Soymeal manufacturers in Argentina presented late on Tuesday a proposal aimed at ending a two-week strike by oil and port workers unions that has thrown a wrench in the flow of agricultural exports from one of the world’s main bread baskets.
United States soybeans climbed to six-year highs this week as weather and export troubles in Argentina outweighed concerns of a new coronavirus strain hitting Britain. Corn and wheat futures traded near even as soybeans supported the grains complex.
Argentine grains inspectors and oilseeds workers started a new wage strike on Wednesday, organizers said in a joint statement, as stalling contract negotiations threatened to interrupt exports from one of the world's main bread baskets.
Two major unions in Argentina's agro-export industry, one of the world's top grains exporters, said that they would launch an indefinite strike starting Tuesday morning, ramping up a standoff that has been simmering for months.
Workers at Brazil’s state-owned oil giant Petrobras have ended a strike of nearly three weeks that left the firm scrambling to avoid a drop in production, labor unions said last Friday. Around 21,000 workers — a third of the total workforce — joined the mass walk-out at the start of the month.
Public school teachers in Colombia launched a two-day strike on Thursday to protest violence against the profession and killings of activists and other community leaders, leaving more than 7 million children without classes.
The head of a hard-line French trade union on Friday vowed to press on with a crippling strike that has cast a shadow over Christmas celebrations, with the stoppages entering a fourth week and becoming the longest-lasting such action since the 1980s.
Thousands of Chileans flooded the streets of Santiago and other cities in a general strike on Wednesday, upping the pressure on beleaguered President Sebastian Piñera after days of social unrest that left at least 18 dead.
Brazil's state-controlled Petrobras started publishing daily wholesale gasoline and diesel prices at each of the company's 37 points of sale, the latest step aimed at heading off a strike by independent truck drivers.
Venezuela's opposition leader Juan Guaidó has called on his supporters to take to the streets in protest at nationwide power cuts. He also told followers to prepare for a final push to try to overthrow President Nicolás Maduro.