Strikes Brazil

A crippling three-week strike at oil refineries here may come to a head Thursday as laborers miss their monthly paychecks for the first time and consumers and companies find themselves just days away from gas rationing. "We all expect something to happen in the next 48 hours," said Roberto Gozzi, director of the industry federation in the Sao Paulo suburb of Cubatao, an area economically equivalent to the Bay Area's Silicon Valley.

Talks Start in Brazil Oil Strike: The state oil monopoly Petrobras is negotiating with oil workers to end a strike that started May 3, a Petrobras spokesman said. A meeting on Saturday led to an informal proposal by Petrobras to end the strike. The walkout is continuing pending further negotiations on raises and privatization.

Talks Start in Brazil Oil Strike: The state oil monopoly Petrobras is negotiating with oil workers to end a strike that started May 3, a Petrobras spokesman said. A meeting on Saturday led to an informal proposal by Petrobras to end the strike. The walkout is continuing pending further negotiations on raises and privatization.

A crippling three-week strike at oil refineries here may come to a head Thursday as laborers miss their monthly paychecks for the first time and consumers and companies find themselves just days away from gas rationing. "We all expect something to happen in the next 48 hours," said Roberto Gozzi, director of the industry federation in the Sao Paulo suburb of Cubatao, an area economically equivalent to the Bay Area's Silicon Valley.

After a surprisingly sharp drop in inflation in April, Brazil's new democratic government has taken a hard line against a wave of strikes and announced a parsimonious increase in the national minimum wage. The new minimum wage, announced Monday night on television, represents the first big political decision by President Jose Sarney, the former vice president who took over as head of Brazil's coalition government after President-elect Tancredo Neves, who never took office, died April 21.

Thousands of oil industry workers went on strike today as labor unrest mounted after an army assault that left three strikers dead at South America's largest steel plant. A spokesman for the state-controlled Petrobras oil company said 70% to 80% of its 61,000 workers had walked off the job in a wage dispute. Talks were under way in Brasilia between management and 17 unions, but the spokesman said, "If there is no accord by the end of the afternoon, all the 11 refineries will stop."

The eight-week strike at the Ford and Volkswagen plants near Sao Paulo has developed into a major test of strength between the 200,000-member metalworkers' union and the foreign-owned companies that have made Brazil the largest producer of autos in Latin America. It has also frustrated the new civilian government's effort to reduce the labor tension that has plagued its first two months in office.

More than 1 million Brazilian workers began a strike Thursday to press the wage demands of bank employees, union spokesmen said. Besides the strikers, estimated at 750,000, schoolteachers and public servants joined the stoppage in support of the bank workers, who voted to stop work indefinitely after employers rejected demands for a 26.5% pay increase. Labor Minister Almir Pazzianotto said the government is negotiating with the unions and hopes for a solution before the end of the week.

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Asia Turkey: More than a dozen people were killed in two days of sectarian rioting in Istanbul that later spread to Ankara, according to British and Turkish news reports. The riots began when members of the minority Alawite Muslim sect marched through the streets of Istanbul to protest an attack by gunmen on Alawite coffee shops in which two people were killed. Over a two-day period, the demonstrators swelled into the thousands, police attempted to contain them and fighting broke out.

Thousands of oil industry workers went on strike today as labor unrest mounted after an army assault that left three strikers dead at South America's largest steel plant. A spokesman for the state-controlled Petrobras oil company said 70% to 80% of its 61,000 workers had walked off the job in a wage dispute. Talks were under way in Brasilia between management and 17 unions, but the spokesman said, "If there is no accord by the end of the afternoon, all the 11 refineries will stop."

More than 1 million Brazilian workers began a strike Thursday to press the wage demands of bank employees, union spokesmen said. Besides the strikers, estimated at 750,000, schoolteachers and public servants joined the stoppage in support of the bank workers, who voted to stop work indefinitely after employers rejected demands for a 26.5% pay increase. Labor Minister Almir Pazzianotto said the government is negotiating with the unions and hopes for a solution before the end of the week.

The eight-week strike at the Ford and Volkswagen plants near Sao Paulo has developed into a major test of strength between the 200,000-member metalworkers' union and the foreign-owned companies that have made Brazil the largest producer of autos in Latin America. It has also frustrated the new civilian government's effort to reduce the labor tension that has plagued its first two months in office.

After a surprisingly sharp drop in inflation in April, Brazil's new democratic government has taken a hard line against a wave of strikes and announced a parsimonious increase in the national minimum wage. The new minimum wage, announced Monday night on television, represents the first big political decision by President Jose Sarney, the former vice president who took over as head of Brazil's coalition government after President-elect Tancredo Neves, who never took office, died April 21.

Pope John Paul II's crackdown on the progressive clergy in Brazil, symbolized by the silencing of theologian Leonardo Boff, has sharpened divisions in the leadership here of the Roman Catholic Church, the world's third largest.