Petrobras Gets New Board Member from Pro-Government Union

Brazil's state-run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro SA announced that Deyvid Souza da Silva, a member of a pro-government union, was elected to represent its unionized employees on the board of directors.

Silva defeated the current board member Silvio Sinedino, who last week voted against the board's appointment of the new chief executive officer of Petrobras, Aldemir Bendine, a confidant of President Dilma Rousseff.

Silva, a 34-year-old security technician who worked at the Landulpho Alves refinery in the state of Bahia, is a member of the FUP oil workers union that is part of the CUT, the pro-government labor confederation.

Sinedino had drawn more support from engineers and technicians than oil workers on the drilling platforms and refineries.

Sinedino and Mauro Cunha, who represents minority shareholders on the 10-member board, said they had not been properly consulted in the selection of the new CEO of the financially troubled oil company at the center of a huge corruption scandal.

Seven members of the oil company's board are appointed by the government while three are independent.

Rousseff tapped state-banker Bendine last week to head Petrobras, disappointing investors who had hoped for a more independent new management team to steer the oil company out of a bribery and kickback scandal.