CPTM Workers Strike Halts Service on Three São Paulo Lines

Overview

• Union members approved an indefinite strike in an August 3 assembly and began the stoppage at 00:01 on Tuesday, August 4, targeting CPTM lines 11-Coral, 12-Safira and 13-Jade.
• Operations were cut: lines 11 and 12 ran only on shortened segments while line 13 and the Expresso Aeroporto were fully suspended, affecting about 1 million daily users.
• The state and CPTM activated a contingency plan that opened metro stations earlier, added trains on busy routes and put 128 Paese buses into service to replace halted segments.
• The Regional Labor Court ordered minimum staffing of 80% in peak hours and 60% off-peak with a R$400,000 daily fine for noncompliance, a requirement the union says it is contesting.
• The dispute centers on the government’s promise to preserve jobs after the July concession to private operator Trivia Trens and the state’s temporary 90-day reassertion of CPTM control after early operational failures and a wagon fire, a sequence that has widened the political debate over privatization.