[Marxism] Petrobras Workers Reject Offer; May Call Wider Strike

["Fred Fuentes" <fred.fuentes@xxxxxxxxx>]

Petrobras Workers Reject Offer; May Call Wider Strike (Update4)

By James Poole and Jeb Blount
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July 17 (Bloomberg) -- Striking workers at Brazil's state- controlled
Petroleo Brasileiro SA may initiate a nationwide strike starting Aug.
5 after rejecting a company offer.

The offer responded to workers' claims for a minimum interval between
workdays and four additional demands, the Rio de Janeiro-based company
said in a statement yesterday, without providing specifics. Leaders of
Brazil's oil-workers' federation will meet next week to consider an
expanded strike, said Jose Maria Rangel, union coordinator for the
chapter representing striking offshore oil-platform technicians.

``While we rejected the offer we are still willing to talk,'' Rangel
said in a telephone interview from Macae, Brazil. ``Our current strike
will end as planned, but that is not the end of the matter. We are
considering recommending a bigger, nationwide oil-workers strike for
next month.''

The five-day strike involves 4,500 workers in the offshore Campos
Basin, source of more than 80 percent of Brazil's oil output. The
company known as Petrobras restored output under a contingency plan
using managers and non-striking employees.

The walkout is designed to pressure Petrobras to grant crews an extra
day of pay for each 14-day shift on offshore platforms. The strike
began July 14 and is set to end at midnight July 18.

Petrobras preferred shares, the company's most-traded class of stock,
fell the most in four months, declining 1.97 reais, or 5 percent, to
37.80 reais in Sao Paulo.

Sympathy Strike

Union technicians at Petrobras refineries and port terminals will
conduct a 48-hour work stoppage starting at midnight July 16 to
support the offshore oil workers, according to a posting on the
Petroleum Workers' Union's Web site.

While the sympathy strike won't shut down production or operations, it
will involve a refusal of workers to replace teams when shifts end,
Helio Seidel, the federation's leader said yesterday in a phone
interview. The union said workers are being threatened with
disciplinary action if they leave at the end of their shifts and there
is no one to replace them.

``The company's tactics are making the workers more inclined to vote
for a wider strike,'' Seidel said. ``The union chapters are meeting
and voting and if we strike again it's going to be aimed at paralyzing
production.''

The sympathy strike aims to unify the contract demands of Oil Worker
Federation chapters. While the one representing workers at the Campos
Basin offshore oil platforms is seeking an extra day's pay, other
chapters want larger payments under the company's profit-sharing and
bonus plans.

Labor Laws

Brazil's labor laws date to 1943 and the dictatorship of Getulio
Vargas, who modeled his Estado Novo, or ``New State,'' on
authoritarian regimes in Italy and Germany. Vargas put the unions
under government control to buy labor peace while building an
industrial base to reduce dependence on coffee exports.

Businessmen got loans and import protection, said Wadih Damous, a
labor lawyer and president of the Rio de Janeiro Chapter of the
Brazilian Bar Association. Unions got funding and benefits.
Tax-paying, salaried employees in Brazil belong to a union, whether
they choose to join or not, Damous said. Dues are collected by the
government and distributed to unions.

The law puts strict limits on strikes, blocking activities that can
permanently damage company property or limit essential services to the
general population, Damous said.

`Pelego'

The system and its ability to limit labor friction became known as the
``pelego,'' a Brazilian cowboy term for a wool pad placed between the
saddle and rider to cushion the ride and prevent sores.

Brazil's unions have lobbied unsuccessfully to nationalize the oil
industry a decade after it was opened to competition.

The unions want Tupi, the largest oil discovery in the Americas since
Mexico's Cantarell field was found in 1976, and other so-called
pre-salt fields beneath deep waters near Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo
to be exploited by a new, state-owned company. Tupi is part of a group
of offshore prospects that may hold reserves equivalent to 13 years of
U.S. crude imports.

Tupi and neighboring prospects may hold 50 billion barrels of oil,
according to Peter Wells, a director of U.K. research firm Neftex
Petroleum Consultants Ltd.

To contact the reporters on this story: James Poole in Singapore at
Jpoole4@xxxxxxxxxxxxx; Jeb Blount in Rio de Janeiro at
jblount@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Last Updated: July 17, 2008 16:26 EDT

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