Oil workers promise ‘biggest strike in history’ against Petrobras privatization

The two oil tanker federations in the country met this Thursday (2) in demonstrations against the privatization proposal of Petrobras, which has the support of President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) and takes shape in Congress under the leadership of the Speaker of the Chamber, Arthur Lira (PP-AL).

The demonstrations, which took place in several company facilities, also mark the beginning of the collective bargaining agreement campaign for the category, which calls for the replacement of inflation and salary losses in previous agreements and tries to recover lost benefits in recent years.

“The Bolsonaro government will face the biggest strike in the history of the oil category, if it insists on carrying out the Petrobras privatization project”, said the general coordinator of the FUP (Federação Único dos Petroleiros), Deyvid Bacelar.

He was in the Chamber of Deputies in Brasília on Wednesday (1), where he spoke against the privatization proposals being debated by the government and Congress. The day before, the MME (Ministry of Mines and Energy) had recommended the inclusion of Petrobras in the PPI (Partnership and Investment Program).

The move, which had already been announced by the new minister, Adolfo Sachsida, is the first step towards guaranteeing privatization, justified by the government as a way out to resolve the escalation in fuel prices in the country.

On another front, Lira promised to put to the vote a project to reduce the government’s share in the state-owned company, eliminating the figure of the controlling shareholder, in an operation similar to the one that has already been approved for Eletrobras.

The market is skeptical about the possibility of privatization still in this term, but oil workers fear the strong support that the government has in Congress. In addition to the FUP, the protests brought together unions linked to the FNP (National Federation of Oil Workers).

“The category knows that if the privatization of Petrobras is presented to the National Congress, all people, whether active, and I’m talking about the administrative and operational areas, whether retirees and pensioners, will all be affected, not to mention society,” said Bacelar. .

He stressed that the category has been on strike since 2021 and, therefore, a strike can be started at any time. Oil tankers have the support of truck drivers and taxi drivers and apps, also dissatisfied with high fuel prices.

The last major strike by oil workers took place in February 2020. The 20-day strike, which had an impact on the company’s production, also had privatization as a backdrop: at that time, the company was negotiating the sale of refineries and fertilizer plants.

It was the largest mobilization of the category since the 32-day strike in 1995. During the strike, the company used contingency teams and hired temporary staff to maintain operations at refineries and oil production platforms.

Bacelar claims that privatization would not solve the problem of fuel prices, citing as an example the only large privatized refinery in the country, the Mataripe Refinery, in Bahia, which practices prices more in line with international quotations.

According to data from Abicom (Brazilian Association of Fuel Importers), for example, the difference between the domestic price of gasoline and international prices in Bahia is R$0.27 per liter, while the national average is R$0, 62 per litre.

In the case of diesel, the disparity is smaller: in Bahia, the difference is R$ 0.53 per liter; while the national average is R$ 0.55 per liter.

In addition to the protest against privatization and the salary readjustment, the oil workers included an electoral agenda in the mobilization. “There is consensus among the federations that we need to remove the Bolsonaro government”, says Bacelar.

In this Thursday’s protest, there were people with T-shirts and stickers showing support for the PT candidate for the presidency, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.