Venezuela Averts Petroleum Workers' March on OPEC Summit

 
Reversing its policy of undermining the established trade union movement, the Venezuelan government recognized petroleum workers' legal trade union representatives and their right to renew their collective contract. The negotiations continued right up to the arrival of the first delegations to the Caracas OPEC Summit and allowed Venezuela to avoid a march and confrontation with army troops and police that threatened to disrupt the Summit. The only significant protest was one to the Anauco Hilton Hotel by a group related to the Jubilee 2000 Debt Movement, and it was completed peacefully the day before the actual Summit sessions began. The march was part of the worldwide protests in support of the S-26 movement against the IMF/World Bank meetings in Prague.

The government's negotiations with the petroleum workers marked a significant change in the anti-union policies of the Chávez regime. They seem to have been welcomed as an across-the-board recognition by the Labor Ministry of the legitimate representational rights of the established trade union movement. The 30,000-member strong Federation of Petroleum Workers (FEDEPETROL), along with other unions in the sector, will hold direct elections with full participation of the rank and file to "relegitimate" themselves. Other unions have already held similar electoral processes to counter claims of illegitimacy by the Chávez government. Nevertheless, relations between labor, especially public sector workers, and the Chávez government continue to be strained. International organizations are monitoring the situation closely and are assuming that this tense situation will be reviewed at the upcoming summit of Ibero-American union leaders.