SAO PAULO, Nov 24 (Reuters) - A crippling strike at Brazil's key port of Santos froze loading of nearly 250,000 tonnes of sugar on Tuesday, port officials said.
The strike, which began at 0700 local/0900 GMT, left 20 vessels paralyzed at Santos and another 11 waiting to dock offshore. Fourteen of the vessels were scheduled to load sugar, they said.
``Of the main commodities, this is mostly affecting sugar,'' a port spokeswoman said. ``As you know, the strike may go on for some time.''
Workers at Santos, Latin America's busiest shipping hub, entered into the strike on Tuesday to protest a presidential decree that would allow the nation's port administration body (OGMO) to decide both how many and which workers would load and unload ships.
Both tasks were formerly hands of labor and a fundamental ingredient in union power.
Striking workers raided OGMO's Santos headquarters earlier in the day, where they apparently used their bare limbs to shatter exterior windows and drove a motorcycle through the inside of the building to help vandalize offices, an OGMO spokesman said.
Loading operations in Paranagua were expected to freeze on Wednesday when the port's stevedores enter the industrial action as planned. According to independent shipping agency Transcar, some 94,000 tonnes of sugar were waiting to be loaded at Paranagua on late Monday.
Combined with the 250,000 tonnes at Santos, loading of as much as seven percent of Brazil's expected 5 million tonne center-south sugar exports may be immediately paralyzed by the latest round of port strikes.
The industrial action was timed to influence a scheduled Wednesday vote on the controversial decree in Brazil's Congress, where a simple majority is required for approval.
Unions at nearly all of Brazil's ports began meeting at 1700 local where they were expected to vote on whether to strike alongside the Santos workers.
Stevedores in Paranagua, Rio de Janeiro and Santa Catarina were expected to join the industrial action.
