	striking brazil seamen threaten mass resignation striking seamen said they would offer their collective resignation rather than end their day old national strike on management s terms the seamen said they were spurred to their decision after marines occupied the  docemarte in santos harbour tuesday night they said seamen on the vessel were being forced to work under duress president jose sarney s government despatched troops to brazil s ports and oil installations on tuesday seamen in santos brazil s main port are in defiant mood one of their leaders orlando dos santos told reuters that most of the seamen in the port offered their resignations on wednesday the national strike headquarters in rio de janeiro said seamen were offering to resign in all the country s main ports the strike by seamen comes as brazil faces a serious debt crisis brought on by a sharp deterioration in its trade balance the country needs all the foreign exchange it can get and owners have been quick to denounce seamen for the harm the strike is doing to exports an advertisement placed in the newspapers by the owners association read the seamen s strike is illegal irrational and unpatriotic the seamen respond that they cannot live on their present salaries according to officical pay lists available in the union s office the basic pay for ordinary seamen is cruzados a month while various allowances can bring their total pay up to cruzados a month at the other end of the scale captains earn cruzados a month basic pay which is brought up to cruzados with allowances brazil s seamen are the second worst paid in the world after ghana s dos santos said he said the seamen had not received a pay increase since february and prices have doubled since then with the collapse of the government s cruzado plan price freeze talks in rio de janeiro wednesday involving labour minister almir pazzionotto seamen and employers failed to resolve the dispute the seamen are demanding pay raises of about pct but have been offered less than half that reuter 
