Bolsonarista companies encourage days off for truck drivers to vote

Transport companies reportedly aligned with President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) are releasing their truck drivers from working on election weekend so that they can vote in the second round – which takes place on October 30th.

Through social networks, companies have shared publications encouraging other carriers to do the same and advocating a mobilization to help re-elect the current president, who appears behind his opponent, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), in polls.

Due to work, many drivers stay away from their polling stations on election day and end up not showing up at the polls. The idea of ​​the companies is to give employees time off so that they can go home for the weekend and be able to vote.

“The biggest mobilization in Brazil has begun”, says a message that circulates in groups on WhatsApp. “The carriers are mobilized to stop their activities on the next 28/10/2022”, he continues, without directly citing the vote for Bolsonaro.

Truck drivers were an important support base for Bolsonaro in 2018, but the support of the category has ebbed in recent years, mainly with the increase in fuel prices. Recently, the president announced the anticipation of the aid paid to self-employed professionals, which is seen as an attempt to boost the campaign for reelection among the group.

The government also changed the direction of Petrobras after criticizing fuel increases and has been pressing for the price of diesel and gasoline not to rise again this month, despite the lag in relation to international values.

Releasing truck driver is not illegal, but posts do, says MPT

Adriane Reis de Araújo, regional labor attorney, says that electoral law prohibits actions that cause embarrassment or inhibit people from going to vote. In the case of the categories that work on election day, what has been agreed is the creation of a scale compatible with the possibility of the employee being absent to go to the polling station.

“We saw that there is this mobilization to release truck drivers so that they can vote in the second round. The release is not a problem, it complies with the electoral law”, he says.

What it cannot, she says, is selectivity when deciding which employees will have time off and which will work. “We have seen some statements reinforcing that only workers who claim to vote for a certain candidate and not for another will be released.”

According to Araújo, this type of practice constitutes an electoral offense, which can lead to a ban on loans from public banks, in addition to the filing of a public lawsuit with compensation for moral and individual damages.

Araújo recalls that the MPT (Ministry of Labor) has received a flood of complaints of electoral harassment. According to her, there are already more than 900 notifications, with the vast majority (more than 700) referring only to the second round of elections. “I can’t say how many are specific to truck drivers, but there are also complaints from this sector,” she says.

As for publications on social networks alluding to or advertising a particular candidate, these, yes, can configure irregularity.

According to the prosecutor, the electoral law establishes that the workplace is an asset for common use. “Today we cannot see the company only as the physical place, we also have to think about the company in this digital environment. If there are institutional profiles of a company doing political propaganda, this is totally irregular”, she says.

Carriers use social media and messaging apps to encourage time off

One of the carriers that has been active on social media to encourage drivers to take time off on election day is Rodojunior, located in the city of Rio Verde (GO). On its Instagram page, the company republished several videos and photos with direct references to President Bolsonaro.

In one of the publications, an unidentified man appears with Bolsonaro’s stickers and posters and says he is at the company’s headquarters. “Guys, here at the company Rodojunior, all truck drivers will stop from Thursday of next week [27] to vote”, he says.

In another post, the company republishes an image with the colors of the Brazilian flag and the following words “Trucks with Bolsonaro” and “Let’s stop to vote”.

The same image was also shared by other companies on Instagram, including Transportadora Brasil Central and Grupo Comelli — both based in the municipality of Rio Verde.

Sought by the telephone numbers on the companies’ website, Rodojunior, Brasil Central and Comelli did not respond to the report’s various attempts to contact them this Thursday (20).

THE Sheet sought out carriers that appear on the list that circulates in WhatsApp groups to ask if they intend to stop activities in the second round of the elections. Most of the companies are from the Midwest of the country, a region where Bolsonaro outperformed Lula in the first round of elections and continues to have the highest voting intentions.

Fribon, a carrier based in Rondonópolis (MT), confirmed that it will release its 300 drivers due to the elections, but denied that there is a group or entity organizing the mobilization.

According to Rony Cezar Frizon, a partner at Fribon, the company is not encouraging the vote for any specific candidate. “That’s free and spontaneous, [os motoristas] will vote for whoever they want”, he says.

Transportadora Zaqueu, from Barra do Garças (MT), also appears on the list and confirmed that it will give its 110 drivers the last weekend of the month because of the elections.

“Most of our drivers live here in the municipality of Barra do Garças, so they will spend the weekend at home,” says Diego Negreiro, HR manager at Zaqueu. According to him, the company, which works mainly with grain transport, does not encourage voting for candidates. “It goes according to the option and choice of the employee”.

Also from Barra do Garça (MT), Transportadora Martelli, mentioned in the Whatsapp message, denied that it will participate in the mobilization. To the report, an employee said that the company does not put any obstacles in the way for its drivers to attend the polls, but is unaware of any guidance to give employees the day off. In the case of truck drivers who vote in distant municipalities, she says, it is up to the driver to schedule himself to appear at the polling station.

Who is also on the list but said he does not intend to make an exception because of the second round is Borgno, from Goiânia. According to Henrique Borges, director of controllership at the carrier, there is no formal communication with this type of guidance.

“We work with express cargo and our commitments are actually determined by our customers. If the customer determines that the cargo has to arrive on a certain day, our commitment is to deliver”, he says.

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