Labor

Nearly 5,000 former Coca-Cola workers in Venezuela have blockaded 23 bottling facilities since last Tuesday to demand compensation for having been laid off when the Mexican firm FEMSA took over the Venezuelan operations from Panamco in 2003.

Venezuela’s Minister for Labor and Social Security, Roberto Hernández, said that the International Labor Organization (ILO) removed Venezuela from a list of 29 countries classified as violating trade union freedoms.

President Chavez declared contract workers from Venezuela’s recently nationalized SIDOR steel plant permanent workers and incorporated them into the United Steel Industry Workers Union (SUTISS) Tuesday, in accordance with the collective contract that SUTISS signed with the government in early May.

Former Coca-Cola transportation workers have totally paralyzed Coca-Cola production and distribution in Venezuela, calling for President Hugo Chávez to intervene in the six-year dispute over severance pay. Monday, Venezuela’s Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) ruled against the ex-workers’ claims.

The Venezuelan government announced on Tuesday that it will mediate between workers and the management of the U.S. mining company Hecla in a dispute over working conditions that has seen periodic work stoppages at the Isadora gold mine in the southeast of Bolivar state since late March.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez signed a collective contract with workers at the Sidor steel plant yesterday, formalizing an agreement reached between workers and the government last week. Also, Chavez signed the law-decree for the nationalization of Sidor.

The United Steel Industry Workers Union at the recently nationalized SIDOR steel plant and the Venezuelan government finalized a collective labor contract early Sunday morning. Meanwhile, Sidor's former owner says it is still willing to negotiate the indemnity for the nationalization.

Waving red flags, more than 300,000 workers marched in Caracas to celebrate May 1, the International Day of Workers Struggle. The rally also celebrated a decree by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez increasing the minimum wage by 30%.

If a “just” price is not agreed upon this Tuesday for the nationalization of the Sidor steel plant, Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez will sign a presidential decree expropriating the company, Chávez declared on his weekly Sunday talk show Aló Presidente.

In a decision announced late Tuesday night, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez dismissed Labor Minister José Ramón Rivero and replaced him with the former Communist Party member and vice-president of the National Assembly, Roberto Manuel Hernández.