Argentine Grain Worker Union in Wage Talks

Port workers who run Argentina's Rosario grains hub met on Monday with export companies for wage talks aimed at avoiding an open-ended strike that labor leaders had announced for Tuesday, a union official said.

A strike at Rosario would slow soy and corn exports in the middle of Argentina's main harvesting and shipping season. Talks are complicated by Argentina's inflation rate, estimated by private economists at more than 25 percent.

"We are at the ministry negotiating. Everything depends on that," Alberto Maldonado, an official with the San Lorenzo chapter of the CGT labor federation.

The strike had been set to start at midnight (0300 GMT) on Tuesday, the CGT said over the weekend.

San Lorenzo covers the northern districts of the Rosario hub where multinational companies such as Bunge Ltd, Cargill  and Louis Dreyfus Commodities BV have crushing plants and ports.

The CGT counts quality control inspectors and dock workers among its members in Rosario.

Argentina is the world's leading supplier of soymeal and soyoil.

Reporting by Maximiliano Rizzi