BRAZILIAN SEAMEN SAY 14,000 NOW BACK AT WORK
About 14,000 of Brazil's 40,000
seamen are now back at work after pay accords with 21 shipping
companies but the rest are still on strike, a spokesman at
strike headquarters said today.
    The seamen began a national stoppage on February 27.
    The spokesman, talking by telephone from Rio de Janeiro,
said 126 ships were strike-bound.
    He added that because of resignations by many seamen there
were scarcely any crews left on 38 of these ships.
    The seamen have settled in general for pay rises of 120 pct
with the 21 companies. Talks with the shipowners' association
Syndarma have been deadlocked over overtime.
    While exports have been delayed by the strike, exporters
say the problems have been manageable.
    "It hasn't been critical by any means," said a coffee trader
in Santos, who noted that coffee was still moving on foreign
ships.
    Economic analysts added, however, that any delay to exports
served to aggravate Brazil's balance of payments crisis, which
last month prompted the government to suspend interest payments
on 68 billion dlrs of commercial debt.
 Reuter
