By Jake Spring and Fabio Teixeira
RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – Federal employees overseeing oil and gas licenses in Rio de Janeiro voted to strike starting on June 24, a workers union said on Friday, after months of failed negotiations with the Brazilian government over improved wages and working conditions.
The workers in the Rio de Janeiro offices of environmental agency Ibama approved the strike on Thursday, according to a statement from the national union Ascema.
Branches of the environment workers union in at least 10 states have already approved a strike, as well as workers in the Federal District and a branch for Environment Ministry workers, Wallace Lopes, a national union leader, told Reuters.
Voting nationwide is set to conclude on Friday, he said.
In addition to the threat of holding up licenses, a strike could hurt Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s fight against illegal destruction of the Amazon rainforest, as the environmental workers tasked with policing deforestation would walk off the job.
Brazil’s state-owned oil company Petrobras did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
(Reporting by Jake Spring in Sao Paulo and Fabio Teixeira; editing by Gabriel Araujo)
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