Some 11,000 stevedores, along with ship repair and maintenance workers, have organized street demonstrations and mass rallies. They have won the support of 19 port workers' unions and national union federations.

The strikers won support from other unions especially after military police units using tear gas and rubber bullets attacked a dockworkers' demonstration April 2, injuring 50 workers and arresting 35 others. Many of those arrested were taken out of the homes of people that had offered shelter to the demonstrators during the attack. Workers fought back with paving stones against the police assault.

Since 1993, as part of their drive to privatize Brazilian ports, the government and the port bosses have pressed to end the right of the unions to select and set crew sizes for vessels. According to the Financial Times, eight of the 10 unions at Santos had already accepted legislation that gives the Organ of Labor Management (OGMO), a bosses' institution, authority to manage the call-up process.

"For 67 years the current method has been efficient, the result of learning, of trial and error. It is a tested method," said Vanderlei José da Silva, president of the Santos Stevedores Union, the Times reported. "So it is easy to conclude that the aim is not to alter the selection, but to break unionized labor."

Port operators in Santos complain that labor costs for handling containers is well above international standards. The Brazilian rulers seek to bring down per-container costs to $150, from $180 and $250 in Rio Grande do Sul and Rio de Janeiro respectively. The bosses claim the cost per box in Santos is $330. Over the past few years, after turning the port terminals in Santos over to private companies, the bosses have been able to increase the number of containers processed per hour from 11 to 30.

Despite the mobilizations, private operators have tried to maintain ship operations, moving some cargo under the protection of court orders and the police. Twenty-eight ships were tied up in port in the general cargo, container, and bulk grains areas and 30 ships were waiting to moor by the 12th day of the strike. In one incident, the Ministry of Labor was forced by the actions of stevedores to fine two companies for moving cargo with foreign seafarers, a violation of Brazilian legislation.

Seeking to end the strike, the Brazilian government won a labor court ruling calling the strike "improper" because of the economic damage it had caused, and blamed the workers for its violent character. The ruling also quadrupled the daily fine imposed on the union eight days into the strike. Military police units have occupied the entire port area, using armored vehicles to protect private terminals. Armed men are also positioned on crane platforms and bridges used for container movement.

The presidents of the stevedores and ship repair and maintenance unions are scheduled to travel to the capital, Brasilia, April 9 to meet with the Ministry of Labor to reopen negotiations. This move comes after the firm Ultrafértil, which operates one of the private terminals, accepted the union's rules for job assignments. According to the union, four other agencies representing port operators are open to separate agreements.  
 
 
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