Brazilian bank workers called off their 21-day strike recently
after accepting a proposed wage increase. Around a half a million
workers were on strike, shutting down 10,000 of the country’s
20,000 bank branches.
The union workers were demanding a 12.8 percent increase in pay,
but settled when the National Federation of Banks increased its offer
to 9 percent.
Banks in Brazil rake in huge profits with some of the highest
interest rates in the world, and the banking sector enjoyed returns
on equity of over 25 percent. On top of this, all of the country’s
major banks reported profit increases.
In spite of the immense profits of the country’s banking
industry, the hard-working bank employees had no other choice than to
stand up and fight back for a fairer share of the wealth produced,
demonstrating the power of united, mobilized workers in opposition to
the greed of the banking elites in Brazil, as well as their powerful
counterparts on Wall Street.
