Development: On 18 July Ángel Navas, the president of the Federación Venezolana de Trabajadores Eléctricos (Fetraelec), Venezuela’s main electricity sector workers’ union, announced that union members would stage an indefinite strike beginning on 23 July in protest at insufficient salaries.
Significance: Throughout July the government has been confronted with a series of ‘little protests’ in urban centres throughout the country, all linked to demands for a better standard of living. The significant aspect of these localised protests, undertaken by diverse economic groups as well as residents, is that they have not been organised by political opposition parties which continue to be divided. This indicates an increasing level of public discontent with living conditions in Venezuela amidst the ongoing economic crisis, sufficient for segments of the population to fill the void left by the bickering opposition parties. Fetraelec’s announcement of an indefinite strike only adds to this building public pressure on the government led by President Nicolás Maduro to resolve the deep economic crisis.
- The announcement of the Fetraelec strike came during a day of protests throughout Caracas from public-sector workers, including those from the health, education, and telecommunications sectors as well as Fetraelec employees, all of whom demand higher salaries to cope with the effects of rampant inflation. Up to 200 pensioners also demonstrated in the capital to call for the full payment of their state pension in cash amidst the shortage of physical currency in the country.
- Navas told reporters that electricity sector workers are “dying of hunger” due to inadequate salaries and that the employment ministry’s proposal offered to Fetraelec in previous salary negotiations could be described as a “slap in the face” for workers. Navas warned that striking Fetraelec members would “paralyse” the sector and that the duration of the strike would depend on the government’s response.
- Fetraelec’s decision to call an indefinite strike follows a month of paralysis in the sector, with rolling strikes during June, also in response to the rejected salary proposals offered by the government, and a continuing exodus of workers from the state-owned electricity firm Corpoelec. Upon announcing the strike, Navas stated that in recent years 17,000 workers had resigned from Corpoelec.
Looking Ahead: On 18 July prominent opposition leader Henrique Capriles, a two-time presidential candidate in 2012 and 2013, called for the reunification of all opposition parties to set out a “minimum plan” to address the economic crisis which has engulfed Venezuela.
