Venezuela's Aluminum Industry Workers Protest against Labor Conditions

[protocol rv]

The Aluminum industry in Venezuela is concentrated around Puerto Ordaz and Ciudad Guayana. They have several large plants, and workers are protesting because they haven't received adequate pay raises and for other issues (it seems they also requested that management be fired at one of the plants). In case the reader isn't aware, Venezuela suffers from the highest inflation rate in Latin America, therefore workers get really upset unless they get periodic raises.

http://www.eluniversal.com/2010/04/05/eco_ava_arrecian-protestas-d_05A3693933.shtml

Here'a discussion in Metalminer about the Venezuelan mining industry:

http://agmetalminer.com/2009/09/10/venezuelan-government-cant-keep-its-fingers-out-of-the-metals-sector/

This may be a touchy issue in the next few months because the power crisis is leading to a cut in the electricity available for aluminum production, and the workers are a little edgy.

[naaman fletcher]

1. The CIA must be paying them.

That is the only possible explanation.

[protocol rv]

2. yes

Sindicalistas vendidos al imperio yankee, I think is what we should call them.

I am making a little parody here, of the people who post the most inane comments about Cuba ("Venezuela's government sells fish" was my best effort, I think). Union workers are always protesting here. It's their culture. If you change their cafeteria food to sirloin steak, they will complain because the union shop wasn't consulted.

[Meshuga]

3. How right-wing of you for posting this here

And how right-wing of these workers who are demanding adequate pay raises.

[protocol rv]

4. I think we will see a lot more of this until they arrest union leaders

Because the inflation rate hovers between 20 and 30 %, the purchasing power of the lower earning brackets here in Venezuela is hit hard unless there are significant raises. The problem is the government doesn't have a pro-active method to increase wages on a regular basis, so many sectors are grossly underpaid. For example, president Chavez recently announced a 40 % increase for the doctors who work in public hospitals, but this happened only after a lot of doctors quit, many of them left the country. It doesn't require a rocket scientist to understand that if one underpays a person with a medical degree by 40 % (this fact is evident by the amount of the raise), then there's likely to be serious attrition.

The consequences? The hospitals in Venezuela are in a huge crisis. They are losing doctors and nurses. The government has moved Cuban doctors in, who are in a sense indentured servants of a communist dictatorship - and as it turns out cost more than the Venezuelan doctors anyway. This type of policy is what makes this government so worthless. They are by far the worst performing government Venezuela ever had. Oil prices at $80 per barrel, and these guys have the country in a huge economic depression? They will lose the election in September, I hope.