Brazil Oil Workers Say Strike Unlikely As Talks Continue
12:03 EST Thursday, May 09, 2002
RIO DE JANEIRO -(Dow Jones)- Brazilian oil workers softened their speech this week, saying a strike is unlikely in the short term as they continue to negotiate with oil company Petroleo Brasileiro (PBR), or Petrobras, about the company's profit-distribution policy.
Antonio Carrara, one of the directors at the United Oil Workers Federation, or FUP, said Thursday that union leaders met with Petrobras Chief Executive Francisco Gros for about two hours Wednesday to discuss proposals.
"We won't consider taking any other action as long as talks are on," Carrara told Dow Jones Newswires. He added that a new meeting has been scheduled for Monday.
FUP represents 20 unions and 34,000 oil workers in Brazil.
Workers staged a 24-hour strike May 2 to protest a cut in the profit-sharing program this year. They argue that their participation in Petrobras' gains should increase at the same rate as dividends paid to shareholders.
Unions threatened further industrial action earlier this week if Petrobras didn't return to the negotiating table.
In a 2001 profit-sharing program, Petrobras paid its workers 11% of 2.5 billion reals ($1=BRR2.439) in dividends it paid to shareholders that year. Now Petrobras is proposing that it pay 6.8% of the BRR3.5 billion in dividends it's set to pay shareholders May 3, FUP said.
Petrobras posted consolidated net profit in 2001 of BRR9.87 billion, compared with BRR9.94 billion the previous year.
Information given by the unions and the company on last week's strike's impact on production widely differed, with Petrobras saying output was cut by 10%, at most. FUP said the strike made output fall around 30%.
The federally owned oil company is Brazil's only oil producer. It is the largest refiner in Latin America's largest country.
The last nationwide strike by Petrobras' oil workers in October 2001 ran for five days and severely hurt production, leading Brazil to import more oil and reducing the country's trade surplus.
Brazil's daily oil output is 1.4 million to 1.5 million barrels.
-By Adriana Brasileiro, Dow Jones Newswires; (5521) 9965-1193, adriana.brasileiro@dowjones.com (This story was originally published by Dow Jones Newswires) Copyright (c) 2002 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved |
