SAO PAULO, Brazil – Brazilian ****** and striking subway workers clashed Monday in a central commuter station, with union officials threatening to maintain the work stoppage through the ***** Cup opening match here this week.

Authorities are deeply worried about the ****** because the subway is the main means of transportation for ***** Cup fans who will attend Thursday’s opening match when Brazil takes on Croatia. The stadium is about 20 kilometres (12 miles) east of central Sao Paulo, where most tourists stay.

There were hopes the work stoppage may come to an end – early Monday afternoon union officials were sitting down for the first time in days with government authorities in an attempt to end the ******. Last year, a fare increase was reversed after violent ******** broke out.

Earlier Monday, **** ****** firing ******** forced about 100 striking workers out of the station as the ****** threw Sao Paulo’s normally congested traffic into ***** for a fifth day. About half of the city’s subway stations were operating, but with greatly diminished service.

“This is the way they negotiate, with ******** and repression,” said Alexandre Roland, a union leader, as he and others regrouped outside the station after confronting **** ******.

Altino Prazeres, president of the union leading the ******, said as he marched along with workers on a street in central Sao Paulo that “we are not interested in ruining the ***** Cup.”

“I love soccer! I support our national team. The point is not to stop the Cup,” he said. “We want to resolve this today and all are willing to negotiate.”

Prazeres said workers would settle for nothing less than a 12.2-per cent wage hike, which authorities have flatly refused. A labour court has ruled that the salary rise should be 8.7 per cent.

A spokeswoman for the subway company declined to answer questions.

Sao Paulo state’s transport secretary Jurandir Fernandes told local reporters Monday that 60 of the striking workers had been *****, but union officials said they knew nothing about any dismissals.

After being tossed out of the subway station by ****** early Monday, striking workers marched in the city centre and about 400 gathered in from of the state government building housing the transportation secretariat.

A Sao Paulo labour court over the weekend fined the union $175,000 for the first four days of the ****** and said it would add $220,000 for each additional day the work stoppage continued.

So far, the government-controlled company that runs the subways is offering an 8-per cent increase, and says it cannot go higher because fares haven’t been raised for two years.

The standoff with the Sao Paulo transport workers is the latest unrest to hit Brazil in the run-up to the ***** Cup. Teachers remain on ****** in Rio de Janeiro and routinely rally and block streets. ****** in several cities have gone on ******, but are back at work now.

The work stoppages are in addition to a steady drumbeat of anti-government ******** that began a year ago during massive rallies in scores of Brazilian cities. Those ******** blasted government spending for the ***** Cup and demanded big improvements in woeful public services like hospitals, schools, security and transportation.

The ******** have greatly diminished in size but not in frequency. Demonstrations have repeatedly erupted in Brazil’s metro areas in recent months, with even a small number of protesters blocking main roadways and severely disrupting traffic.

Source: The Associated Press
By Adriana Gomez Licon