STRIKING BRAZILIAN SEAMEN HOLD PAY TALKS

  Striking Brazilian seamen, who say
  they have made idle 158 ships and halted Brazilian exports,
  today held pay talks in Rio de Janeiro with Labour Minister
  Almir Pazzianotto, union officials said.
      Jorge Luis Leao Franco, a senior official of the National
  Merchant Marine Union, told Reuters he was optimistic the talks
  would lead to an end of the stoppage, which began last Friday.
      Brazil's 40,000 seamen are seeking a pay rise of 275 pct.
      The union official said the strike had halted a total of
  158 vessels, including 50 in Brazil's main port, Santos, and
  about 50 more in Rio de Janeiro.
      Abroad, six ships lay idle, in the Netherlands, Spain,
  Venezuela, France and South Africa, he said.
      Economic analysts said the strike was of serious concern to
  the government, which has already had to suspend interest
  payments on part of Brazil's foreign debt following a drastic
  deterioration in the country's trade balance.
      The head of the National Merchant Marine Authority, Murilo
  Rubens Habbema, was quoted in today's Gazeta Mercantil
  newspaper as saying that if the strike continued foreign ships
  could be authorized to transport Brazilian exports.
      "Brazil is living through a crisis at the moment, and it is
  not conceivable that exports be hit," he said.
      "But even using foreign ships we must not forget that we are
  going to lose foreign exchange paying freight charges abroad,
  and all this through the fault of the seamen," Rubens Habbema
  said.
      A spokesman for the port of Santos, which has been the
  scene of labour unrest and congestion in recent months, said
  movement of ships out of the port was running at about half its
  normal level of 12 ships a day.
      He said a total of 76 ships were either waiting at anchor
  on moored in the harbour.
  

