Guedes Says He Would Fire Strikers If He Were President of Petrobras

The Minister of Economy Says He Would Fire Strikers if He Were President of Petrobras. For Guedes, Halting Activities to Gain Benefits Is “Irresponsible.”

This Monday, November 25, the Minister of Economy, Paulo Guedes, said that if he were the president of Petrobras and the company were private, he would fire the employees who went on strike this week. The strike was announced last week and involves 12 of the 13 unions affiliated with FUP.

According to Guedes, it is “irresponsible” for employees to use the strike mechanism to benefit from a company like Petrobras, and that people should have avoided and protested against the corruption scheme that destroyed the oil company.

— All economic signals improving and a strike at Petrobras. Just because things improved, do they want a strike? Is it a public or private company? It is State and Stock Market. A significant strike fires people and hires others who want to work. I am surprised. If I were president of a company… there are things I don’t want to talk about.

— You have excellent salaries (in the state-owned company), good benefits, you have almost job stability and you try to use political power to extract a salary increase at a time of mass unemployment? If it were a private company and I were the president of a private company, I know what I would do.

The minister then stated that the government is not studying layoffs or privatization of Petrobras and that he was giving his opinion as an economist.

• Government Will Combat Petrobras’ Monopolies in the Aviation Kerosene Market
• Petrobras Plans to Drill 8 Oil Wells Next Year
• Petrobras Announces 4% Increase in Cooking Gas at Refineries
• 54 Job Openings to Support Projects in Civil Construction and Other Sectors Today by the Multinational Babcock

“I am saying what I would do, but I have nothing to do with Petrobras. I am saying that if I am (in the presidency) of a company that is publicly traded, is private, was destroyed, and now that it starts to improve, they go on strike to extract gains just by pressure? In a country with millions of unemployed, you have a company with almost job stability, I would fire them.”, said Guedes.

“I don’t know what happened to their salaries (in recent years), but I know that Petrobras was destroyed. They were working there; they should have avoided the destruction of Petrobras.” he adds, “If you are a good employee, you fight for the right things. Why wasn’t there a strike to prevent the theft?”.

Despite a court order against the strike, oil workers from bases linked to the Unique Federation of Oil Workers (FUP) stopped on Monday in protest against layoffs and employee transfers. The mobilization led the minister of TST (Superior Labor Court) to fine and block union accounts.

The entity claims that Petrobras is violating the collective labor agreement by promoting incentive dismissal programs and transferring employees without prior negotiation with the unions.