Rio 2016 construction work resumes after 2-week strike

Construction work at the Rio 2016 Olympic Park on Friday resumed after workers ended a two-week strike over wages and benefits. According to an Olympic Games' publications, ''Inside Games'', no fewer than 2,300 members of the workforce began the strike in Barra on April 3. It said this was part of a union-led protest against the Rio Mais consortium which was building the Games venues, delaying further the already woefully behind schedule construction timetable. The publication said that Rio Mais had insisted that no more strikes were going to occur. However, on April 17, only 300 workers briefly turned up to do their jobs at the site of the main Games clusters before being advised to leave after a few hours by union leaders. It added that the strike came as a major blow to Rio 2016 Games, which had already, faced criticism from the International Olympic Committee (IOC). A special task force had been drafted by the IOC to tackle the lack of progress in preparations of Brazil Government to host South America's first Olympic Games. Construction is also expected to get underway on the long-delayed Deodoro zone of venues. The Deodoro will host events such as shooting, field hockey, equestrian, canoeing and BMX, in the second half of this year. The sports complex was the second largest cluster for Rio 2016 and would cost the Brazilian Government 358 million dollars. The Mayor of Rio, Eduardo Paes, said he expected construction work to be completed weeks before the Olympic Opening Ceremony open on Aug. 5, 2016. ''We have no room to spare, we cannot make a single mistake but there is still time to get it done right,'' he said.