Lula calls for end to “illegal” strike by environmental workers

The Office of the Brazilian Attorney General filed a lawsuit with the Supreme Court (Brazil’s second highest judicial body) on Tuesday demanding the immediate return to work of officials from the environmental protection agency Ibama and the Chico Mendes Institute for the Conservation of Biodiversity (ICMBio), who are currently on strike.

According to news website Poder360, the lawsuit describes the work stoppages as “illegal” and “abusive,” arguing that environmental inspections and licensing work are essential activities that should not be stopped.

On Monday, the strike by Ibama and ICMBio workers for better wages was extended to public employees in 25 of Brazil’s 27 states. The workers had already stopped working in the sector earlier this year and have now stopped working altogether.

The strike means that important clean-up work after the fires is not being carried out and fines are not being imposed as usual, which can encourage destruction. The protest movement takes place as the Pantanal wetlands and the Amazon rainforest are experiencing a record number of fires.

Unions representing environmental workers say deforestation affected an area 17 times larger in the first four months of 2024 than in the same period last year, and that this was largely due to their unmet wage demands.

The complete deadlock came after the Department of Administration announced the end of negotiations, claiming they had reached “the limit” of what the government could offer. On Tuesday, however, Administration Minister Esther Dweck promised that talks would resume.

The unions are demanding a wage increase of 10.34 percent per year, spread over three installments between 2024 and 2026. Taking into account interest during this period, the total increase would be around 34.32 percent.

The government’s counterproposal in February proposed a nine percent wage increase in two installments: the first in May 2025 and the second in May 2026. The Ministry of Administration also claims to have offered a nearly doubling of food subsidies, a 51 percent increase in health assistance and an increase in childcare subsidies for parents.

However, workers argue that the government’s proposal would only cover inflation over the past few years, adding that their last pay rise above inflation was in 2016.

At the beginning of June, the government announced that it would no longer negotiate with the dissatisfied workers. On Tuesday, however, Minister Esther Dweck backtracked on her threats and announced that negotiations would resume.