Trade unions at war in Venezuela

[ChangoLoa]

At least 273 union workers and leaders have been murdered since 2005...

In case it is true we cannot call what is happening in Guayana "labor union violence," it is a warning that should be taken into consideration. "This is not solely about a clash between union groups," warns José Luis Morocoima, activist of the aluminum sector: "This portrays the natural confrontation among union members and employers, but this time a new particularity stands out: bosses now appeal to paramilitary groups in order to charge at their employees."

Morocoima is the general secretary of the Single Union of the Bauxite, Aluminum and Related Industries (Sutralumina). On May 17, he was attending a worker meeting at Bauxilum, which was attacked by supposed labor union members in the construction sector. Morocoima was both shot and hit, and they also made him deaf temporarily, a damage, which required surgery.

Sutralumina's director and the very general secretary blamed members of Muralla Roja, a pro-government organization in the building sector, on being the authors of the attack and publicly held the president of Bauxilum, José China liable for instigating such violent acts.

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There is also another common aspect which consists of defining 2005 - when Víctor Álvarez was the Basic Industries and Mining Vice-Minister - as the period in which these violent happenings among union activists worsened and ended up causing what we experience nowadays: State's officers instigating violence through rows and clashes and adding unemployed persons on their payrolls to use them as shock groups.

The strategy is quite simple: "They mobilize union members, especially those from the construction sector and communal councils to do away with worker meetings alleging that those activities are intended to sabotage the worker control process," Alvarado explains. "This reality is rejected by both pro-government trade unionists and those who are critic of the government, but both parties accuse each other of implementing the same strategy."

http://www.eluniversal.com/nacional-y-politica/111105/trade-unions-at-war-in-venezuela