In February, Venezuelan bosses' organisation Fedecamaras lodged a complaint against the Venezuelan government with the International Labour Organisation. Fedecamaras accused the left-wing government led by President Hugo Chavez of violating trade unions' right to strike, and demanded a commission of inquiry.
The complaint was supported by the Confederation of Venezuelan Workers (CTV), which along with Fedecameras, supported an unsuccessful 2002 coup against Chavez, and then a bosses-led attempt to shutdown the nation's oil industry in December 2002-January 2003. Since then, CTV has been seriously discredited, and a new trade union federation set up, the National Union of Workers of Venezuela (UNT).
On March 23, the ILO governing body postponed the decision. The following statement was jointly released on that day by UNT and the International Liaison Committee of Workers and Peoples (ILC).
Green Left Weekly urges our readers to support the UNT's appeal in this communique, which can be done at <http://www.venezuelasolidarity.org>.
Earlier today, the governing body of the ILO examined the complaint issued by Fedecameras, the employers' association of Venezuela, that sought to condemn the Venezuelan government for alleged violations of labour rights.
The ILO governing body concluded it could not reach an opinion on this complaint given that members of the employers' group (IOE) were at the same time signatories to the complaint and members of the Committee on Trade Union Freedoms, and thus could not be both accusers and judges.
The ILO governing body has decided to postpone the examination of this complaint until its session of November 2005, following the meeting of the Committee on Trade Union Freedoms that will take place at the yearly International Labour Conference of the ILO in June 2005, with a newly elected group of members.
The UNT and ILC are pleased to announce the declaration presented to the ILO's governing body by the Workers' Group of Latin America and the Caribbean (GRULAC), which states in part:
"The ILO Workers' Group of Latin America and the Caribbean (GRULAC) takes note of the fact that the government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela has responded in a timely and ample way, with all the facts in hand, to the charges leveled against it. The reply and the facts demonstrate that the Fedecamaras complaint against Venezuela has no merit.
"Therefore, given the fact that this point has been debated sufficiently, the ILO governing board should declare that the complaint is groundless and does not merit the creation of a commission of inquiry. The complaint, in fact, should simply be closed and filed."
The UNT and ILC believe this is a first positive result that points in the direction of a formal rejection to the complaint issued by Fedecamaras.
The UNT and ILC believe that the international campaign launched in support of the Open letter to the ILO workers' group issued by the UNT last February has obtained a first and significant result. This open letter demonstrates, moreover, that it is the employers' association in Venezuela that violates labour rights in that country.
We call upon all the members of the ILO Worker's Group to support the statement by GRULAC and to reject altogether the Complaint by Fedecamaras against Venezuela.
We also call upon all supporters of trade union and democratic rights the world over to publicise this joint communique and to continue to solicit endorsers in support of the UNT's "open letter".
From Green Left Weekly, May 25, 2005.
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