Metalworkers at Embraer’s Sao Jose dos Campos plant enter strike

SAO PAULO (Reuters) -Metalworkers at Brazilian planemaker Embraer’s Sao Jose dos Campos plant have voted to enter strike as they campaign for higher wages, with the local Sindmetal union saying on Tuesday they have rejected an offer from the company.

The union’s statement said the move was set to halt production at the factory but Embraer said in a separate statement that the plant was “operating normally” while negotiations between workers and industry group FIESP continue.

Sindmetal said metalworkers were offered a 4.06% pay raise in line with Brazil’s inflation levels, but demanded a “real wage increase” they expected to top consumer price increases for the year.

According to the union, they had warned Embraer of the potential strike on Sept. 26 but the wage proposal was not sweetened. “The strike shows the workers’ total dissatisfaction with the company,” Sindmetal director Herbert Claros said.

Embraer, the world’s third-largest planemaker after Boeing and Airbus, said it had given workers’ the 4.06% pay raise for those earning up to 10,000 reais ($1,966.80) a month, and a 406-real raise for salaries above that threshold.

“That is in line with the offer presented by FIESP, which represents companies in the sector. Negotiations between FIESP and the unions continue,” Embraer said, adding that its other factories also continue to operate normally.

($1 = 5.0844 reais)

(Reporting by Gabriel Araujo; Editing by Steven Grattan)