Planned strike action by workers of Petrobras’ fuel distribution arm got under way around Brazil on Monday, according to Reuters.
The union for employees of BR Distribuidora intends to take five days of action impeding fuel distribution centres and administrative offices in eight states.
The action is to protest the plan by parent company Petrobras – Brazil’s corruption-plagued state oil firm – to sell off a controlling stake in the distribution company.
That sell-off is one of many ways Petrobras is trying to dig its way out of a huge financial hole caused by a multibillion-dollar bribery scandal and the decline in oil prices.
BR Distribuidora has more than 7,000 gas stations in Brazil and the region and it is Latin America’s largest distributor of petroleum derivatives and ethanol.