The International Trade Union Confederation has joined with its Brazilian affiliated organisations…in expressing grave concern at the anti-union practices of the petrochemical firm VALE Fertilizantes in Araucaria…[because] the petrochemical industry trade union in the state of Paraná, and its members have been confronted with the abuse of political and economic power by Brazil’s biggest petrochemical multinational. A new Collective Labour Agreement was concluded in March 2011…[but] Vale Fertilizantes had embarked on a campaign of intimidation during the bargaining process….as the company displayed total disregard for the workers’ agenda and presented its own proposal, in which longstanding clauses of the collective agreement were removed along with hard-fought gains in terms of health and safety…