Three hundred construction workers went on strike in the Brazilian city of Manaus on Monday after a fellow worker, Marcleudo de Melo Ferreira, fell to his death on Saturday. The workers of the Arena Amazonia stadium have demanded better conditions, saying that the pressure to complete construction is affecting their safety. The Prosecutor’s Office has suspended work on the stadium until the contractor provides a detailed report on the safety conditions at the stadium.
With the stadium already behind schedule, laborers like de Melo Ferreira have been working 20 hours per day to ensure the completion of Arena Amazonia by the revised January 15 deadline. More than half of the 12 World Cup stadiums are facing delays in construction or repairs. In November, a crane collapsed killing two workers at the building site for Arena Corinthians in São Paulo, set to host the opening game on June 12. The accident delayed the stadium’s completion, now planned for mid-April. In total, five workers have died at World Cup stadium construction sites in Brazil thus far.
Workers in the city of Curitiba also went on strike last week in protest of late payment. The delays in building of venues and related worker deaths come at a time when many Brazilians are disapproving of the 3.5 billion being spent on preparing for the World Cup. In June, millions of Brazilians filled the streets in seven major cities in protest of misspending by the state, demanding better health care, education and public transport.
