By Brazil Stock Guide – Brazilian oil workers represented by the Federação Única dos Petroleiros (FUP) will begin an open-ended nationwide strike at Petrobras (NYSE: PBR; B3: PETR3, PETR4) starting at midnight on Monday, Dec. 15, after union assemblies across the country unanimously approved the action.
The strike notice was formally delivered to the company on Friday, according to the union. The decision follows what labor leaders describe as a deadlock in negotiations and growing dissatisfaction with the company’s management approach toward employees and retirees.
FUP General Coordinator Deyvid Bacelar said pressure has mounted as pensioners and retirees maintain a permanent vigil outside Petrobras’ headquarters in Rio de Janeiro. “We have retirees and pensioners sleeping at the company’s headquarters and a strike starting Monday because the board has refused to present acceptable counterproposals. We need to resolve the three main pillars of our demands. We hope negotiations can move forward during this process,” Bacelar said.
Union members approved the strike based on three core demands. The first calls for a fairer distribution of the wealth generated by Petrobras. The second seeks an end to the pension deficit equalization plans known as PEDs, which have led to increasing deductions from benefits paid by Petros, the company’s pension fund, affecting retirees and pensioners for years. The third pillar centers on what the union calls the “Sovereign Brazil Agenda,” including the suspension of what it describes as arbitrary worker removals linked to platform decommissioning, opposition to layoffs in exploration and production, and the restoration of adequate working conditions.
Assemblies held nationwide reflected broad frustration with Petrobras’ current management, according to FUP. Workers say they are pushing for a new collective bargaining agreement that restores rights lost in recent years and improves conditions for both direct employees and contractors.
Beginning Monday, the strike will be coordinated with the protest camp maintained by retirees and pensioners outside the Edifício Senado (Edisen), Petrobras’ administrative headquarters in downtown Rio de Janeiro. Union leaders say the joint action underscores that the dispute affects multiple generations of the company’s workforce.
The vigil at Edisen has been ongoing since Thursday, with representatives from oil workers’ unions across Brazil pledging to remain on site indefinitely until Petrobras formally presents a proposal developed within a quadripartite commission that includes labor groups, regulators and Petros.
Tensions escalated after the company installed physical barriers around its headquarters to restrict access to the entrance area. Union representatives say the measures led to confrontations involving elderly protesters and labor leaders, viewing the restrictions as further evidence of disrespect toward former and current Petrobras workers.