Bolsonaro paralyses construction of 200,000 housing units, trade unions react
Minha Casa Minha Vida ("My House, My Life”), Brazil’s biggest social housing program that aims to build a million homes, is compromised by budget cuts.
Last April, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro signed into law the country’s delayed 2021 federal budget, which included a reduction in the government’s housing budget that threatens to paralyse the construction of 200,000 housing projects.
The massive cut on the government’s housing project will also hurt the country’s construction industry, which has already registered a 7 percent fall in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
As a response, BWI called on its MRV Engineering Workers’ Network to assess the situation. MRV is the largest home construction company in Brazil and one of the most affected by the housing budget cuts.
The union leaders said that they will evaluate the impact of the budget cuts on the country’s construction projects and convene the employers of the Brazilian Chamber of the Construction Industry (CBIC) and their affiliates to urge them to call on Bolsonaro to reverse his decision in the National Congress of Deputies.