RIO DE JANEIRO/SAO PAULO: Brazil showed signs of returning to normal as an oil workers union ended a strike ahead of schedule and an 11-day trucker protest wound down, a welcome breather for a government suffering from rock-bottom approval levels.
Oil workers union FUP unexpectedly recommended on Thursday that members suspend a 72-hour strike they began on Wednesday after a court said the organisation would be fined if it continued.
Meanwhile, the truckers protest, which has strangled much of Brazil’s economy for 11 days, petered out. Brazil’s minister of institutional security, Sergio Etchegoyen, said all roadblocks had been removed, though isolated groups of truckers were still causing problems.
The end of the strike is some rare good news for President Michel Temer, Brazil’s least popular president since its return to democracy in the 1980s.
The protests — which were widely supported by Brazilians — had seen calls among some strikers and fringe groups for a military coup. Temer said this week that there was “zero chance” of such an intervention.
It also provides some relief for state-led oil firm Petroleo Brasileiro SA, or Petrobras, as it is commonly known.
Petrobras has been caught between workers and some politicians that want the company to roll back recent market-focused policies, and investors, who are fleeing on fears that it may undo those changes. Its shares have tumbled around 30 per cent in the past two weeks.
Petrobras chief executive Pedro Parente, who workers want to resign, was set to meet Temer later.
Petrobras said on Thursday that there was no impact on production due to the strike as its contingency plans were successful. Labourers were back on the job at 95 per cent of the company’s units, the company added.
Gasoline supplies, which had become short in recent weeks as transport routes were blocked, returned to normal at 70 per cent of locations, Aurelio Amaral, a director of Brazil’s ANP oil regulator, said.
Santos, Latin America’s largest port, was now functioning, Admiral Ademir Sobrinho said in broadcast comments. But a representative from shipping firm Maersk Line Ltd said the port was still far from operating normally.
At gas stations in Sao Paulo, Brazil’s largest city, lines remained long. Produce at supermarkets cost more than usual in some locations, even as supplies were returning to normal. — Reuters
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