Calling all potential “contendas” …
Reading this story about how close we are to a collapse in our ports, about how there are 434 thousand tons of food waiting to be unloaded, about how there aren’t enough trucks to haul all this stuff around, and about how dock workers are going to be asked to work on Sundays, makes me think: there has never been a better time for a dock workers strike in Venezuela.
I mean, if I was a union boss for dock workers or teamsters, I would be planning a bit of trouble just about now, don’t you think?
Caracas Chronicles 
¡Ay, ay, ay: cuidado con mi whiskey Navideño, vale!
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The El Universal article quotes the Minister for Food as stating that of the Food Volumes imported this year , 725 k tons were destined to the private sector while 125 k tons were destined to the public sector which gives us close to a 6 to 1 ratio of private vs public food imports, something which appears to run counter to previous statistics showing public imports to have risen above private imports . Is the Minister lying or are we missing something ??
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Does anyone else see the glaring irony here? Were the shoe on the other foot, and the Chavistas out-of-power and hunkering to get back in, the PSUV wouldn’t hesitate for a second to cause economic chaos in Venezuela with a dock strike. Not a second.
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Juan, if I were you I would add a disclaimer saying that you’re just trying to understand the logic behind dock union leaders and what they must be strategizing right now, and NOT openly wishing nor calling for dock workers to strike, or for a “golpe portuario” (I call dibs on that trademark) of any sort…
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One wonders if the shipments: 1.) are paid for; 2.) will be well-timed for arrival in a mercado near you pre-D-8.
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there has never been a better time for a dock workers strike in Venezuela.
No, because the chavernment will not tolerate any action that would cause them political difficulties and is effectively unconstrained by law in suppressing any such action.
If the dockworkers went on strike, the chavernment would bust their union overnight. The leaders would be arrested as tools of the fascist saboteurs.
If necessary the dockworkers would be fired en masse and replaced with chavistas, (But the replacements won’t know how to operate the machinery? The chavernment is not constrained by reality, either.)
So this is not a good time for a strike.
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Rich, Juan, not only that, but recently I got it from the direct source that bolivarian groups have threathen directly union leaders in the transportation area and warned them, if they even dare to propose a strike they and their families are in danger. I always knew but didn’t have a direct account so it surely is happening in other potential important areas where a strike could really cause damage.
Chavismo has played their cards really well to neutralize any possible organized action from unions after the oil strike:
– Create parallel bodies to weaken them
– Arrest or prosecute visible leader to show the problems you could get into if you are too noisy
– Have their para military groups scare anyone who still has some traction after the other two have been executed.
Then we wonder why no one does anything really effective to protest in Venezuela.
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Add to that, that labour tribunals in Venezuela will not recognize the legal status of independent trade unions. That prevents them from exercising any “lawful” right to strike, or to engage in meaningful bargaining.
In the longer term, the result is of course, like in every other aspect of Venezuelan life, increased violence, as people resort to ‘self help’ in a legal vaccuum.
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A good source on this is the ILO, those capitalist lackeys….
http://www.ilo.org/global/standards/applying-and-promoting-international-labour-standards/committee-of-experts-on-the-application-of-conventions-and-recommendations/lang–en/index.htm
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It’s a crazy situation! I was listening to the radio (a Colombian station) and they were talking about the negotiations between Venezuela and Colombia to sell food. Firstly, the Colombians were concerned about how they would be paid, and the Vzlan government said they would be paid in “bonos de PDVSA”. But there’s another issue, actually transporting the stuff. The thing is that you can’t just hire the chachacos and paisas to drive the stuff into Venezuelan cities (they’d even be happy to fill up in Venezuela!), because all goods (except those refrigerated) have to make a “transbordo” at the border. They gave the number of trucks in el Táchira (i don’t quite remember, around 1500) but the thing is that 30% of them are broken, due to lack of spare parts!
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