Brazil mourns automotive market as workers down tools to stage protests

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Bad news in Brazil, where some 7,000 employees at car factories have downed tools in protest at job lay-offs. Production is said to have been brought to a standstill during protests at Volkswagen and Mercedes-Benz. The former company is where the trouble began – 800 lay-offs triggered an indefinite strike at the  plant outside Sao Paulo on January 6. Car sales in the country fell 7% last year as a weak economy and rising prices hit consumers. Car exports, meanwhile, slumped 30% in 2014, year-on-year – with Mexico picking up the slack in the region, overtaking Brazil to become Latin America’s largest automotive manufacturer last year.