By Alessandro Fernandes – Alternativa Socialista
After 102 years of activity in Brazil, American multinational Ford announced on Monday the 11th that it will close its plants in the cities of Taubaté / SP, Camaçari / BA and Horizonte / EC. In 2019, Ford had already closed its production in São José dos Campos / SP.
More than 6 thousand jobs will be thrown into uncertainty. The bourgeois media are sugar-coating the situation, reporting that the multinational is seeking the best form of compensation together with the union, but the truth is that the workers will be the only ones affected. According to the multinational, the plants located in Argentina, with million-dollar investments, and in Uruguay, will be maintained.
Since 1999, Ford has received over 20,000 million reales in tax incentives, and achieved multi-million dollar profits for many years. Currently, the plants produce engines of the Taubaté / SP, Ka Sedan and EcoSport models in Camaçari / BA, and Troller in Horizonte / CE. It is important to note that there is a chain of jobs and people that extends beyond the 6 thousand employees – it is estimated that over 15 thousand people´s jobs will be affected.
With a scenario of more than 14 million unemployed in Brazil, according to the official data for the quarter of August to October / 2020 released by IBGE, it is exasperating to see thousands of workers join those ranks that grow daily. The closure of Ford is an important symptom of the crisis that is being paid for with every drop of sweat by the working class.
Meanwhile, with Guedes and the “Bourgeois Agreement” on governance, Bolsonaro carries out his most ambitious plan: mass unemployment and, where jobs exist, the most precarious conditions possible. It is no coincidence that, on the same day of the Ford announcement, the government also announced a “voluntary” Resignation Plan of 5,000 workers and the closure of 361 units of the Bank of Brazil, a national asset that has been under attack for decades.
It must be clear that with Bolsonaro our demand, with strength and unity in the streets, must be: Out with Bolsonaro and Mourão. It is impossible for this government to meet any guarantee of employment, salary and income.
It is time for the main unions, centrals, parties and social / popular movements to launch a unified national plan of struggle against this government of unemployment, hunger, misery and murder. Against the layoffs at Ford plants, for the return of the multimillion dollar tax exemptions, nationalization of the plants under the democratic control of the workers and the end of sending the profits abroad. All solidarity and the formation of committees against layoffs. All this must be united to “Fora Bolsonaro and Mourão,” for a government of the working class and the poor!