Teacher Strike in Brazil Ends After Months
Thousands of Brazilian public school teachers that had been engaged in a strike for nearly three months have voted to go back to work.
The protesters, who are members of the Apeoesp (the largest teachers' unions in the Americas, which represents about 180,000 educators) met in the center of Sao Paulo to end the demonstrations which were initiated after the state government failed to offer them an increase in salary.
As quoted in LA Times, an elementary school teacher named Val Teresa Maria Alves, explained the frustration that led to organizing the massive strike last month: “We were promised that we would be paid as much as other public employees, and it just hasn't happened.”
Aside from monetary concerns, the protesting educator spoke of the overcrowding of classes which she said had "become unbearable.”
As reported by the BBC, a union leader stated that the strike had lost its power once the strike payments were reduced.
The strikers had been calling for a 75 percent pay rise.
In May, in the southern state of Parana, over 200 protesting teachers were injured as police quashed their protest with the use of tear gas and rubber bullets.
Brazil is currently in the middle of a recession, and there is much anger over the consequences of this. As the government sets out to balance its budget, the basic standard of living in the country has been negatively affected.
In 2014, as the World Cup in Brazil got underway, thousands of protesters hit the the streets in cities across the nation to demonstrate against the huge costs linked to the building of the football stadiums.
In the face of the worrisome economic situation that the people of Brazil find themselves in, protesters were angry at how much the government had spent on preparations for the World Cup, and how much Brazil would be spending on the 2016 Olympics which Rio will host.
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