Worker's Strike in Venezuela's Oil Industry

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CARACAS – Venezuelan oil workers have staged protests and work stoppages in recent days to pressure state-owned oil giant PDVSA and Petroquimica de Venezuela, or Pequiven, to make good on promised payments. At least 2,000 workers PDVSA and Pequiven workers blockaded a stretch of the coastal Tucacas-Puerto Cabello highway on Tuesday morning to protest delays in the payment of different “work-related bonuses,” labor leaders said. The protesters, who were once again allowing traffic to flow freely at midday Tuesday, also demanded the dismissal of top executives from both companies and a visit by a delegation from the Comptroller General’s Office.

Alexis Polanco, coordinator of the National Workers’ Union, said Tuesday’s job action was a success and said union negotiators were already in talks with representatives of the state-owned firms.

“We have a list of demands that has been delivered ... there’s a team negotiating because we’re giving both Pequiven and PDVSA until Friday to pay everything they owe ... we’re tired of this government continuing to mock the working class,” Polanco told the online edition of the El Universal newspaper.

Meanwhile, some 800 workers who operate 12 drilling rigs in the Punta de Mata sector of the northeastern state of Monagas have carried out staggered strikes since last week to demand PDVSA make good on payments specified in the new collective bargaining agreement. The protests have virtually shut down oil activity in that area of the country.

“If they don’t listen to us, we’ll go on a complete strike,” Gerd Millan, one of the drillers, told Globovision.

The semi-paralyzed rigs are operated by the China National Petroleum Company, U.S. firm Schlumberger, Canada’s Precision Drilling and Britain’s Petrex, which work in partnership with PDVSA. In a PDVSA statement released Tuesday, the labor relations manager of the state-owned company’s eastern division, Jorge Esteves, characterized the strike as “illegal.”

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