Union workers have declared strike action at Brazil’s state-run oil giant Petrobras to protest cost-cutting and asset-selling by the scandal-plagued company.
The FUP union, the biggest in Brazil’s oil industry, says the action will be effective from Friday and open ended.
Petrobras has been cornered into severe cost-trimming by a perfect storm of oil price decline, the huge corruption scandal surrounding the firm, and government mandates necessitating certain investment commitments.
But FUP feels things have gone too far with thousands of staff and contract workers being laid off, the planned sale of around $15 billion in assets and a rejigging of the company’s five-year investment plan that sees around $90 billion lopped off the budget.
