Latin America

Sao Paulo strike threatens World Cup

366548_SAO PAULO

After much confusion and clashes between police and protesters, the principal city of Brazil came back to normalcy when the Public Transportation Workers came back to their jobs. They decided to temporarily halt the strike, (which lasted five days).
The strike organizers will hold a meeting the night before the inauguration of the World Cup games, to decide whether or not to renew the walk-out. The transportation union agreed to the 8.7% salary increase; however they are asking for the rehiring of 42 employees by the State Government, threatening to strike again. The governor is saying that there is a plan B, in case of the strike and lack of metro services, to move the 68,000 fans to the games on Thursday, but Jerome Valcke, the FIFA General Secretary contradicted the governor, saying there is no plan B and that the only solution is the strikes to end. Regarding the security issue, more than 500 cameras, have been installed across the city. The cameras are all monitored by the security forces from state and federal agencies, including the Brazilian Intelligence Agency and the Armed Forces. More protests rallies are expected to arise in days to come and to confront them, the police is counting on special individual armored suits, similar to Robocop, that is a plastic skeleton cover, that protects the officers from all kind of possible hits.

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