Volta Redonda 2?

Excerpt from Lloyd's List coverage, 11 April 1997

The crisis is being widely seen as the crunch point in the long-running drive to privatise Brazil's waterfront, with President Fernando Henrique Cardoso under heavy pressure to personally authorise the use of troops.

Henrik Simon, a director of Hamburg Sud in S=E3o Paulo, said: This crisis is one of the most crucial points in the privatisation push. If the government gives in on this then the whole modernisation and privatisation law comes into question.

The situation is being compared with similar events at Volta Redonda, 100km south of Rio, some years ago during a military government, when workers occupied a steel mill.

Tanks and soldiers stormed the plant when a surrender deadline was not met, and several workers were shot dead.

Meanwhile, the local marine operators' association has asked the courts to hold the union due for punitive damages of $1m a day, because of what they term illegal strike actions without notice. A decision is expected next week.

Elmar Jose Braun, president of the Santos shipping agents=92 association, said: Invading the vessels is illegal and the stevedores' unions have dragged the local port into the strike, which was quite unnecessary.