News: Labor
Sardine Workers in Venezuela Elect Worker Administration
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Mérida, June 22nd 2009 (Venezuelanalysis.com) - On Thursday June 18th the workers of the sardine processing factory La Gaviota in Sucre state held an assembly and elected a group of workers to make the preparations for the workers to take over the administration of the company.
On May 1st the Venezuelan government decided to temporarily take over the company due to its violations of work and food production regulations. Then on May 28th President Hugo Chavez announced the expropriation of the company.
On Thursday the assembly of workers elected six people - 3 women and 3 men - to be responsible for areas of production, finished products, administration, buying and storage, operation and logistics, and human resources. Union leaders said the elected representatives have the support of the functionaries of the government's consumer watchdog organization, the National Institute for the Defense of People's Access to Goods and Services (INDEPABIS).
Eduardo Saman, minister for commerce, said the government's takeover of the plant had greatly increased employment and production. He said that with the increased production they had been able to take on more workers and the local fishers now had "sufficient work" as well.
Saman warned that any other company which violates the price regulations for sardines will be sanctioned.
On announcing the take over the company, Chavez said, "La Gaviota has been reborn producing the best of sardines. The company was closed, the owners had abandoned it, and it has been recuperated with the support of the workers. It's about the economic battle that will enable us to transition from capitalism towards socialism."
At this time, La Gaviota had 228 workers, was producing 60 tons of sardines per day, processing fish flour, and producing the tin packaging as well.
Published on Jun 22nd 2009 at 6.42pm
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Comments
Workers Democracy
It's great that 228 workers have taken over this sardine plant, but WHY should workers democracy have to wait for the company to commit a violation of the law? Shouldn't ALL companies be run by the workers? Isn't that what socialism is about? If it is really true that production increases when the workers take over, who needs capitalists anywhere?
I am hoping that the revolution has a plan for workers' power everywhere, and I'm hoping that Venezuelanalysis.com will soon be able to tell us about those plans. Community Councils, wonderful as they are, are not enough. Socialism means workers' control of the means of production, and until that point is reached, the revolution will never be secure.
Jobs
Jobs became very limited everywhere in the world after the financial crisis. Many companies were bankrupted and closed and left thousands of employees jobless. However, there are still luck place in the world when it comes to unemployment rate.
North Dakota is quite a place, as it's known for wide open spaces and rugged beautiful country; an outdoorsman's paradise. North Dakota is known as the Peace Garden State, as it is home to the International Peace Garden, a garden and monument to world peace that sites directly on the U.S. – Canadian border. It's also home to some of the lowest unemployment rate numbers in the nation, and they actually are experiencing growth and some extra cash to go around. Payday lenders rejoice, and people looking for work might do well to look into their oil, mining, construction and service sectors. Those in need of cash advances and work might head to North Dakota – there's gold in them there hills.
workers control
Ideally all businesses should be run by the workers. However making the transition from capitalism to socialism is a long and difficult process. Since capitalists aren't going to voluntarily give up control of their companies the government has to first nationalize a business and then give the workers control of the company. The legal system requires that a capitalist be compensated when any business is nationalized. Nationalizing large corporations can be quite expensive so nationalizing every single corporation would be far too expensive so the government has to be selective when choosing to nationalize privately owned corporations. The government must also make sure the workers are educated enough to be able to run the nationalized business effectively.