death.
This is Latin America. Can happen everywhere.

[V_Man]

Excellent report mate.
I have been in risker situations in other countries but not in Latin America. Although during my first trip I was with my girl. We had been out on a boat all day and just got back when night fell. We stepped off the pier straight into a protest. Of course I wanted to leave the area immediately. My girl on the other hand was hanging around taking photos of everything. I said let's go, but she said no wait, I want more photos. At the time my Spanish was not good enough to explain why we had to move on in a discrete manner. So I was standing there deciding whether to simply walk off or not.
Probably I should have walked.
I stayed for a few reasons. All the protestors were peaceful. There were police around. I just happened to be aware that the protestors were university students protesting a new government policy. In general it was safer for me to be seen with my latina than to be wondering around alone. My Spanish was poor.
I used sign language to tell the students I supported them as they walked/marched around us.
The way my girl handled the situation was a bit of a negative I felt. She simply didn't get that being a foriegner, I needed to stay well away from any large group of people, no matter how peaceful they were at that moment.

The next day was a local election. She wanted to go an see people voting.
I told her I will go out with her but if there are any groups of people then I am not going anywhere near them. We stayed in that day.  I guess she finally got the message.

As it happened there was a bombing/attack at a polling booth in another part of the country.

[whitey]

Interesting post, Benjio ... thanks ...

[ddw1263]

Good post. How long are you going to be in Brazil?  I was thinking about a trip to Brazil.

[benjio]

Good post. How long are you going to be in Brazil?  I was thinking about a trip to Brazil.

DDW, I'm always here. Supposed to be meeting a couple of guys from PL in Belo Horizonte in September if everything works out. Definitely worth the trip. Just stay away from factories in rural areas.

[ddw1263]

I might just come in September, I have been to Brazil twice but not to the North. Is it ok to get your email from Brazil Girl? Thanks
 
David

[Kiltboy1]

Def nowhere near as safe in Colombia now as it was when Uribe was Pres. Santos is a big pussy and on the take I have been told.
 
Protests can escalate into much more dangerous things in Latin America. My advice would always be to walk, run  , drive but get out of the way as you are not a part of the protest., cause, whatever.
 
KB

[V_Man]

Def nowhere near as safe in Colombia now as it was when Uribe was Pres. Santos is a big pussy and on the take I have been told.

Colombians tell me the same thing.

[benjio]

I might just come in September, I have been to Brazil twice but not to the North. Is it ok to get your email from Brazil Girl? Thanks
 
David

David,
 
Belo is further South, but I don't think you'd be disapointed with any city here. I will PM you.
 
Just a follow up to my initial story...the plant manager I was riding with got the darkest tint available installed on his car yesterday. 

[dtibbet]

Def nowhere near as safe in Colombia now as it was when Uribe was Pres. Santos is a big pussy and on the take I have been told.
 
KB

Oh my,  i couldnt agree more,