Brazil’s Labor Unions are trying to tap into the momentum of the massive protest movement that swept the country in the past few weeks, with a “National Day of Struggle”.

Eight of the country’s biggest labor unions with a combined membership of six million workers called a one-day strike to demand better working conditions and better public services.  The protesters who took part in the much-larger demonstrations that took place in most of Brazil’s cities last month share the latter concern.

This time around, the marchers were fewer but still able to focus their numbers to shut key roadways and ports across ten states.  But today’s events were largely without the police violence that greeted last month’s demonstrations, because the unions met in advance with the authorities to work out the rules of the protest.  Some of the unions even have close relationships with the government and ruling Workers’ Party.

“We want things to improve in the country,” said one of the marchers, Sao Paulo city worker Rosely Paschetti.  “We are marching because health and education are in crisis in Brazil. There must be a change.”