VZCZCXRO4506
PP RUEHHM
DE RUEHCV #1011/01 1431859
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 231859Z MAY 07
FM AMEMBASSY CARACAS
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 8784
INFO RUEHXI/LABOR COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RHEBAAA/DEPT OF ENERGY  PRIORITY
RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR  PRIORITY
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC PRIORITY
RUMIAAA/HQ USSOUTHCOM MIAMI FL PRIORITY
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA PRIORITY 0668

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 CARACAS 001011 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
USMISSION GENEVA FOR LABATT (JCHAMBERLIN) 
DEPARTMENT PASS TO DRL/ILCSR (GRIGG) 
ENERGY FOR ANDREA LOCKWOOD 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/22/2017 
TAGS: ELAB PHUM PGOV EPET ENGR EINV VE
SUBJECT: CTV TO WAGE ILO CREDENTIAL FIGHT/PDVSA BEGINS 
COLLECTIVE BARGAINING NEGOTIATIONS 
 
REF: A. CARACAS 000699 
     ¶B. CARACAS 000861 
     ¶C. CARACAS 000968 
     ¶D. CARACAS 000988 
 
Classified By: POLITICAL COUNSELOR ROBERT DOWNES, 
REASON 1.4 (D) 
 
¶1. (C) Summary.  The opposition-linked Confederation of 
Venezuelan Workers (CTV) plans to contest the seating of 
leaders of the pro-government National Workers Union (UNT) at 
the May 30-June 15 International Labor Conference in Geneva. 
CTV Secretary General Manuel Cova, in his capacity as an 
international union delegate, will also raise serious 
concerns about President Chavez' attacks on union autonomy. 
Collective bargaining between the state oil company PDVSA and 
oil workers is beginning five months after the workers' 
previous contract expired.  The BRV appears to have 
successfully coerced three pro-Chavez oil worker unions to 
merge and should be in a position to virtually impose the 
terms of an agreement.  The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela 
(BRV) is increasingly demanding that workers accept less and 
give more on behalf of President Chavez' "socialist 
revolution." End Summary. 
 
--------------------------- 
Pro-Chavez Unions To Geneva 
--------------------------- 
 
¶2. (SBU) The BRV pulled the plug on the participation of the 
opposition Confederation of Venezuelan Workers (CTV) at the 
upcoming May 30-June 15 International Labor Conference in 
Geneva. Just as CTV Secretary General Manuel Cova had feared 
(Ref A), the BRV reneged on a January 25 agreement signed by 
representatives of the Ministry of Popular Power for Labor, 
representatives of the CTV, as well as the pro-government 
National Workers Union (UNT) ratifying a prior agreement that 
rotated representation among opposition and pro-government 
labor confederations.  According to that rotation, the CTV 
was supposed to designate the workers' representatives on 
Venezuela's delegation to this year's International Labor 
Conference.  Recently, Labor Minister Jose Ramon Rivero 
announced that the UNT, and not the CTV, would field 
representatives to Geneva, arguing that the UNT represents 
the majority of Venezuelan workers. 
 
¶3. (C)  Froilan Barrios, a member of the CTV's Executive 
Committee, told poloff May 18 that the UNT, confident of BRV 
support, simply backed out of its commitment to the 
previously agreed rotation and is now preparing to send some 
30 of its own leaders to Geneva.  Barrios noted that Cova 
will still attend, as he has for the last five years, as an 
international union delegate rather than as a member of the 
Venezuelan delegation.  The CTV plans to appeal to the 
Credentials Committee at the International Labor Conference 
to be seated in lieu of the UNT representatives.  The CTV is 
also planning to try to raise Venezuela as a case for 
consideration by the Governing Body's Committee on Freedom of 
Association.  Poloff has asked to meet with officials at the 
Ministry of Popular Power for Labor to hear their 
perspective, but they have not responded. 
 
¶4. (C) Barrios said the CTV will raise three concerns about 
union autonomy in Venezuela.  First, the CTV will highlight 
President Chavez' public remarks attacking union autonomy in 
recent speeches (Refs A and B).  Second, the CTV will convey 
complaints that the BRV is coercing union workers to join 
Chavez' single "revolutionary" party, the United Socialist 
Party of Venezuela (PSUV) (Ref C).  Third, the CTV will 
highlight concerns that a draft law to establish "workers' 
councils" is a government effort to replace autonomous trade 
unions with government-formed and -controlled worker bodies 
in virtually all public and private places of employment. 
According to a CTV think tank's copy of the draft law, 
workers' councils would have many of the same functions as 
unions, while at the same time becoming political tools of 
the state.  With respect to the latter, preventing work 
stoppages with "speculative, destabilizing, and political 
goals" would be among their responsibilities. 
 
