Brazilian banking strike enters 30th day

A strike by bank workers across Brazil entered its 30th day Wednesday, with branches shuttered for the longest stretch in a decade to force a 15 percent pay hike.

Talks were scheduled later in the day in a bid to end the deadlock and get bank branches across Latin America's biggest country reopened for frustrated customers.

"We have talks today at 5:00 pm (2000 GMT) in Sao Paulo. We'll see what the banks do," said Rodrigo Zevzikovas, spokesman for the Contraf-CUT union representing financial services workers.

The strikers are seeking a pay increase of almost 15 percent, in part to offset Brazil's inflation, currently at a nine percent annual rate.

Zevzikovas said the last offer rejected by workers had been a seven percent pay increase with a one-time bonus of 3,500 reais ($1,082).

Retail bank strikes are something of a ritual in Brazil, but this is the longest-running industrial action since 2004. According to Estadao de Sao Paulo newspaper, about 55 percent of branches around the country are shut.

Bank employees continue to receive salaries while on strike, making work stoppages relatively painless.

"We have a strike just about every year. There's no other way to do it," said union representative Jose Silva, 59, who was manning a picket line outside an Itau bank branch in central Rio.

Another strike leader at a demonstration blocking a Caixa Economica do Brasil branch said Wednesday's scheduled meeting will come "after days of paralysis without negotiations."

"We hope something will change today," the union leader, Carlos Lima, 54, said.

- 'Bit of a mess' -

With 12 million people -- almost 12 percent of the workforce -- jobless and inflation stubbornly high, these are hard times in Brazil.

Silva, joined at the picket line by a colleague in a T-shirt reading "Your only guarantee is fighting," said there'd be no backing down.

"We all have families... it gets harder and harder," he said. "People will continue as long as it takes."

Over at Caixa bank, picketers were dug in for the long haul, occupying a row of folding beach chairs while scores of bank cashiers and managers in suits gathered for a noisy protest.

But customers would like to see that resolution come sooner than later.

Electronics dealer Joao Gabriel Goncalves, 36, said although automatic cash machines are still functioning, they can't fill the hole left by all the striking bankers.

He said taking out large sums of cash becomes difficult when the machine only offers small notes.

Also, "people who are a bit older don't know how to pay their bills through the automatic teller, they need to go and see someone in the bank to do this. It's messing things up a bit."

And travel agency employee Luis Henrique Gomes da Silva said machines could not replace actual bankers in Brazil.

"In our culture, there's the feeling that it's more of a sure thing when you can sort out your bills directly at the cashier, rather than do it by internet where there's a risk of getting ripped off," he said.