Millions of Brazilians were stranded without public transport and faced shuttered banks and schools on Friday as labor unions staged a nationwide strike against President Michel Temer’s reform agenda.
Buses and trains were down in several major cities, including Sao Paulo. The access road to Rio de Janeiro’s Santos Dumont airport was temporarily blocked by protesters but, barring some delays and cancellations, flights around the country continued to operate. Police cordoned off the main avenue crossing government quarters in the nation’s capital Brasilia in anticipation of protests later in the day.
The general strike comes at a delicate moment for the Temer administration. Its commitment to tackle Brazil’s rising budget deficit has drawn praise from investors and helped fuel a currency and stock market rally over the past year, yet there are few signs of growth after back-to-back years of recession. Temer retains a strong support base in Congress, but large numbers of protesters on Friday or at scheduled marches on May 1 could weaken lawmakers’ support.
"If the turnout is huge, more than a million, and the protests focus on the reforms and attracts the population at large, it could complicate the reforms," Lucas Aragao, a partner at Arko Advice said. But he added that, if the demonstrations were clearly dominated by labor unions, they would not have much of an impact on the government’s plans.
On Wednesday, the lower house of Congress approved a bill to loosen Brazil’s decades-old labor regulations. The bill now heads to the Senate. Next week, a special congressional commission is due to begin voting on a constitutional amendment that would overhaul the pension system. A survey published last month found that 72 percent of Brazilians opposed the pension reform.
In expectation of widespread support for the strike, Sao Paulo and other Brazilian cities have made contingency plans to ensure public servants can make it to work.
