Munich - Daimler said it was cutting another 1 500 jobs at a plant that makes trucks in Brazil in response to a slump in demand in the country, leading workers to declare an open-ended strike at the factory.
The affected employees at the Sao Bernardo do Campo factory near Sao Paolo were notified on Friday, a spokesman for Daimler said on Monday. About 7 000 workers voted to strike at an assembly on Monday, according to the local metalworkers' union.
Brazil's truck market has been on the slide since early 2013, as a weak economy, high inflation and tough financing conditions have curbed investments in commercial vehicles.
Daimler has cut about 3 000 jobs in Brazil in that time, shrinking its workforce in the Latin American country to 11 854 by the end of June. It has more than 280 000 employees around the world.
Earlier this month, the group said it still had about 2 000 excess workers at the Sao Bernardo do Campo plant, which had been running at less than 60 percent of capacity.
Workers had rejected a proposal that offered to avoid job cuts at the plant for a year in return for a 10 percent salary cut, but the Daimler spokesman said negotiations with workers could resume by early September.
“This will be an intense process of struggle and our mobilisation will be fundamental. We will fight until the company takes back its decision and everyone is working again,” said Sergio Nobre a leader of the metalworkers union in the ABC region outside of Sao Paulo, Brazil's biggest city.
REUTERS