Dispute Over Venezuelan Oil Union Elections Rages On

Caracas, August 10^th 2009 (Venezuelanalysis.com) - In the midst of factional infighting and an ongoing dispute over a collective contract, elections for the United Federation of Venezuelan Oil Workers (FUTPV), which were set for August 12^th, have now been postponed to September 2^nd, the FUTPV Electoral Commission has confirmed.

The FUTPV was formed in April 2007 as an attempt to merge the four main federations in the oil industry - Fedepetrol, Fetrahidrocarburos, Sinutrapetrol, and the Oil Workers Front of Zulia - which together represent 185 individual unions.

At the time, the former labour minister, Jose Ramon Rivero selected a provisional leadership, headed by three national coordinators, Oswaldo Caibett, Freddy Alvarado and Wills Rangel. This provisional leadership negotiated the 2007-2009 oil workers collective contract, which expired on January 21^st this year.

However, elections for the united federation have continuously been postponed as competing union factions have repeatedly lodged appeals, disputing who is and isn't eligible to vote.

The dispute has become especially bitter after comments made by Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez in July when he said he would not negotiate a collective contract with "enemies of the revolution."

The minister also endorsed a proposal by one of the platforms running in the elections - the Socialist Workers Vanguard (VOS, also known as Platform 8, at that time led by Argenis Olivares) to negotiate a collective contract with delegates directly elected via workplace assemblies.

The comments were widely rejected by union leaders as interference in union affairs, and condemned by some as an attempt to bypass the union. In the midst of the uproar, the oil minister declared that he would only negotiate a contract with the new leadership after the elections.

The fallout from the dispute has provoked a process of splits and realignments among union factions, reducing the number of platforms running in the elections from 18 to 9 at last count.

On August 1^st an accord was reached between three platforms and VOS registered a new platform, Platform 7. Platform 7 is now headed by Wills Rangel, who is currently one of the three coordinators of the national provisional leadership. The merger also involves Platform 4, formerly headed by Daniel Alvarez, who is aligned with Marcela Maspero's Collective of Workers in Revolution national union current.

Rangel formerly headed Platform 9, which is largely composed of the incumbent provisional leadership and involves both supporters and opponents of President Hugo Chavez's Bolivarian revolution. 

"All the aspiring candidates that support the Bolivarian Revolution were called on to unite, which resulted in the creation of Platform 7," said Rangel as he registered his platform with the FUTPV electoral commission, according to an August 10 report in El Nacional.

"This union brings us closer to victory in the federation elections, now the Socialist Workers Vanguard represents 80% of oil workers," Rangel added.

Rangel has also moved to distance VOS from claims by other factions that it is aligned with PDVSA management. "We are not a bosses platform, we are a socialist platform. And although we talk with Ramirez, because he is the head of PDVSA, the platform is not run by the minister," he told El Mundo on August 7^th.

Rangel reiterated that the oil minister should not meddle in union affairs, which other pro-Chavez union leaders Carlos Labrador (Platform 3) and José Zacarías (Platform 10) also demanded in a press conference on August 5^th. Both Labrador and Zacarías called for Ramirez to resign as oil minister.

Despite the fact that the elections have not been held, Rangel again raised the issue of the collective contract. "In the name of the Socialist Workers Vanguard we demand that PDVSA begin the discussion... We want to separate the political campaign for the Federation [elections] from the collective contract," he said, according to El Mundo.

Rangel argued that it was possible for the provisional leadership of the FUTPV, together with the participation of rank and file workers, to begin this process. "The issue must move forward, we cannot stay stagnant, it is for the benefit of the workers," he said.

Meanwhile, it has been reported that a final decision on a challenge to the electoral list presented by Olivares would be announced on August 12^th. According to Ramirez, PDVSA employs 80,000 workers, but only approximately half the workforce is unionized. Currently, 39,700 union members are eligible to vote.

"Despite the threat that they are going challenge [the electoral list] through the Electoral Chamber of the Supreme Court, they cannot stop this because the oil workers have a strong determination, for better or worse, that the elections are carried out," said Orlando Chirino, from the United Revolutionary Autonomous Class Current (C-CURA). Chirino is also a member of the Electoral Commission, which supports Platform 1 headed by José Bodas.

Early this year, C-CURA formed a national union coalition with rightwing unions aligned with the largely discredited Confederation of Venezuelan Workers (CTV), which collaborated in the December 2002 - January 2003 bosses shutdown of the oil industry in an attempt to topple the democratically elected president, Hugo Chavez. Chirino heads the new coalition, called "Labour Solidarity".

In its election campaign, Platform 1 has largely left aside issues such as worker's participation and focused on bread and butter issues, claiming it will deliver "the best collective contract in the history of the oil industry."

A further disagreement has emerged between Rangel and the candidate Rafael Barrios over the number 7 for their platforms. Rangel said that with the all the mergers and realignments the numbers had changed around and VOS had switched from Platform 8 to Platform 7 and registered on August 1^st.

However, Barrios claimed the number 7 had always belonged to his platform. "If they have a record that they registered with that number on August 1^st, then why when I went to register on August 4^th did members of the committee not tell me anything, and I registered normally?" he asked.

A final complication is the money required by the FUTPV Electoral Commission to carry out the elections. According to its president, José Sánchez, PDVSA has not handed over all of the workers contributions to the union, which are automatically deducted from union members pay. A payment was made last week, but it is not complete, Sánchez said.

Despite all these problems, Sánchez said he was confident the elections would go ahead on September 2^nd, Entorno Inteligente reported today.

Published on Aug 10th 2009 at 7.46pm