CHAVEZ BACKS STRIKERS

by Jack Ferguson

THE revolution in Venezuela has taken more dramatic steps forward, with the nationalisation of the biggest steel firm in the Andes, and the taking of a controlling stake in the cement industry.
As reported previously in the Voice, workers at the Argentine controlled Ternium Sidor steel plant have been involved in 14 month dispute over contracts and pay that has seen several strikes as well as mass direct action.
After facing violent repression at the hands of the local state government, the workers appealed to the socialist President Chavez to intervene on the side of the workers. Following a meeting with representatives of the workers’ SUTISS union, Venezuelan Vice President RamÛn Carrizalez praised the workers for their heroic role in defending the Venezuelan revolution during the US backed failed military coup.
He declared “This is a government that protects workers and will never take the side of a transnational company.”
Shortly afterwards it was announced that the government was going to take take over control of the plant from it's owners.
"Union members are jubillant and celebrating".
SUTISS finance secretary Jose Melendez called the nationalisation a step toward "the workers dream of the socialism of the 21st century."
Since Chavez sent Carrizalez to renew negotiations with Sidor last Sunday, the workers were demanding a daily pay increase of 53 bolivars ($24.65) compared to the company's offer of 44 bolivars ($20.50), and the doubling of retirement pensions which are currently half the minimum wage, Melendez said.
Also, union negotiators sought to include a portion of Sidor’s approximately 9,000 non-unionised contract workers, who are subject to completely unsafe conditions miserable salary, without health care or job security, in the disputed collective contract, which currently involves 4,035 permanent employees, MelÈndez explained.
Implying support for this demand, Chavez recounted Sunday the law he decreed on 1 May last year against the undercutting of unions by companies that increase their contract labour force. An official from the National Workers Union federation welcomed the intervention of President Chavez, and condemned those forces within the state government and the ministry of Labour who had backed the bosses. “They were mistaken to forget that we are the brave People of April 13, we have dignity, referring to the day masses of Venezuelans took to the streets to return Chavez to power after a two-day coup in 2002.
“We can and must confide in the strength of the workers and that this revolutionary process can go far beyond where we are today. Meanwhile, the government has also announced it is to take a controlling stake in Venezuela’s leading cement manufacturers, in move aimed at forcing them to produce cement for Venezuela rather than export. A special commission that includes the ministries of light commerce, basic industries and mining, and housing, first meeting initiate negotiations of indemnity with representatives from the Mexican firm CEMEX, France’s Lafarge, and the Swiss cement company Holcim.
“We are sure that it will be possible to come to an agreement with the companies”, Oil and Energy Minister Rafael RamÌrez declared. He added that the gaining the of a controlling share of the three companies, which combined comprise nearly all cement production in Venezuela ,”will permit us to have effective control over cement,” which he called “fundamental” and “crucial” for our national development plan.
CEMEX, by far the largest cement company in Venezuela with 32 factories and approximately 50 per cent of the market, announced its “willingness to dialogue with the authorities in order to find mutually acceptable solutions” in a communique. Mexican officials echoed this sentiment, but reiterated intentions to defend the “legitimate interests” of Mexican companies “by all means within reach.”
Mexico’s Finance Minister AgustÌn Carstens, a former IMF sub-director, called the nationalisation ‘inappropriate’ for not respecting Mexican property rights and was backed up by Guillermo Ortiz MartÌnez, the director of the Bank of Mexico.