ICMBio servers join the strike – 01/04/2024 – Environment

More than 500 employees from ICMBio (Chico Mendes Institute of Biodiversity) decided to join the strike by colleagues from Ibama (Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources), after not receiving a proposal from the Lula government (PT) for a salary increase and improvement in work conditions.

A letter from ICMBio employees was filed this Wednesday (3) and the suspension of activities began this Thursday (4). The servers are seeking to restart negotiations with the Ministry of Management to create a new career plan for the category.

According to the document, all its signatories “will concentrate their efforts exclusively on internal bureaucratic activities”.

They state that the decision will have an impact on environmental inspection operations, inspections of environmental licensing processes, preventing and combating forest fires and conservation and recovery actions for endangered species, among others.

“This decision that we are communicating is a direct response to the lack of action and effective support for civil servants and the critical missions we perform. This measure is nothing more than the expression of the fight for the appreciation and respect of the service and public servants in the area environment”, says the text.

The Ministry of the Environment, after the start of Ibama’s strike, stated that “the restructuring of environmental careers is a priority” for the department and that “it is in dialogue with the MGI [Ministério da Gestão] so that a schedule of the next negotiation stages can be presented”.

ICMBio has, among other responsibilities, the mission of preserving UCs (conservation units), which includes fighting fires in regions that tend to suffer from fires, such as the Pantanal.

The demand for a new career plan for the sector escalated during 2023, until starting in 2024 with localized stoppages.

Servers complain that, despite the preservation of the environment being at the center of Lula’s speech, his career was not valued, even after years of scrapping and attacks during the administration of Jair Bolsonaro (PL).

During COP28, the UN conference on climate change, workers from Ibama and ICMBio published a letter accusing the PT administration of disloyalty, due to the failure to send a career plan proposal.

“We guide each server to understand the context, be ready to fight, refuse calls for ‘voluntarism’ from the municipality and focus on bureaucratic formalities”, says the text.

The servers complain that the negotiations did not progress after a first table and therefore demanded a second meeting in 2023 — which did not happen.

The text classified the government’s conduct as “neglect” and said that the “failure to respond to this demand will be seen as disrespect not only to the civil servants we represent, but also to Brazil’s commitment to global environmental issues.”

With no response, on December 30th, Ibama employees sent a letter informing the organization’s management and also ministries that, as of January 1st, they would begin to suspend field activities.

“It is a direct response to the lack of action and effective support for civil servants and the critical missions we perform. This measure is nothing more than the expression of the fight for the appreciation and respect of the service and public servants in the environmental area”, says the letter, which was signed by more than a thousand workers from the agency.

“This suspension of external activities will certainly have significant impacts on the preservation of the environment and we attribute this to the ten years of total abandonment of the public service career that suffered the most harassment and persecution throughout the previous government and that has not yet been properly welcomed and valued by the The fact is that, without the appropriate conditions and the recognition due to our servers, it became impractical to continue with activities normally”, completes the document.

The strike only means the maintenance of bureaucratic and office activities, without travel and field inspection actions.

In another statement, the workers say that Ibama currently operates with only 52% of its staff and are asking, in addition to restructuring the career plan, for a public competition to rebuild the operational staff.

“The good results in the fight against deforestation obtained in the last year were achieved largely thanks to the effort and sacrifice of these employees, who undergo working hours that far exceed the regulations and with a high rate of overload due to the lack of employees” , states the text.

“[A paralisação] will affect environmental inspection activities, including in the Amazon, environmental licensing inspections, preventing and combating forest fires, releasing exports and imports, among others, until their demands are accepted”, he concludes.

Currently, Ibama operates, for example, in the operation against illegal mining in the Yanomami Indigenous Land (RO), against invaders in the Apyterewa and Trincheira Bacajá (PA) territories, and carries out actions to combat deforestation in the Amazon and in the cerrado, in addition to comply with illegal livestock seizures and destruction of irregular equipment.

In the first year of Lula’s government, deforestation in the Amazon forest fell by half compared to the last year of Jair Bolsonaro’s administration, while it grew by 41% in the cerrado.