Eric Watkins
Senior Correspondent
LOS ANGELES, Aug. 4 -- The labor union representing oil and gas platform workers in Brazil's Campos basin has announced plans for a second 5-day strike against state-run Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras).
The Sindipetro-NF union said the strike, due to begin in the early morning hours Aug. 5 and last until just before midnight Aug. 9, has been called because Petrobras has made no concession concerning the day workers leave their platforms for vacation.
Petrobras counts the day as a vacation day, while workers want the company to count it as work time since they often are still required to be on duty until late in the afternoon on such days.
In July, the platform workers' first 5-day strike caused Petrobras to lose about 63,000 b/d of oil production in the basin, but plans for a wider industrial action have not materialized.
Brazilian oil workers, represented by the Federacion Unica de Petroleros (FUP), had threatened a nationwide strike starting Aug. 5 to force the company to the negotiating table over profit-sharing initiatives (OGJ Online, July 22, 2008).
FUP planned its strike in solidarity with the platform workers' action, but changed its plans after Petrobras improved its profit-sharing proposal to the workers' union.
FUP accepted the improved proposal from Petrobras and, in turn, urged oil workers to vote to approve it and cancel plans for the Aug. 5 strike.
Contact Eric Watkins at [email protected].
