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Leaders of Brazil’s main trade unions met with President Dilma Rousseff on Wednesday to support her referendum proposal on political reforms, but refused to call off a scheduled protest.
The union leaders were invited by President Rousseff to a meeting at the presidential palace of Planalto to get their input on the questions to be submitted to Congress, according to a post on the Brazilian presidency website.
The government’s proposed referendum, raised by the president in an emergency meeting with Brazil’s governors on Monday, will ask the public to vote on a range of issues, including campaign financing and electoral reform.
Leaders from eight different unions attended the meeting, including the Unified Workers Central and the General Workers Union.
“The president asked each one to come up with proposals (and) present solutions, so that they can be included in the project to be sent to Congress,” Labour Minister Manoel Dias said after the meeting.
The Unions have, however, asserted that they would go ahead with a protest planned for July 11 in demand of workers’ rights.
The protest will be joining a wave of anti-government demonstrations that have continued for more than two weeks.
Tens of thousands of Brazilians took to the streets asking for better public services and less corruption last week.
Source: Agencies
