Report in which the committee requests to be kept informed of development - Report No 248, March 1987

Case No 1377 (Brazil) - Complaint date: 05-AUG-86 - Closed

1. 323. The complaints are contained in communications from the World Confederation of Labour (WCL) and the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), dated 5 and 20 August 1986, respectively. The Government replied in a communication dated 12 January 1987.
2. 324. Brazil has not ratified the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention,1948 (No.87), but has ratified the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No.98).

A. The complainants' allegations

1. 325. In its communication of 5 August 1986, the World Confederation of Labour (WCL) alleges that on 11 July 1986, the police brutally intervened during a strike of sugar-cane workers in the town of Leme (inland in the State of Sao Paulo), in Brazil, resulting in the death of the workers Orlando Correia and Sibely Aparecida Manoel; a further eight workers were shot and many more injured by the police. The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) specified, in its communication of 20 August 1986, that the peasants on strike belonged to the Araras Rural Trade Union, that the police quelled the strike by firing shots and that trade union officials from the CNT, who sympathised with the strikers, were also injured.

B. The Government's reply

1. 326. In its communication of 12 January 1987, the Government states that rigorous investigations are under way into the events which occurred in the town of Leme (Sao Paulo) on 11 July 1986, resulting in the death of Orlando Correia and Sibely Aparecida Manoel, injury to 18 workers and damage to several vehicles. On the very day of the events, the town's police force opened an investigation, in which the magistrate of the local courts was involved; it has not, however, yet been completed.
2. 327. The Government encloses, as an annex, a report from the Disciplinary Adviser of the Sao Paulo State Security Police Force, which may be summarised as follows: - several days before the events occurred, there were several incidents in the town of Leme with sugar-cane cutters, in connection with the strike declared by the Araras Rural Trade Union in the Cresciumal Factory Limited and Cresciumal farming enterprise. This strike was declared illegal by the judicial authorities and the enterprise which had claimed that it was illegal succeeded in obtaining guarantees of safety against the strike pickets for those workers who wished to continue working; - on 11 July 1986, at 6.30 a.m., a picket stoned a bus transporting 43 workers and 3 military police, which was escorted by a military police patrol. Immediately after the bus stopped, shots were fired and general confusion prevailed, resulting in two deaths (Orlando Correia - who was passing by the scene of the events - and Sibely Aparecida Manoel - who was at a bus stop in the vicinity) and 18 injured (Antonio Quirino Lopes, Víctor Nogueira, Valdecir Donizete Rosa, Jorge Aparecido Kilian, Ademir Lirio Generoso Silva, Paulo Honório Pereira, José Carlos Ambrózio, Creusa Aparecida Barbieri Ambrózio, Paulo Afonso Duarte; the military police Winston José Tristao, Moacir Vicente Barbiero, Lidio Dal'Olio, José Aparecido Vilatol, Eleutério Martins and Floriano Martins; the federal delegates José Genoino Neto (PT) and Djalma de Souza Bom (PT), and the underground railway worker Paulo Otavio de Azevedo Junior). Several vehicles suffered material damage; - the report also refers to a series of inquiries carried out during the investigation and to a hypothesis as to the origin of the shots.

C. The Committee's conclusions

1. 328. The Committee notes that, according to the Government, the two deaths, the injuries suffered by 18 persons and the damage to property, which occurred in the town of Leme on 11 July 1986, took place when a strike picket stoned a bus with police protection transporting workers who had not joined the strike movement, a situation during which shots were fired and general confusion prevailed.
2. 329. On previous occasions, whenever allegations concerning the death or injury of trade unionists or in the event of collective disputes have been sumbitted to it, the Committee has always insisted that a judicial inquiry be carried out with a view to elucidating the facts in full, determining responsibilities and punishing the guilty parties. (See, for example, 243rd Report, Case No. 1216 (Honduras), para. 432.) In this context, the Committee notes that only a police investigation (still under way) was opened concerning the events which occurred in Leme on 11 July 1986.
3. 330. In these circumstances, the Committee deeply deplores the death of Orlando Correia and Sibely Aparecida Manoel and the physical injuries suffered and trusts that a judicial inquiry has been opened.

The Committee's recommendations

1. 331. In the light of its foregoing conclusions, the Committee invites the Governing Body to approve the following recommendations:
   • a) The Committee deeply deplores the death of Orlando Correia and Sibely Aparecida Manoel and the physical injuries suffered during the sugar-cane workers' strike in Leme on 11 July 1986.
   • b) It trusts that the Government is carrying out a judicial inquiry into these matters and requests to be kept informed of developments.