After two years of street protests, strikes, community meetings, and pressure on lawmakers,

the Brazilian unions defeated illegitimate president Michel Temer's pension reform proposal.

Now finance minister Paulo Guedes has a new proposal which will cut minimum benefits

in half and require 40 years of contribution.

In Salvador, an industrial suburb of São Paulo, ABC Metal Workers' Union President Vagno

Santana explains what these reforms would mean for Brazilian workers.

The Brazilian work can make pension contributions on average nine months per year.

It would take 53 years for them to make 40 effective years of contributions which removes

the possibility of people to retire.

In front of an auto plant in São Bernardo, workers express their worries about the new proposal

and talk about what needs to be done to stop it.

If this goes through, unfortunately, it would lead to discrimination against the elderly.

If we are going to unite in the struggle against this, we have to go beyond the factories

and bring this debate to society so that everyone can get involved in the important fight

against these reforms.

Back in the Metal Workers' Union headquarters, where Lula began his career, Vagno Santana

explains how Brazilian unions and social movements plan to fight these reforms.

We are holding a general assembly of the working class on February 20th, here in São Paulo.

And from there, if necessary, we will call a general strike and paralyze the factories

against the pension reforms.

We will do it.

Ryan Mir, Tela Sour, São Bernardo.

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