The strike was over health and safety standards and discriminatory practices that potentially undermined the national flag identity of Brazil’s offshore and cabotage fleet.
The court acted after the seafarers’ confederation, CONTTMAF, alerted it to threats to crew and anti-union actions by Transpetro (a subsidiary of Petrobras) aimed at blocking then breaking the strike. The ITF supported CONTTMAF by intervening with the Brazilian government and the International Labour Organization.
On the eve of the strike, Petrobras/Transpetro sent a highly inflammatory manual to ship masters requiring them to adopt ‘contingency measures’ to obstruct the strike. These included disembarking legally striking seafarers and denying them contact with their trade union representatives.
CONTTMAF president Severino Almeida said: “Fortunately the judge recognised that the company’s blatant instruction to its masters and managers to illegally attack, punish and detain workers exercising their right to strike was entirely wrong.
“We have won the court battle for our members’ fundamental rights and I am hopeful that we will see a positive conclusion. I also want to strongly thank the ITF regionally and globally for their support."
ITF Americas regional secretary Antonio Fritz commented that the company had acted shamefully. He was thankful the court had recognised the points raised by the unions and that Brazilian seafarers would now be consulted on the proposed bargaining agreement in the correct and democratic manner.
