Jim McIlroy & Coral Wynter, Caracas
Ninety workers employed as security guards at the University of the Oriente, mostly from the Cumana campus in the state of Sucre, protested outside the National Assembly on June 29 over the refusal of the university administration to pay them for more than seven months. The workers, members of the Sintrasegudo Union, were calling for the intervention of the national government to force the university authorities to accept decisions of the courts ordering back-payment to be made.
"It's a labour problem at the Oriente University", Mervin Flores, secretary of the union, told Green Left Weekly. The university administration has "violated the constitutional rights of the workers" by refusing to pay wages, "without any legal authorisation. The rector and the three other central administrators of the university are in opposition to the Venezuelan government. They are all members of Accion Democratica [AD — one of the discredited right-wing parties that supported the coup against President Hugo Chavez in April 2002]", Flores said.
"The government has given them the money, but they refuse to pay us. The situation cannot continue. We and our families are suffering physical hunger. We are calling on the National Assembly to act to resolve the problem. We have organised marches at the university in a peaceful manner to demand a resolution, but there has been no advance.
"The [state] governor should do something, but up till now nothing has happened. It is absurd, because the governor does not appear to have power over the university, which is public, but enjoys autonomy.
"There have been three rulings by the tribunal that we should be paid, but none of these have been implemented. There are six campuses affected — Nueva Esparta, Maturin, Bolivar, Monagas, Anzoategui and Sucre. Fifty people at Anzoategui left their jobs because they couldn't support their families any longer, and 30 left from Nueva Esparta. So, 90 people are left fighting for payment", Flores said. Another worker added that "something dirty is going on but we don't know what it is".
The dispute at the Oriente University is indicative of problems at a number of universities around the country that are controlled by members of the far right-wing, anti-Chavez opposition. They are provoking confrontations of various kinds in an attempt to create confusion and chaos in the lead-up to the presidential elections in December.
From Green Left Weekly, July 19, 2006.
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