The AFL-CIO has maintained a relationship of mutual solidarity with the Confederation of Venezuelan Workers (CTV), the national labor central representing over 90 percent of the organized Venezuelan work force.
Recently, the AFL-CIO has supported the CTV's process of internal democratization and its defense of freedom of association against the attacks of the Chávez government.
>From the moment he took office in 1999, Hugo Chávez led an assault on
freedom of association, attempting to weaken or eliminate the principal
institutions of Venezuelan civil society, including the unions. His methods
included public calls for the "destruction" of the CTV, suspension of
collective bargaining in the public sector and the petroleum industry by
decree, threats to freeze union bank accounts, and formation of a parallel
"Bolivarian Workers' Front." Chávez's attack on the CTV culminated in a
December 2000 referendum on internal union governance in which all citizens-
including non-union members such as business people and the military, could
vote. The referendum was condemned by the International Labor Organization
and by the international trade union movement. In the end, the vast majority
of the population abstained from voting.
In the midst of this assault, the CTV conducted an impressive process of internal democratization with the assistance of the AFL-CIO and the Solidarity Center. The assistance included: the printing of election materials, the training of CTV election committees, and the sponsoring of forums which brought labor, business, human rights and religious leaders together in defense of freedom of association. All of the AFL-CIO-Solidarity Center's funding for Venezuela went for this purpose.
In October and November 2001, CTV members across the country voted at 9,100 polling places in the first one-member-one vote, secret ballot union election in Venezuelan history. The resulting leadership, headed by Carlos Ortega of the petroleum workers, is the most pluralistic in the CTV's history, with nearly all the parties of the left included. While the government attempted to prevent the balloting in several locations, independent observers from the Catholic University and the international labor movement called the elections free and fair. Regrettably, Chávez publicly rejected the CTV election results and refused to recognize the new leadership. And late in 2001, the Chávez-controlled Congress enacted a package of laws that eliminated collective bargaining and the right to strike in the public sector and the petroleum industry.
The AFL-CIO has been joined by the worldwide labor movement, including the European unions, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, and the World Confederation of Labor, as well as the ILO, in supporting our overall program of defense against the attacks on freedom of association in Venezuela, including our support for internal democratization in the Venezuelan trade union movement.
It was these very attacks on freedom of association that led to a number of the collective actions and demonstrations that occurred this month. It was such attacks, along with the country's miserable economic performance (16% unemployment), that caused the CTV to join with Venezuela's business sector to put forward a ten-point plan for dialogue, with elimination of poverty as the first objective.
Strikes and demonstrations are legal forms of protest. While we unequivocally condemn the coup attempt of April 12th to dissolve democratic institutions that appears to have been engineered by a small group of military officers with the support of some powerful right-wing businessmen, there is no evidence that the CTV or its leaders went beyond the democratic expressions of discontent. In fact, the CTV, along with the vast majority of Venezuelans, refused to recognize the short-lived regime of Pedro Carmona, and rejected his decree dissolving the country's democratic structures. The AFL-CIO will continue to support the CTV, and we will continue to condemn actions by the government of Venezuela, or any other government, that restrict workers' freedom of association in violation of international law. We also condemn any and all coups and unilateral seizures of power which destroy and undermine democratic institutions, including in Venezuela.
The AFL-CIO believes that other priorities of the Chávez Administration, including agrarian reform and assistance to Cuba, for example, are and should be the sole and sovereign concern of the Venezuelan people and their Government.
The AFL-CIO condemns the violence committed against all of those participating in the demonstrations in Venezuela two weeks ago, and we join in solidarity with the families mourning the loss of their relatives and loved ones.