NO SOLUTION SEEN SOON IN BRAZIL BANK STRIKE
No negotiated solution is in
sight to a three-day-old national strike by the majority of
Brazil's 700,000 bankworkers, a spokesman for the National
Federation of Banks said.
    The private bankers would rather wait until next Monday,
when a labour court is due to judge the legality of the
stoppage, the spokesman said. The bankworkers are demanding a
100 pct pay rise.
    "The workers are breaking an agreement signed six months
ago. If the banks agreed to grant them 100 pct now, soon
workers would have to be laid off and in some cases even banks
would run out of business," the spokesman told Reuters.
    He said only the state-controlled Banco do Brasil was on
the verge of negotiating an accord with its workers.
 Reuter
