RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) -- Brazil's largest unions on Friday staged protests against government reforms in at least 14 major cities.
Workers protested over unemployment, labor reforms and proposed social security reforms, and demanded ex-President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's release from prison so that he can run for president in the October elections.
Eight leading labor associations, including the Unified Workers' Central (CUT) and the General Union of Workers (UGT), rallied under the banner "Enough".
In Sao Paulo, an estimated 5,000 people took to the streets, according to the organizers, with union leaders asking where the jobs promised by the labor reforms approved last year were.
Social security reforms, which raise the age of retirement and are seen by the government as key to lowering the public deficit, did not have enough support in parliament to pass the first time around.
"The reform left us in a precarious labor situation never seen before," said Ricardo Patah, president of the UGT, adding it left people with a lot of "temporary work, which amounts to slavery."
He was joined by CUT head Vagner Freitas, who called for the labor reforms to be revoked and the pensions of public-sector workers to be protected. He also criticized the high price of gasoline and utility bills.
Lula, who is serving a 12-year prison sentence for corruption, was chosen by the Workers' Party as their presidential candidate in the upcoming elections, though it looks unlikely he will be allowed to run.
Brazilian law forbids anyone convicted of a crime from running for elected office.
