Workers in Brazil—in heavy industry, services, the public sector, and agriculture—are involved in a series of strikes and mass protests such as the country hasn’t seen in decades. . Driving the new labor upsurge is the strength of the country’s economy, the powerful position of unions in the society, and the rising inflation. In 2007 and 2008, Brazil’s economy grew at a rate of 5%, and though in the depths of the crisis in 2009 it shrunk by .02%, last year the economy grew again at a rate of 10%. As Brazilian-born Eduardo Siqueira, a public health professional and activist in the Brazilian immigrant community says, “Workers in Brazil are not afraid of losing jobs, so they’re not afraid of striking.”
[Greve is the French word for strike so presumably it has the same meaning in Portuguese.]
http://www.solidarity-us.org/site/node/3399
