Wednesday, March 17, Brazilian public sector trade unions issued a joint letter appealing for international solidarity with Brazil and its population that find themselves in the global “epicenter of the pandemic”, in the midst of the biggest health crisis in the country's history.

31 Brazilian trade unions affiliated to PSI, a global union representing 30 million public workers in 154 countries, provide an overview of the country's dramatic situation in terms of public health, living and working conditions, and make it clear that they hold the government of President Jair Bolsonaro responsible. Therefore, they are collectively appealing for concrete international support and actions. The extremely precarious situation of essential services professionals, especially health professionals, is also related in the letter.

“We reiterate the call for the international community and its representative multilateral bodies to increase pressure on the Brazilian government to adopt measures that protect lives. Measures that have been recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) and other representative bodies from various areas of scientific and medical research”, says the letter, which can be read below.