Correios, Brazil's state-owned postal service, asked the country's highest labor court, the Superior Labor Court (TST), on Friday night (Sept. 11) to end the strike that began at 10 p.m. on Thursday (Sept. 10). The company filed a collective labor action and wants the court to declare the walkout abusive and order the urgent resumption of services, according to Folha de S.Paulo. Workers had rejected the company's offer in collective bargaining, and 35 union assemblies voted for an open-ended strike.
In practice, a collective labor action works like taking a stalled negotiation to a judge: one side asks the court to impose a solution instead of waiting for a deal. Here, Correios wants the return to work to become a court order, which would remove the union's choice to stay out. The Findect, the federation that groups postal workers' unions, is telling members to keep striking and to expand mobilization from Monday (Sept. 14), with bases stopped in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Bauru, Santos, Maranhão and Mato Grosso do Sul, among others. Mediation attempts at the TST before the strike produced no agreement.
The core dispute is the health plan covering employees, retirees and dependents. Management insists on changing its role as the plan's maintainer, a shift the federation says threatens the plan's funding and coverage. Correios says the rejected offer kept 78 of the 80 clauses of the collective agreement and included a raise of 100% of the INPC, Brazil's official consumer price index, on salaries and benefits, plus maintenance of health assistance. In a statement on Saturday (Sept. 12), the federation said:
"Our fight is just. Workers are not defending privileges. They are fighting for rights and, above all, for a decent and affordable health plan for workers, retirees and their dependents."
What is at stake for each side
The incentives explain why talks broke down over the health plan. News outlet g1 reported that Correios lost 5.5 billion reais in the first half of the year. For a money-losing company, stepping back as the plan's maintainer is a way to contain costs. For workers, and especially retirees, the plan is the most valuable item in the agreement, because it covers people who have already left the payroll and their dependents. The federation is also pressing the federal government, which owns the company. The postal strike comes in the same week that Caixa bank workers launched a national strike and Banco do Brasil had a partial stoppage, according to g1.
What we still don't know
It is unclear whether the TST will treat the request as urgent, or when it will rule. There is no consolidated national figure for strike participation, and neither side has measured the real effect on deliveries. Correios says branches remain open and that it activated a business continuity plan, with team reassignment, administrative staff moved to operations, extra vehicles and clearing task forces. Agência Brasil said it sought comment from management and had received none by publication time.
For readers who rely on Correios, the practical steps are to track shipments closely, mail time-sensitive documents and packages early, and watch two moments: the TST's ruling on the company's filing and the expanded mobilization set for Monday (Sept. 14). Those are the two points that will show whether the strike stretches or shortens.