SAO PAULO, March 17 (Reuters) – Brazil’s truckers union is advocating for a strike as early as this week due to recent increases in diesel prices due to conflict in the Middle East, a union leader said on Tuesday.
If the truckers’ strike spreads widely, it could have dire consequences for Brazil, which relies heavily on drivers to transport products across the country and to its ports.
In 2018, a massive truckers’ strike brought the country to a standstill for about 10 days, with multiple road blockades. Calls for a strike have formed as diesel prices soar, but there has been no clear date or any signal of the extent of compliance.
“This is a fight for survival,” Wallace Landim, president of the Abrava Teamsters union, told Reuters in an interview, adding that the strike could begin this week.
The average price of Brazil’s most widely sold S-10 diesel has risen about 19% nationwide since the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran erupted on February 28, data from payments company ValeCard showed on Tuesday, boosting global oil prices.
It’s not the first time drivers have attempted a mass strike since 2018, but Landim said past attempts were politically motivated and now truckers are feeling “the same pain we felt in 2018.”
Brazil’s oil regulator launched a crackdown on fuel price gouging after President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s government last week scrapped a tax on diesel in an effort to lessen the impact of rising global oil prices on consumers.
But it’s unclear whether the government’s efforts will be enough to stop truckers from shutting down their vehicles.
“Truck drivers have reached their limit,” Carlos Alberto, director of the transport workers union CNTTL, said in a statement.
(Reporting by Alberto Allerigi; Writing by Fernando Cardozo; Editing by Jamie Freed)
