Among other demands, they want employees across all Brazilian Foreign Service careers to be automatically entitled to diplomatic passports, as well as regulations for on-call service shifts across all diplomatic, consular, and communications offices – currently there are no overtime compensation schemes.

One of the strikers, Ivana Lima, has been in Atlanta, Georgia for one year and eight months. She said delays receiving her overseas housing stipend is significantly impacting her household budget since her rental cost eats up three-quarters of her net salary.
“There have been payment issues before, including delays of one or two months. But since August 2014, these delays have got as long as four months,” she said.
According to Ivana, who is married and has a son, she has had to use her savings, loans and credit cards to meet her rental costs. “We’re always in the red, unable to plan anything ahead,” she said.
Affiliated with the National Union of Foreign Ministry career employees, Ivana advocates a written agreement to be signed by the ministry committing to settle all overdue payments.
In a letter to the union in April, the Foreign Ministry acknowledged the difficulties and said it was working hard to obtain more funding to meet the costs of the pending housing benefits, because the reserves allocated for these payments are insufficient.
The impact of the delay is being felt throughout the careers and is most severe in cities with high cost of living. Osvaldo Nascimento is married to a Foreign Ministry official and lives in Canberra, Australia.
He told Agência Brasil that his family – a couple with three teenage children – have used up all of their savings because of the delays.
“The fact that I can have a job helps cover our household costs. But I had to make do with a non-career job just for the money, carrying luggage at a hotel and washing dishes because the work visa they gave me is restrictive,” he says. In Brazil, he was a university professor.
Regarding the pay rise, the union reported that diplomats had a pay rise in 2008, but other administrative careers in the Foreign Ministry did not.
ABr

Whether hitting the famous beaches at Copacabana or Ipanema, ascending the rocky spire of Corcovado, or soaking in the Dionysian spirit of Carnaval, customers will have another access to these and other Brazil’s charms: Beginning Oct. 1, Delta Air Lines offers a new daily service from Atlanta to Rio de Janeiro.

Delta plans to serve Rio daily from Atlanta with Boeing 767-300ER aircraft, carrying 204 passengers in a two-class configuration.

“Customers now have more choices to fly directly to either of Brazil’s two largest cities – Rio de Janeiro or Sao Paulo – from Delta’s convenient Latin American gateway in Atlanta,” said James Sarvis, director-Latin America and Caribbean.

“International markets are growing in customer demand, and Brazil represents a very attractive and strategic tourist and business destination for travelers. Delta is pleased to be adding service to this rapidly growing market as we expand our international destinations.”

According to the company, Delta’s new Rio service is part of its continued focus on connecting customers to popular destinations in Latin America and the Caribbean.

On Dec. 1, 2004, the airline began second daily flights to San Jose, Costa Rica, and São Paulo, and also re-launched service to Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Delta Air Lines is the world’s second-largest airline in terms of passengers carried and the leading U.S. carrier across the Atlantic, offering daily flights to 490 destinations in 85 countries on Delta, Song, Delta Shuttle, the Delta Connection carriers and its worldwide partners.

Delta’s schedule between Atlanta and Rio de Janeiro, effective October 1st:

Flight  Departs                               Arrives
61     Atlanta at 8:35 p.m.               Rio de Janeiro at 7:10 a.m., +1 day
60     Rio de Janeiro at 9:55 p.m.   Atlanta at 6:40 a.m. +1 day

Delta Air Lines
www.delta.com

PRNewswire