Fourth Regional Meeting for Workers’ Health in Anzoategui

Over 200 workers, mostly union representatives and “prevention delegates”, attended the Fourth Regional Meeting for Workers’ Health on the 16th-17th of September in Anzoategui state.

The goals of the event were to: strengthen workers’ knowledge of their health and safety rights, analyse the impact of labour flexibilisation on workers’ health and the unsafe conditions for many workers on temporary contracts, as well as to exchange experiences and promote unification within the workers’ movement.

On Friday, workers were divided into roughly 5 work groups in order to debate a series of issues relating to workers’ health and safety. Issues included “Negative Psychological and Social Aspects at the Workplace” and “Advances and Obstacles to Workers’ Organisation and Mobilisation for Safety at Work”.

Each group had a debate coordinator and two elected “secretaries” who were in charge of writing down and compiling proposals. At the end of Saturday morning, proposals were put to a vote and each group then presented its ratified statements to the other groups.

Amongst other proposals, the 1st of November was passed as the date for a national march on the National Assembly in Caracas, demanding the approval of the “Law for Workers’ Control” and the “revolutionisation” (not reform) of the existing Work Law.