------------------------- 
Trade Unionism In Decline 
 
CARACAS 00001011  002 OF 003 
 
 
------------------------- 
 
¶5. (C) Reflecting on the CTV's future, Barrios conceded 
Venezuela's once powerful labor confederation is struggling 
for survival.  He estimated the number of active members at 
400,000, down from some 1.3 million at the beginning of the 
decade.  Independent labor analyst Rolando Diaz estimates the 
number of dues-paying CTV members at 200,000.  Diaz told 
poloff May 22 that the pro-Chavez UNT remains deeply divided 
and probably has even fewer members than the CTV.  Diaz 
believes Venezuela's trade union movement is at its weakest 
point in modern memory.   He noted that even UNT leaders are 
alarmed at Chavez' plans to create "workers' councils" that 
would assume the normal responsibilities of trade unions. 
Barrios reported that while the CTV and UNT do not have an 
institutional dialogue, leaders from both confederations have 
been in personal contact regarding the growing BRV threat to 
union autonomy. 
 
---------------------------- 
Oil Workers on the Defensive 
---------------------------- 
 
¶6. (C) Union workers in the petroleum sector have been 
working without a new collective bargaining agreement since 
January.  The BRV reportedly declined to negotiate an 
agreement until the three major oil unions merged, while 
dangling the promise of a generous deal after the merger. 
CTV Executive Committee member Froilan Barrios believes that 
if the BRV can force unions to merge, it will also be able to 
impose terms of an agreement when it chooses to do so.  Local 
media reported May 22 that state oil company PDVSA opened 
negotiations on a 2007-2009 contract with the recently 
created Single Federation of Energy Workers of Venezuela 
(Futev), the pro-government fusion of the three biggest 
unions in the petroleum sector.  Nevertheless, PDVSA may 
confront labor difficulties in two areas, according to 
Barrios.  Contract employees, who have little leverage now 
and little to lose, may try to organize job actions. 
Moreover, Barrios noted that more and more of the 
most-skilled oil workers are starting to leave PDVSA and seek 
better economic opportunities abroad. 
 
¶7. (C) The BRV's taking majority control over all the 
strategic associations in the oil-rich Orinoco Belt on May 1 
is also having a negative impact on Venezuelan oil workers. 
These union employees generally enjoyed better salaries and 
benefits when multinational firms had majority control over 
the four largest strategic associations.  PDVSA cut some 
workers salaries by up to 50 percent of their salaries when 
PDVSA took over production facilities May 1, according to 
Barrios.  Workers were also suddenly excluded from company 
cafeterias, although PDVSA accommodated the oil workers after 
the embarrassing change reached the local media.  A PDVSA 
contract negotiator also told the media that contractors may 
try to fire some 600 workers in the wake of the May 1 change 
in control of the strategic associations.  As noted in Ref D, 
PDVSA is culling politically "suspect" employees from the 
associations, just as it did in the joint ventures formed 
from the former operating service agreement fields.  It has 
also told employees that they must migrate to new joint 
ventures or face blacklisting. 
 
------- 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶8. (C) President Chavez' "socialist revolution" is 
intentionally undermining Venezuela's already weak trade 
union movement as well as creating new structures that would 
facilitate greater state/party control over workers. 
Consistent with his centralized, authoritarian vision, Chavez 
is uncomfortable with independent civil society.  Chavez 
continues to promote a "workers' front" within his new PSUV 
party and the creation of "workers' councils" at the expense 
of traditional trade unions.  And as the BRV asserts greater 
control over the economy, including pro-Chavez unions, 
including in the energy sector, workers are being asked to 
accept less and give more in support of the "revolution." 
PDVSA, for example, is reportedly trying to introduce a 
provision by which 0.5 percent of oil workers' daily salaries 
would go to BRV-controlled social funds to be shared with 
 
CARACAS 00001011  003 OF 003 
 
 
local communities.  Functioning unions associated with the 
opposition CTV and pro-Chavez UNT still exist, but they are 
out of sync with a government seeking to impose a model of 
political control on union workers. 
 
BROWNFIELD