Brazilian Government Gives In to Truck Drivers' Strike Requests

02/26/2015 - 09h16

Concerned with the economic and political impacts of the motorway blockage movement kicked off by truck drivers, the Brazilian government decided, on Wednesday (25), that diesel prices will not rise in the next six months.

Acoording to Miguel Rossetto, Secretary-General of the Presidency, the information was released to the government by Petrobras.

In addition to the temporary freezing of prices, the federal government offered the drivers' movement a number of measures that are meant to bring motorway blockages to an immediate end - the protest has already spreaded across 13 states.

The package, which was negotiated by Rossetto under the approval of president Dilma Rousseff, corresponds to a part of the claims made by the drivers' leadership and was settled after a meeting between the government, companies and workers on Wednesday (25) afternoon, at the Ministry of Transportation.
 
The government said it was willing to sanction the so called Law of the Truck Drivers, which reduces the price of the road toll for trucks while it simultaneously increases the amount of extra hours that drivers may work.

Ms Rousseff has until March 13th to sanction the text, which has already been approved in Congress.
 
Given the dimension of the drivers' movement added to the fact that the economy is under risk of recession, the government assessed that it had no option other than resolve the issue.
 
With the president's record low popularity rates, presidential aides have warned that, if the movement was not stopped Ms Rousseff would be blamed for the problems.

NATUZA NERY contributed, from Brasília

Translated by CRISTIANE COSTA LIMA

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	Douglas Magno/O Tempo
	The Brazilian government decided that diesel prices will not rise in the next six months