Venezuelan Electrical Workers Demand Participation and a Collective Contract

[spanza]

Caracas, September 28th 2009 (Venezuelanalysis.com) - Amidst increasing power outages and electricity rationing in much of regional Venezuela, three thousand electrical workers marched in Caracas on Friday to demand worker participation in the state-owned National Electricity Corporation (CORPOELEC) to resolve the problems in the sector.

The workers are also calling for the finalisation of an industry-wide collective contract, which has been delayed for over a year by the CORPOELEC management.

"We have mobilized to tell the president of the republic that we want to resolve, and we have the conditions to resolve, in the short term, the critical situation in the electricity sector... The workers know how to resolve the crisis," said Angel Navas, president of the Federation of Electrical Sector Workers (FETRAELEC).

FETRAELEC, which represents 10,000 workers, is calling for a direct meeting with President Hugo Chavez to discuss problems in the sector, Navas said.

CORPOELEC was formed in 2007 after the sector was nationalised and a number of regional electricity companies were merged into a single company. However, according to the workers, much of the old structures of the regional companies remains in place.

"Bureaucracy is eating at the company," said Félix Vásquez, an electrical worker from Bolivar state. "We have 14 companies, 14 presidents and now 15 with CORPOELEC. We demand the dismissal of that bureaucracy that is eating our industry."

Several major power outages have occurred in Venezuela in 2008 and 2009, and electricity rationing has lead opposition groups to claim that the problems were caused by the nationalisation of the sector.

Joaquin Osorio, an electrical worker from Carabobo, disagreed, saying that nationalisation was not to blame and that many of the regional companies had been rundown by previous management, with their activities limited to simply fixing faults.

Investment in expanding electricity production was neglected and some of the companies were on the verge of "operational collapse" before they were nationalised, Osorio added.

Sectors of the CORPOELEC management have blamed workers for the problem. However, Navas explained, "It is not simply a question of power failures as many people believe... but rather a deficiency in electricity production, which is no fault of the workers."

According to the regular report issued by the National Centre for Management of the Electric System (CNG), overall demand for electricity increased by 7.05 percent between August 2008 and August 2009, compared to a production increase of 3.6 percent.

Adding to the strain, it is estimated that more than one million Venezuelans are illegally connected to the power grid and pay nothing at all for their electricity.

In May 2008 Chavez announced a 40% expansion to the country's electricity generation capacity through 42 structural expansion projects over a six year period as part of the "Socialist Plan of the Nation" that was launched when Chávez was re-elected to the presidency in December 2006.

As part of the plan, which aims to raise national electricity production from 22,540 to more than 31,000 megawatts, CORPOELEC opened the 30 megawatt Masparo hydro plant in Barinas state in May this year.

In Osorio's view, however, progress on many of the projects has been slow, and management sectors opposed to the process of nationalisation and worker participation have acted to impede the development and expansion of the industry, he said.

Therefore, Osorio argued, the problem in the electricity sector is not "technical," but "political."

Navas agreed, saying, "Workers are the ones who know how we can solve this crisis. We have to change the bureaucratic structures and change the structures of capitalist management to a structure with a socialist vision. We have to change the relations of production and eliminate the bureaucracy that is killing the company."

Navas pointed to the experience of the state-owned Electricity Fomentation and Administration Company (CADAFE), as an example where worker participation had significantly improved the running of the company. CADAFE has since been merged into CORPOELEC.

"When our president says we have to empower people, we the workers are the people. We must have control of the company and be part of the transformation of capitalist policy towards socialist policy," added Aymar Plaza, an electrical worker in Caracas.

Richard Coello, general secretary of the Union of Electrical Sector Workers in Carabobo explained that workers from across the country were marching in the streets of Caracas to demand "the participation of the working class, together with the people in the management of the company. We want to change the pattern of production in this country; we want to end capitalist exploitation in the electricity sector."

Stalin Perez Borges, a national coordinator of the National Workers Union (UNT) and a leader of the Socialist Workers Front of Chavez's United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), said, "We are fighting, together with the Venezuelan workers in the electricity sector, for them to be put at the head of the company."

Perez Borges, together with UNT leaders Marcela Máspero and Orlando Pérez also called on CORPOELEC management to restart negotiations for the collective agreement.

"There has been sufficient time to sign the contract if there were the will. But so far the bureaucracy that administers the company has done nothing but hinder the discussion of the collective agreement," said Perez Borges.

At the end of the march a commission of 14 workers from the FETRELEC executive met with a representative of Venezuelan Vice President Ramón Carrizález and a representative of the Labour Ministry.

According to Francisco Alarcón, a member of the FETRELEC executive, the government officials agreed to instruct CORPOELEC management to finalise the collective contract negotiations within a period not exceeding 15 working days. "All the workers present at this mega-march applaud the decision and hope that a follow-up to this request is fulfilled."

Navas assured that the electrical workers would continue mobilizing in the streets until their demands are met.

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/4825