Dock workers returned to work at ports across Brazil on Friday after they disrupted the movement of global commodities with a six-hour strike in protest of the government’s plan to overhaul regulations and privatize hundreds of terminals.
The short-lived stoppage provided a glimpse of what could be a tense harvest for Brazil, one of the world’s biggest commodities exporters, if unions do not reach a deal with the government and call off an open-ended strike set for mid-March.
Until then, ports should operate normally as both parties agreed to a negotiation period that runs through March 15. Workers decided to calloff a second six-hour stoppage planned for Tuesday.
“The paralyzation caused irreparable damage to the national logistics chain,” Jose dos Santos Martins, executive director of the country’s national association of terminal operators, known as Sosesp.
With a record soybean harvest and strong corn and sugar crops putting pressure on Brazil’s antiquated roads and ports during a brewing labor dispute, doubts are mounting about the country’s ability to meet delivery contracts.
Even before some 30,000 stevedores walked off the job at 36 ports early on Friday, expectations of delays caused top buyer China to cancel at least two soybean cargoes ordered from Brazil and buy from the United States instead.
The dock workers fear a government drive to privatize some 158 terminals starting later this year will lead to a loss of jobs and benefits because private operators would not have to hire through the centralized agency, known as “OGMO.”