ZFM factories take collective holidays due to lack of inputs due to drought in Amazonas

Drought in Amazonas

Rio Negro continues to show low levels and industry takes measures to overcome the economic problems of drought

Manaus (AM) – Manaus recorded, last Wednesday (18), the highest ebb of the Rio Negro, in 121 years of reading by the Port of Manaus. With the mark of 13.38 meters, some services and sectors of daily life in Manaus were directly affected by the descent of the rivers. One of these spheres is the Amazon industry.

With the low river levels, ships loaded with inputs that supply firms in the Manaus Free Trade Zone (ZFM) are unable to reach their destination, just like the material produced in the Manaus Industrial Pole (PIM) cannot be disposed of. for the rest of the country.

To try to overcome this problem, some Pim companies decided to bring forward collective vacations. The president of the Metalworkers Union of Amazonas (Sindmetal-AM), Valdemir Santana, informed that approximately 15 thousand workers will be affected by the determination. Statistics indicate that 35 companies will adhere to the measure.

To date, only five companies have commented on adopting this advance: TP Vision, Yamaha, I-Sheng, Philco and Samsung, with the latter stating that approximately 1,500 employees will adopt the system. As explained by the union president, there was an agreement between the entity and companies, and only some released the names of those who agreed with the movement.

The Amazonas State Industry Center (Cieam) announced that it is awaiting the results of a survey to find out how many companies will join the collective holidays, and that so far, there is no projection of how much this will impact the region’s finances.

According to economist Denise Kassama, the advance of group holidays has strong positive points, but it is impossible to ignore the negative impacts that the decision will have on the Amazonian economy.

“If collective holidays are imposed it is because there is some difficulty in producing. In this case, if you are suffering from the drought, inputs are probably not arriving, and in order not to leave the workforce idle, they preferred to bring forward collective vacations. In a way, this has a negative impact because holidays mean no production. If you’re not producing, you’re not making money, if you’re not making money, you’re not collecting money, then this impacts the economy”,

pointed out Kassama.

Temporary workers

Due to collective holidays, another setback arises in the local industry: the hiring of temporary workers. The Federation of Industries of the State of Amazonas (Fieam) made a projection stating that there will be no hiring beyond the percentage of current employees during the last months of the year, due to the holidays that are now being adopted.

This behavior, considered abnormal for the time of year, will directly compromise the local job market, as Denise explains.

“If input is not arriving for the District, it must also be having difficulty getting product to businesses to sell, with a view to Christmas here in the region. If there are no merchandise to sell, businesses do not have the resources to employ the additional labor that is very common at the end of the year. It does not employ labor, it does not generate income, which does not generate consumption”,

reiterated the economist.

The Brazilian Temporary Work Association (Asserttem) reported that in 2022, Brazil generated 2,403,560 temporary job openings. The association’s director, Cilene Herbster, carefully analyzes the current situation, as there is an expectation of an increase in vacancies for the 4th quarter of 2023.

“The industry pulls the majority of temporary hires, with 55% of vacancies, however the historic drought in Amazonas threatens to impact this forecast. We are already having an impact on temporary hiring, and if the release of collective holidays for November is confirmed, we will have an even greater impact, with a direct impact on Christmas production and sales, considered the best festive date for our sector”,

concluded Herbster.

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