Petroleo Brasileiro SA, the Brazilian state-run oil company grappling with plunging crude prices, a sweeping corruption scandal and the global oil industry’s heaviest debt load, has a new problem on its hands: Unions.
The company’s workers started a strike this week that has already cut daily output and shut 30 offshore platforms. Unlike in previous years when employees demanded raises and a bigger slice of profits, this time they’re fighting for something more elusive: a halt in spending cuts and asset sales that investors say are needed to save the embattled state-run oil company from being overrun by its debt.
The backlash on the ground and the union’s demands underscore just how far the once-mighty Petrobras has fallen. Essentially, oil workers want to turn back the clock to when crude was trading above $100 a barrel and Petrobras was the engine of Brazil’s economic growth — an impossible demand that makes a fast resolution to the labor dispute unlikely, said Adriano Pires, president of CBIE, an energy consultant in Rio de Janeiro.
Brazil Energy Insight 
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