Union threatens long strike in fight with Brazil’s Petrobras
RIO DE JANEIRO — Brazilian oil workers and oil giant Petrobras are locked in a power struggle over plans to shift focus away from noncore assets, with a federation of unions saying Tuesday that thousands of employees are on strike indefinitely.
Roughly 1,000 people gathered outside the headquarters of statecontrolled Petrobras in Rio de Janeiro, waving flags and protesting against recent layoffs at a fertilizer factory in the state of Parana.
“This will have an impact economically, in taxes, all sectors,” said Oseias da Costa, a 35-year-old worker from the facility, known as Fafen. “This is a strike demanding the rights of Fafen workers and all the nation’s oil workers, because of all the problems in Petrobras’ administrative area.”
Leftist political groups, including the Workers’ Party, also have expressed their support for the strike, and their opposition to plans for privatization of company assets.
President Jair Bolsonaro appointed Roberto Castello Branco, a pro-market reformer, as Petrobras’ chief executive, who with Economy Minister Paulo Guedes has advocated in favor of selling the firm’s non-core assets. Petrobras says the fertilizer facility has been losing money and that shuttering it is a business decision, while oil workers have seized on the plan as a harbinger of coming hardship from the company prioritizing more profitable activities related to oil production.
The Unified Federation of Oil Workers said 21,000 employees in 13 states have joined the strike since it kicked off on Feb. 1 — about 60 percent of the company’s workforce. The Fafen facility employs about 1,000 people.
Petrobras did not confirm those numbers.
The company has been able to maintain oil and gas production levels and meet fuel demand across the country by bringing in temporary workers on emergency contracts that often involve longer shifts.
The federation says 36 of Petrobras’ 39 offshore platforms in the Rio de Janeiro region, as well as several refineries across the country, are now run by such contingency teams.
The movement suffered a blow Monday night when Justice Ives Gandra of Brazil’s Superior Labor Court ruled that the strike was illegal and ordered fines equivalent to $115,000 a day if it continues.
The federation, which is comprised of 13 unions, said it will appeal the decision.
A similar ruling last year by Gandra was overruled by other members of the court, the federation said Tuesday, calling for the extension of the 18-day strike.
Gandra earlier argued that the strike had turned “abusive“because unions did not comply with an order to guarantee that at least 90 percent of the workforce would resume their activities.
Analysts said the question remains how long that can last.
“I don’t see any fuel shortages. Today we are able to bring in imported products,” said Adriano Pires, director of a consulting firm, the Brazilian Center for Infrastructure. “If the strike goes on much longer, we could have a problem.”