May 2, 2022

09:05

Ívina Garcia – Cenarium Magazine

MANAUS – Labor Day, celebrated on May 1st, arose after a revolt of workers in Chicago, in the United States, in 1886. They asked for a fair workload and better working conditions. In a similar scenario, of neglect and loss of rights, Amazonas fights today for the existence of the Manaus Free Trade Zone (MFTZ).

In Brazil, according to IBGE data, there are almost 12 million unemployed people, and this number may increase if the decrees unfavorable to the Free Trade Zone continue to be processed. Published by the president Jair Bolsonaro, the decrees of IPI reduction in 35% for industrialized products and the removal of the tax rate for soft drink concentrates may be a threat to the stay of companies in the Manaus Industrial Complex (PIM).

In the evaluation of economist Inaldo Seixas, the neoliberal economy blames the worker for the economic problems in Brazil, but he says that the difficulties start in the access to means. “The two factors that create wealth, in the world, are capital, labor, and the union of these two factors. It is necessary to have both technology, productivity and technological innovation on the side of capital, and on the side of the worker, with training, education and higher education courses. So, the worker has to be treated with dignity.

For him, the government does not understand the Northern Region. “We live far from the consumer market, we need the tax incentives. What he is doing is an inhumane attack, a ferocious attack. The concentrate pole will lose about 7,500 interior workers,” he explains.

“Today [May 1st], is not a day of celebration for Amazonian workers, it is a day of struggle, of demanding a change of policy in the federal government.” He further states that “Bolsonaro is the enemy of the Amazonian worker.”

Positionings

In social networks, politicians and defenders of the MFTZ criticized the actions of the current president. “With inflation at extreme levels, for the worker it has never been so difficult to put food on the table and keep up with the bills,” wrote the senator for Amazonas, Omar Aziz, in a publication.

In the text, Aziz congratulates workers for the day, but does not fail to remember the threatened jobs. “For Amazonas, Labor Day is under attack by the Bolsonaro Government and the threat of almost 500,000 jobs, between direct and indirect, in the Manaus Industrial Pole. I take this opportunity to congratulate all the workers of my Amazonas, of my Brazil, who, regardless of all the difficulties, dedicate themselves so that we have a better country”, declares the senator.

The vice-president of the House of Representatives, Marcelo Ramos, also published a tribute to Labor Day. In the text, accompanied by a video where a worker in the Manaus Free Trade Zone writes a letter asking for the change in the decree, the parliamentarian wishes that the Amazonas people can keep their jobs.

“On this Labor Day, I can only wish that all Amazonian families can have their jobs and dignity guaranteed!” said the congressman. In the video, Ramos also reminds that not only production workers can lose their jobs, but people who are connected to the pole indirectly.

The federal lawmaker Ze Ricardo published that “this May 1, our voice can be a cry against the withdrawal of rights and violence to workers and workers of Amazonas and Brazil! Long live the Manaus Free Trade Zone! Without it, no other alternative for the development of Amazonas will succeed!

The governor of Amazonas, Wilson Lima, in a post published on Instagram reinforced his commitment to defend the jobs of Amazonians and also to seek new investments for the creation of new jobs. “The generation of employment and income is the goal of our government,” he wrote.