Brazil News
SAO PAULO – Municipal gravediggers seeking higher wages in the city of São Paulo began striking on Tuesday delaying funerals by up to 11 hours, reported O Globo online.
Araca Cemetary Sao Paulo Brazil (photo: panoramio.com)
The labor union representing the workers was unsure how many of them are striking. The union is asking for a wage increase of 39.79%. The city has offered a 15% raise for full-time workers.
The municipal health department office responsible for registering deaths was packed on Tuesday. Manoel Oliveira da Silva, husband of Maria Silva Franco, died early Tuesday morning in the northern zone of the city and still has not been buried.
”It has been 22 hours since he passed, and I still don’t know when or where I can bury him. It’s very distracting,” she said.
In addition to the overcrowding at the Health Department, there are very few hearses to transport bodies as many drivers are honoring the gravediggers’ pickets. In some parts of the city, the Civil guard is helping out digging graves and burying the dead.
In Brazil, bodies of the dead are typically buried within 24 hours of death.
