Ten workers died from the explosions and fire that occurred March 15. Brazilian oil workers throughout the country organized protests, demanding tighter safety conditions and an end to job subcontracting in the industry.

In a report issued by the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine, and General Workers Union, Mauricio Franca Rubem, coordinator of the Brazilian oil union federation, said that Petrobras is "clearly responsible" for the series of disasters. Petrobras has had two major spills in the last 14 months and 81 workers have died in accidents in the last three years before the latest disaster.

Franca Rubem reported that the Campos Basin holds the record for accidents in Brazil's oil industry. He added that of the 81workers who have been killed on Petrobras sites, 66 of them were subcontracted workers. "That is an average of two human lives lost every month," he said.

Petrobas, in its drive to boost profits and compete with private and foreign companies that have entered Brazil's oil industry after a 50-year monopoly, has slashed its work force to 34,000 from around 62,000 at the beginning of the 1990s and has cut corners in proper training for subcontracted workers. "The brutal subcontracting implemented within the company" and the "criminal cutbacks in the regular work force [has] multiplied the risks already inherent in this sector," said Rubem in the union update.

A series of protest demonstrations called by the oil union federation included "go-slows" and a moment of silence for the victims of the explosion. Petrobras workers hung a huge black banner from the company's headquarters in downtown Río the day after the blast, and workers at the Reduc refinery, one of the largest in the country, held a two-hour protest wearing black arm bands before punching in, according to a CNN report.

The union is demanding full and immediate implementation of regulatory standards that give workers the right to halt work on their own initiative in the case of a perceived imminent danger.

"The protest is for life, for health, safety and in the memory of our lost colleagues," Fernando de Carvalho, regional director of the United Oil Workers Federation, told BBC News.  
 
 
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