Brazil roiled by general strike over government reform plan

Boomberg

Millions of Brazilians were stranded without public transport and faced shuttered banks and schools as labor unions staged a nationwide strike against President Michel Temer’s reform agenda.
Groups of protesters clashed with police in Brazil’s major cities as buses, commuter trains and metro lines ground to a halt. Access roads to airports in Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and Brasilia were temporarily blocked by barricades and fires. But, barring some delays and cancellations, flights around the country continued to operate.
The general strike comes at a delicate moment for the Temer administration. Its commitment to tackle Brazil’s rising budget deficit has drawn praise from investors and helped fuel a currency and stock market rally over the past year. Yet patience with austerity is wearing thin as there are few signs of growth and unemployment jumped to a record high of 13.7 percent, according to data released on Friday. While a general strike is a relatively unusual event in Brazil, it appears unlikely to weaken the congressional support base that Temer needs to secure approval for his labor and pension reforms.
Friday’s disruption could put pressure on the government to offer further concessions but it is unlikely to derail the reforms, according to Thomaz Favaro, an associate director at Control Risks. “This is a sizeable show of strength by organized labor,” he said.